Frequently Asked Questions

adstrong is not only the clear market leader, operating over 20% of all Google CSS Centers worldwide, but we also have unique USPs that no other provider offers.
adstrong is one of the few providers that gives you your own CSS that is both 100% compliant with Google’s policies and meets the legal requirements for price comparisons applicable in Germany.
We hold the highest Google CSS status: the Google CSS Premium Partner status. This includes dedicated account managers as well as technical contacts, tracking support, and more. When needed, we activate this premium support for our customers, which has led in countless cases to issues being resolved much faster and in many cases, resolved at all. Most other providers don’t have this status.
Our solution is fully programmatic and requires no additional effort on your part. Unlike other options, your CSS page runs on its own. You don’t have to manage extra feeds, Merchant Centers, or configurations.
We don’t operate our own agency, so we will never compete with our agency customers.
Our organic cost structure ensures fair and affordable pricing for both small and large clients alike. And with our low setup fee, we make the initial investment. We believe in our product and only earn money long-term if it’s truly worthwhile for our customers.

We are purely a CSS provider and unfortunately do not offer full marketing services. However, if you run Google Shopping campaigns and want to operate your own CSS to outpace competitors, we are the right point of contact. Send us an inquiry here: https://adstrong.com/de/kontakt/ If you are specifically looking for an affiliate marketer, you can contact us regarding that here: https://adstrong.com/de/affiliate-partner/

In short: Yes. You can explicitly resell the key benefits of our CSS, subject to a few technical restrictions, to your target audience.

Yes, however, there are major differences between White Label CSS providers. adstrong is one of Google’s largest CSS Premium Partners and one of the largest CSS providers globally, bringing significant advantages over competitors: (See previous points on Google Policy Compliance, Programmatic Solutions, Premium Support Level, and Legal Certainty in Germany).

Price is not the only crucial factor to consider, because with some providers, you risk CSS bans and MC suspensions. Based on our experience operating over 20% of CSS Centers worldwide, these factors are critical for shops & agencies: Google Policy Compliance: Ensure 100% compliance. At adstrong, there has never been a CSS suspension! Programmatic Solution: The solution must be 100% turnkey and require zero feed uploads in a provider’s backend to remain Google compliant. Support Level: We have the highest Google CSS Premium Support Level to help solve complex issues where others get stuck. Legal Certainty in Germany: adstrong fully complies with strict German price comparison laws, protecting you from legal warnings. Feel free to book a call with us, and we will put together a customized offer for you: adstrong.com/meet-vince

To keep it brief: CPC Boost: Bypass Google’s hidden fees of up to 20% on your ad budget and utilize 100% of your budget for your Google Shopping Ads! Both shops and agencies can use this product. Branded Agency CSS: Use your agency name as the CSS name. Instead of saying “By Google,” it will say “By [Agency Name].” Agencies achieve free brand awareness, making Google Shopping their widest-reaching ad channel. Agency clients also get more reach on the same budget, additional free traffic via Google Shopping pages, and faster problem resolution with CSS Premium Support. Keyword CSS: Online shops can use a keyword, a category, or a CTA as their CSS name. Instead of saying “By Google,” it will say “By Sneaker Deals.” Shops achieve more attention and higher ad relevance (higher CTR), more reach on the same budget, additional free traffic via Google Shopping pages, and faster problem resolution with CSS Premium Support. Book an appointment, and we will show you concrete examples and outline your customized setup: adstrong.com/meet-vince

Our prices vary depending on the setup and product. In most cases, our solution is highly profitable. Feel free to book a call with us to find out: adstrong.com/meet-vince IMPORTANT: Price is not the only crucial factor to consider. With some providers, you risk CSS bans and MC suspensions or unintentionally sharing your data with competitors. Based on our experience operating over 20% of CSS Centers worldwide, we can tell you that the following factors are critical for shops & agencies: Google Policy Compliance: Ensure the provider is 100% compliant with Google policies. Most claim to be, but CSS suspensions happen regularly, meaning all accounts get locked. At adstrong, there has never been a CSS suspension! Programmatic Solution: Is the CSS solution 100% turnkey and requires absolutely no feed uploads or adjustments in a provider’s CSS backend? If not, the solution is not Google compliant, and you risk a ban. adstrong’s solution is 100% turnkey and programmatic—saving you time and keeping you secure. Support Level: Does the provider have the highest Google CSS Premium Support Level? Most do not, meaning they cannot help you with difficult problems. We have seen countless times how our technical Google CSS Premium Support solved client issues they were previously stuck on. You can easily check the support level in the CSS Partner directory. Legal Certainty in Germany: In Germany, there are additional legal requirements for price comparisons, and providers are regularly issued warnings. Of all providers offering custom CSS, adstrong is currently the only one fully compliant with German requirements, ensuring you risk no warnings or cease-and-desist declarations.

We have different CSS products. Our conventional CSS “CPC Boost” can be canceled monthly. Our other CSS products (Keyword and Branded CSS) are more complex, as we build a custom solution for them. We offer annual contracts with a 3-month notice period for these. However, if you are considering a trial period, feel free to talk to our team, and we will see what we can do!

That depends on the CSS provider. A special Google opt in is required so that products outside of Europe can also be advertised with a CSS Merchant Center. Therefore, make sure that you work with a professional CSS provider who has opted in to Shopping Ads outside of Europe on Google.

At adstrong, we have all the opt ins. This means that our CSS and all of our white label CSS are optimally configured, also with regard to Shopping Ads outside of Europe.

For information on configuring the required Merchant Center settings, please refer to our Support Hub articles:

• Configuring free listings and Shopping Ads outside of Europe before the MC switch: https://adstrong.com/supporthub/configuring-free-listings-before-the-mc-switch/
• Configuring free listings and Shopping Ads outside of Europe after an MC switch: https://adstrong.com/supporthub/configure-free-listings-after-an-mc-switch/

You can use free listings when using a CSS.

However, when changing CSS, it can happen that a Merchant Center loses its free listings. This is because, when switching CSS, the free listings are assigned to the oldest Merchant Center that is assigned to a specific shop.

Free listings lost in this way can be easily retrieved. If this is the case for you, contact us and we will help you quickly.

For more information, please refer to our Support Hub articles:

• Configuring free listings before the MC switch: https://adstrong.com/supporthub/configuring-free-listings-before-the-mc-switch/
• Configuring free listings after an MC switch: https://adstrong.com/supporthub/configure-free-listings-after-an-mc-switch/

Yes, you can also switch Multi Client Accounts (MCAs) including all Merchant Centers they contain to a CSS. This is done via the “standalone account switch” that the CSS provider can use.

If you have CSS domain access, go to Merchants and open your Primary MCA. Find the Merchant Center you want to switch in the list, click the Action icon in the corresponding row, and select Switch to Google Shopping. Then log in to the respective Merchant Center and accept the linking request via the notification bell.

If you only have MCA access, contact our CSS Support team with your Merchant Center ID(s). We will initiate the switch, and you will only need to accept the linking request in your Merchant Center once you receive the notification.

There are no downtimes or interruptions either with a Merchant Center CSS switch or with our Branded CSS setup. Everything runs continuously, safely and steadily.

Essentially, we continuously ensure that all Google CSS requirements are met for our customers. We’re pretty good at it. With customers in the triple digits, our success rate is 100%, and we have never had any Google policy violations. That’s because, from the very beginning, we worked closely with Google on our CSS solutions to ensure we’re 100% on the safe side. The entire onboarding process takes just 5 minutes of your time.

Usually no longer than 1 week.

Our solution is turnkey. The migration to your own CSS is seamless and requires neither the renewal of Merchant Centers nor a pause or reset of your existing campaigns. The only time investment on your part is answering an onboarding email with a few questions from our CSS support (takes approx. 5 minutes).

Our solution is turnkey. Your campaigns remain exactly as they are. It is not necessary to pause them during the switch or to completely recreate them after the move. It is a seamless transition.

No, there are no limits here.

No. The existing setup and campaign management usually remain exactly as they are, unless you decide not to migrate your existing Merchant Centers and start entirely new ones instead.

You will receive access to the CSS Center from us. There, you can manually onboard a Merchant Center with just 2 clicks. You can thus onboard a dozen Merchant Centers in just a few minutes. If you want to optimize this with automation, Google offers several possibilities via API interfaces. Feel free to contact our support regarding this.

If you have chosen a professional CSS partner like adstrong, you will not have any disadvantages from using a CSS. It comes down to the following things: You have to make sure that your CSS provider has activated the Google opt-ins regarding “Shopping Ads beyond general search” and “placing Shopping Ads outside of Europe”. In addition, the CSS provider must be certified by Google in all countries that are relevant to you. In addition, the CSS provider should be known for good support. Since Google is continuously developing the CSS program, things go wrong from time to time. Especially the cheap providers like to leave their customers out in the rain. Finally, it’s important to know that PMax campaigns can have stronger performance fluctuations for a day or two after a CSS switch. This is because the algorithm has to adapt to the new bidding situation. He does this by experimenting with the bids to find the new optimum. As one of the largest CSS premium providers in the world, adstrong is certified in all CSS countries and has all Google opt-ins. In addition, we are continually praised for our top-notch customer support.

To become a Google CSS provider, you have to meet several requirements (see below). Since we operate over 20% of all Google CSS Centers worldwide, we can tell you that there’s quite a bit of work involved, and for most agencies or shops, it’s not worth it. That’s why our CSS solutions cover everything, and our customers have no effort at all. In order to become a Google CSS provider, one must first have a registered company in an EU country and own a Google Merchant Center. You also have to run a price comparison portal that has a decent search algorithm and also offers filter and sorting functions. For each country in which you want to be certified as a CSS provider, the price comparison site must list products from at least 50 local retailers. Ideally, you can compare the offers of several providers for each product.

The Google CSS program is currently active in 21 European countries and adstrong’s Branded CSS solution works in all of these countries. The countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

No. According to Google, the CSS program will continue to exist as long as there are Google Shopping ads. In the U.S., Shopping Ads are already being integrated into Gemini AI, and this will certainly come to Europe as well — so investing in your own CSS now is a safe investment for the future.

We have an excellent CSS support team with a 5-star rating, specializing purely in CSS-relevant topics. Because we are part of the largest CSS Premium Partner network, we pass this top support tier to our clients. What this means for MC suspensions: We utilize the “Fast Lane.” We bypass standard support bots and escalate directly to specialized Google engineers. Cases are often reviewed and resolved within hours instead of days, saving thousands in lost revenue.

Google CSS Premium Partner Support is the highest support tier Google offers for Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) and their affiliated merchants/agencies. While standard support is often slow and automated, Premium Support is a fast lane directly into Google headquarters. Key advantages include:
The “Fast Lane” for Merchant Center Suspensions: If a GMC is automatically suspended for alleged policy violations, Premium Partners can bypass standard bots and escalate directly to specialized Google engineers. Real-time review often solves cases in hours rather than days.
Dedicated CSS Experts instead of Generalists: Premium Support utilizes specially trained CSS Technical Account Managers who understand technical feed architecture and CSS auction dynamics.
Early Access to Beta Features: Priority access to closed beta tests for new ad formats, feed interfaces, and Performance Max features.
Proactive Protection against System Bugs: Early warnings and rapid checking of sudden performance drops to rule out system-wide Google bugs.
Strategic Insights and Co-Marketing: Access to exclusive market data, benchmarks, and joint audits with Google specialists for top client accounts.

Let’s look at a few examples of how adstrong’s Keyword CSS can be used to increase ad relevance for online shops:
Category Relevance: Most clients use category keywords to boost general ad relevance and become synonymous with their niche. For example, the shop “Fahrrad XXL” uses the keyword “Fahrrad” (Bicycle) to show everyone that the ad is from a specialist dealer.
Market Positioning: Products from our client Maniko are often confused with “nail foils.” To position themselves in the “UV Gel Strips” segment, they use a Keyword CSS that strengthens their market position with every impression.
USP Communication: Clients like “Mozart Bett” use a Keyword CSS to highlight their unique bed configurator as a USP.
Quality Emphasis: Luca Faloni uses “Italian Artisans” as a CSS name to highlight the premium origin of their products, clearly standing out from competitors.
Broad Appeal: Retailers with full assortments use broad conversion keywords like “Sale” or “Deal” to stand out.
These can all be geographically and strategically diversified (e.g., using different Keyword CSSs in parallel, filtered by language).

Google guidelines prohibit the use of shop and product brands as CSS names unless they are everyday words. “Adidas” would not be allowed as a CSS name, but “Puma” would be allowed since puma is an animal. Shop or product brands that also function as keyword terms are therefore often possible.

Owning your own CSS does not give you permission to bypass Google’s advertising policies. You must still ensure that the advertised products meet Google’s requirements.

Google allows a maximum length of 15 characters. The shorter the name, the less likely it is to be truncated in the display.

One of our first CSS customers was an online gin shop, and after onboarding, we noticed that many incoming customer inquiries were from other online liquor stores. In conversations with these leads, it turned out they had seen the “From adstrong” tag under their competitor’s Shopping Ads and contacted us because of that. Since then, countless leads have approached us after seeing the “From adstrong” link in Shopping Ads, wanting their own products “to appear right at the top.” You can read in the testimonials that this works just as well for our customers.

Doesn’t “By Google” in Shopping Ads inspire more trust than the name of any CSS provider? And doesn’t that affect the CTR? We could not measure that ads “By Google” have a better CTR than ads “By CSS”. And if there is a positive effect here, it is certainly not worth up to 20% of all CPCs! In this respect, the use of CSS is always the better option. In addition, we were able to measure that the CTR increases if the CSS provider’s brand is relevant to the product category searched for. This is particularly important if the CSS provider is a well-known brand or owns a keyword domain. So “By Nike” or “By sneaker heroes” would certainly perform better when searching for Nike sneakers than “By any CSS”.

The Google CSS program works independently of bidding strategies, campaign settings or account settings.
By using a CSS, the effective CPC of Google Shopping ads increases by up to 25% in all setups. In addition, the name of the CSS provider is highlighted at the bottom of the shopping ads.

This is difficult to answer because various factors beyond our control play a role. However, in a personal conversation, we can look at your individual setup and give you at least an indication of CSS performance, so you can calculate a few scenarios based on logical assumptions. Feel free to book an appointment with us: adstrong.com/meet-vince

Official case studies (feel free to ask us).
Google publications stating a portion of the CPC budget is retained.
Clean A/B testing (which we have successfully run with clients in the past).
Direct confirmation from the Global VP of the Google CSS Program and their IT Head that the advantage lies in the double digits.

Our conservative estimate is between 15-20%. The advantage is real, though incredibly hard to measure in standard reporting, especially now that most advertisers use a conventional CSS and relative bidding advantages equalize. Google maintains a “black box” to blur these hidden costs.

In short: Yes. However, it is extremely difficult to measure, and the performance difference often gets lost in the noise. Google intentionally created a “black box” to obscure these hidden costs, a common complaint across the industry. BUT: The CPC advantage is real. Do not make the mistake of disbelieving what you cannot easily measure, because:
There are official case studies on this (feel free to ask us).
Google has published statements acknowledging they retain a portion of the CPC budget.
With a clean A/B test, the advantage can be measured, though it makes little sense to do so because you sacrifice performance during the test.
Our CEO spoke directly with the Global VP of the Google CSS Program and their CSS Implementation IT Head, both confirming the advantage is in the double digits. Conservatively, we estimate the true CPC advantage today sits between 15-20%.

In the CSS Center, you have the ability to track the performance of the Merchant Centers. Campaign performance is still tracked directly in your Google Dashboard. We do not add any extra tools here.

There are different ways to track different KPIs. The most important KPIs like CPC, Conversions, CTRs, etc., are analyzed within your Google Ads account. On the CSS side, Google Tag Manager can be integrated to gather information about users.

Have you ever wondered why the world’s most famous brands, like Nike and Apple, spend so much money on branding campaigns? Surely not because no one knows them… They invest heavily in branding to stay top-of-mind with their audience, so that when it’s time to buy, consumers choose them. Numerous studies confirm this — when branding campaigns are turned off, people start shopping elsewhere. Placing your brand in the highly visible “From CSS” link is the most effective way to gain massive visibility, build trust, and stay present in the minds of your target audience, so they choose you next time they make a purchase decision. Even if the final conversion comes from a paid ad, marketing experts attribute the majority of advertising effectiveness to branding campaigns, not performance campaigns. So use branding to your advantage — with no extra cost and no extra effort — even if the impact is sometimes hard to measure.

Clicks on the “From CSS” link in Google Shopping ads are free and go to the CSS provider. If that isn’t you, the traffic goes to an external player who, with 99% likelihood, sells those clicks. That means the free traffic ends up with competitors. With adstrong’s solution, it’s different. We’ve built our CSS technology so that free “From CSS” traffic almost exclusively sees your products — and still remains fully Google-compliant. In most cases, the value of this free traffic alone exceeds the cost of our solution.

The Google Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) program is a program from Google that allows online shops to list their products on Google Shopping. Google works with so-called Comparison Shopping Services (CSS). Using these CSS providers, online retailers can advertise their products on Google Shopping to increase their visibility. The Google CSS program was launched after the EU Commission fined Google €2.42 billion in 2017 for violating EU competition law. The court ruling said that Google had placed its own price comparison (Google Shopping) on Google more prominently than other price comparisons and now had to ensure fair competition. As a result, Google Shopping Europe (GSE) was spun off as an independent company and acts as the standard CSS provider for all merchants who have not decided on any other CSS. In order to have an economic raison d’être, GSE must generate profits. It does this by retaining around 20% of all CPC bids that go through GSE, according to popular belief. This means that only 80% of the CPCs are used as a bid for shopping ads. If an online shop chooses another CSS partner like adstrong, this fee does not apply. As a result, CPCs are up to 25% higher than when using GSE. In order to use a CSS, one must register with a CSS provider who then sends a CSS switch request to the respective Merchant Center. Once accepted, the Shopping Ads will benefit from the CPC benefit and the CSS provider’s name will appear at the bottom of the Shopping Ads.

(Similar to the Agency answer): Because so many advertisers use a standard CSS, it’s no longer a relative competitive advantage. Your own Keyword CSS provides incremental advantages your competitors don’t have: you can set a keyword, category, or CTA as your CSS name. This generates more attention, higher ad relevance, higher CTR, and more reach for the same budget.

With a conventional third-party CSS, you bypass hidden Google fees of up to 20% on your CPCs. However, since so many advertisers now use a standard CSS (giving everyone the same CPC advantage), a standard CSS no longer represents a relative competitive edge. To stay on top, you must be one step ahead. Your own CSS does exactly that—it provides incremental further CSS advantages your competitors lack. Our Branded Agency CSS gives you free brand awareness, extra reach, free traffic, and Premium Support.

Generally, a Branded Agency CSS is worth it if Google Shopping is a key sales channel for your clients and you want to outperform the competition. Usually, it makes sense starting from a client ad budget of €5,000/month. By setting your agency name as the CSS name, you achieve free brand awareness, and Google Shopping becomes your widest-reaching ad channel while delivering better results for your clients.

Generally, a custom Keyword CSS is worth it if Google Shopping is a key sales channel for you and you want to outperform your competition. Usually, it makes sense to consider your own CSS starting from an ad budget of €5,000/month. The advantages multiply based on your budget: Shops can use a keyword, category, or CTA as their CSS name (e.g., “By Sneaker Deals”). This increases attention, ad relevance, and CTR, granting more reach on the same budget alongside additional free traffic and fast problem solving via CSS Premium Support.

Yes, we have created case studies ourselves, which we are happy to provide. You can request them here: https://adstrong.com/de/keyword-css-whitepaper/

Yes, we have created our own case studies, which we are happy to provide. You can request them here: For Agencies: https://adstrong.com/de/adstrong-branded-shopping-ads-whitepaper/ For Shops: https://adstrong.com/de/keyword-css-whitepaper/

Generally, every e-commerce client has to pay for a CSS. Our agency partners position themselves not just as marketing agencies, but also as CSS providers. This justifies billing for this extra service separately. Agencies pass these costs on to clients either 1:1 or with a profit margin.

Our clients receive additional free traffic through their existing Shopping ads, achieve more attention and relevance for their ads, higher CTRs, more reach with the same ad budget, and solve challenges faster and more efficiently with CSS Premium Support. We have created our own case studies, which we are happy to provide. You can request them here: For Agencies: https://adstrong.com/de/adstrong-branded-shopping-ads-whitepaper/ For Shops: https://adstrong.com/de/keyword-css-whitepaper/

It depends on which results you mean. Here are two areas: In the affiliate sector: We have already won various awards; scroll down here to see our performance: https://adstrong.com/de/affiliate-partner/ Regarding our CSS: We work with both large and small agencies and shops. Our clients receive additional free traffic through their existing Shopping ads, achieve more attention and relevance for their ads, higher CTRs, more reach with the same ad budget, and solve challenges faster and more efficiently with CSS Premium Support. We have created our own case studies, which we are happy to provide. You can request them here: For Agencies: https://adstrong.com/de/adstrong-branded-shopping-ads-whitepaper/ For Shops: https://adstrong.com/de/keyword-css-whitepaper/ Testimonials: You can also check out our testimonials here: https://adstrong.com/de/testimonials/