Boost your Google Shopping Ads
We make you a Google CSS Provider, even with a single Merchant Center
Your own Branded Agency CSS will unlock unprecedented benefits on Google Ads for Shopping.
5.0 Stars on Google Reviews with 1,000+ customers
Better Performance
Free Branding
Free Traffic
Extra Google Support
Helping agencies succeed on Google Shopping.
Your own Branded Agency CSS will massively outperform a conventional CSS!
Using a CSS was a great way to get a competitive edge until around 2021. Now the CPC boost doesn’t provide a relative advantage because everyone has it. You have to unlock the additional CSS Provider Benefits if you want to outperform your competition!
Massive Branding
Free Traffic
Better Performance
The CSS CPC benefit increases your ads’ performance. In addition, Shops with their own CSS can increase their CTR & further lower their CPCs. And everyone benefits of exclusive reports that Google offers to CSS providers.
Google Support
As CSS provider, you get additional Google support up to dedicated account managers and technical representatives. You get access to PMax & feed support and can manage negative keywords for PMax on campaign level.
Over 15% of all CSSs in the world are based on our Branded Agency CSS solution.
Furthermore, with over 7,000 Merchant Centers, adstrong is also one of the largest traditional CSS providers in the world.
Our clear focus and the resulting unique wealth of experience are reflected in our top-class and competent customer service. We are not just ready with support when you have questions. We go a step further and proactively educate you so that you get the most out of the Google CSS Program and set new records!
Dominate Google Shopping Ads without risk or extra effort.
Plug & Play
Seamless migration
Safe & Secure
You will succeed
Becoming a Google CSS just takes few minutes.
Signup
CSS Setup
We set up your branded Agency CSS-Site (your design, your domain, your products). The site is fully responsive, localized for all 21 CSS markets and more than fulfils all Google CSS requirements.
CSS Application
Done
adstrong Branded Agency CSS benefits.
Gain up to 25% CPC boost and unlock exclusive benefits with your Branded Agency CSS solution, transforming your Google Shopping Ads into high-performance assets with enhanced visibility.
Up to 25% CPC boost for Shopping Ads on Google
A Branded Agency CSS encompasses the normal CSS CPC benefit that effectively equals a CPC increase of up to 25%.
Massive Branding
Free traffic from Google
Shopping ads generate up to 3% additional free clicks that you lose to competitors unless you leverage our Branded CSS solution.
Free Clicks Booster
Other (Branded) CSS solutions take your free CSS-traffic to the competition. Our “Free Clicks Booster” ensures that it’s taken to your products instead.
Your clients are safe
More Google support
More Google features
CSS providers get access to exclusive data and Google perks for better campaign optimization (e.g. negative keyword management for PMax on campaign level).
Inbound leads
Better Conversion rates
100% Google Policy compliant
Several of our clients had their CSS Google-suspended when using another Branded CSS provider. adstrong is the largest & most professional provider who always works Google policy compliant.
5-star premium support
Become a one-stop-shop
adstrong CSS mastery
Shopping ads channel protection
With advanced CSS settings, you can reclaim full control of Google Shopping Ads for your domain(s) and make sure that other players don’t cannibalize your shop’s traffic.
Agency marketing support
Full control over CSS
Extra business model
Additional trust & expertise
Google CSS badges
Protection from competitors
Customer testimonials
Better agency services
Customer lock-in
Our unique Branded CSS solution encompasses way more benefits than a conventional CSS. Agencies get an extra lock-in effect.
Download your whitepaper now.
I have questions - Can I talk to a CSS expert?
The leading CSS product on the market.
adstrong
Branded Agency CSS
Conventional
CSS
CSS CPC Advantage
Free Branding for your Agency
Free Traffic for your Customers
Own Ads Strengthen Foreign Brands
Better Google standing, incl. direct Google CSS Support
Free Traffic for the Competition of your Customers
Setting Negative Keywords for PMax at Campaign Level
No Effort Required from you
100% Google policy compliant
Premium Support
Choose the plan that's right for you.
All prices shown as monthly pricing.
- €599 One-Time Setup Fee
- All 21 CSS countries² included
- Own Agency CSS Site
- Own CSS Domain or Subdomain
- Agency Branding in Google Shopping Ads
- Free Clicks Booster³
- Premium DE/EN Support with Dedicated Account Manager
- CSS Partner Status upon request
- Individual trial period upon request
² Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary.
Payments are secure & encrypted
- €599 One-Time Setup Fee
- All 21 CSS countries² included
- Own Agency CSS Site
- Own CSS Domain or Subdomain
- Agency Branding in Google Shopping Ads
- Free Clicks Booster³
- Premium DE/EN Support with Dedicated Account Manager
- CSS Partner Status upon request
- Individual trial period upon request
² Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary.
Payments are secure & encrypted
adstrong's Branded Agency CSS was developed in cooperation with Google.
The strongest advantages of the Google CSS program were previously withheld from the CSS providers themselves. This has changed with adstrong‘s Branded Agency CSS solution: Now, over 15% of all CSSs worldwide are based on our solution – and it‘s all 100% Google policy compliant.
Agencies who trust adstrong.
Simon Borg
Thanks to adstrong's Branded CSS solution, we managed to take us to the next level with regard to Google Shopping. Not only did we get an additional business model for our agency, but we consistently achieve better campaign performance. In addition to the many advantages of a CSS, such as agency visibility, perceived competency and inbound leads, what I'm most pleased about is that we can now troubleshoot CSS-related issues in Merchant Centers directly with Google. Previously this wasn't possible and we always had to go through an external CSS provider, which has often led to delays and resentment. On top, adstrong's support is outstanding - that's why I'm happy to provide this testimonial.
Felix Manthey
Dennis Berse
We've been using adstrong's Branded CSS solution for a few months. We've seen a stable positive impact on campaign performance, which we attribute to the CPC advantage. We also have billions of free brand impressions for AdRock Marketing. All in all, the adstrong team does their job really well and gives us excellent support. That's why I'm happy to provide a testimonial.
Elly Michalas
I became extremely curious when I heard about adstrong's Branded CSS solution. adstrong aren't exaggerating about their SaaS solution being turnkey - we didn't have any significant effort to set it up or run it. The CSS works flawlessly and improves our shopping campaigns. It used to bother me that we couldn't supply our customers with everything from a single source and they had to go to external CSS providers. Now, the CSS status allows us to provide a better service level. The increased visibility brings us regular customer inquiries and our awareness has increased significantly. Finally, I would like to commend adstrong for the great support - if something is wrong, the team is immediately and competently on the spot. Thank you & best of luck going forward!
Oliver Zenglein
Rahil Yaqub
Since our goal is to ensure the best performance and the best service for our customers, it was clear that we had to become a Google CSS provider ourselves. When I spoke to adstrong, I was impressed by their competence and experience in everything to do with CSS. I think there is no other player in Europe who has so much experience with the Google CSS program and is familiar with all the details and exceptional cases. Since adstrong also offers very fair pricing, we decided on their Branded CSS solution and spent a lot of time with it and effort saved. The SaaS solution is easy to use and the customer support is top notch.
Andreas Hofer
adstrong's CSS as a Service is an indispensable tool for any online marketing agency that wants to run state of the art Google Shopping Ads. We enjoy all the benefits of the Google CSS status and have no work with it. Most of all, we are happy that our own KLICKIMPULS CSS can achieve the best performance for our customers. In addition, we have noticed that our level of awareness has grown significantly over the billions of free brand impressions and we simply get more inbound leads. All in all, adstrong's solution is very effective and the customer support is excellent. Thanks very much.
Julian Flügge
Pascal Schumacher
Marius Schulz
Lena Schlegel
Marco Elbe
Sebastian Beneke
For us at Lyonic, the professional appearance as Google Shopping experts with our own CSS was important because we always want to play at the SEA forefront and don't want to lag behind the market. With our Branded CSS we were able to strengthen our expert status in the Google Shopping area, which of course is also clearly reflected in the sales process. Adstrong's flawless support for everything to do with CSS & Google Shopping subtleties also allows us to be there for our customers better. We are very happy that we chose adstrong and opened up this new business model for us.
Christian Hampp
Dennis Renk
Mike Klostermann
Romano Koch
adstrong's Branded CSS is the ideal tool to take Google Shopping services to the next level. Thanks to our own CSS, we at THRE3 can significantly improve our services and increase the performance of our customers' campaigns. adstrong's support is professional and fast and direct access to Google CSS Support helps us as a digital agency to be able to clarify CSS-related problems competently and promptly.
Felix Hesse
Our team at Netzproduzenten can strongly recommend adstrong as a Branded CSS provider. We particularly like the fast and competent support that resolved all issues reliably and promptly. In addition, adstrong gives us the opportunity to give our own brand more visibility.
Guido Hausmann
Successful performance marketing and sustainable brand building is a top priority for Grillstar. adstrong's Branded CSS solution has helped us to significantly increase the performance of our shopping ads and, with the "By Grillstar" branding, makes us stand out more on Google than our competitors. Our Brand has now been shown millions of times - and without any additional effort.
Tobias Clement
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
adstrong’s CPC Boost is our normal Google CSS service that increases the effective CPCs of Shopping Ads by up to 25%. Our CSS is activated in all 21 available CSS countries and we posses all existing Google opt-ins to ensure maximum reach of Shopping Campaigns that use our CSS. This is the perfect option for advertisers with less than 10k € in monthly ad spend on Google.
adstrong’s Branded CSS solution goes one step further. We provide you with your own Branded CSS and thereby make you a Google CSS provider. Being a CSS provider includes a wide selection of extra perks for your Shopping Ads (massive branding, free extra traffic, …). This is the perfect option for advertisers with more than 10k € in monthly ad spend on Google.
adstrong’s affiliate services consist of managed CSS services. We run Google Shopping campaigns for your online shop. We do all the work and pay for all of the traffic and you pay us a 100% success based fee (usually a share of the revenues our traffic generates). You have zero risk and we make sure to find the sales you’re missing. This is the perfect option for shops with at least 7-digits in annual revenues who are ideally already listed on an affiliate network (e.g. AWIN).
adstrong’s Google Shopping Ads for Marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay is a technical solution that allows you to run Shopping Ads on Google for your product listings on any marketplace (e.g. Amazon, eBay, …). You can increase your sales and your organic ranking and unlock an extremely valuable marketing channel. This is the ideal solution for Marketplace sellers who are looking to grow and know how to set up and run Shopping Ads on Google.
In order to become a Google CSS provider, one must meet a few requirements (see below). As the largest Branded CSS provider, we at adstrong can tell you that there is a lot to do here and that it is not worth it for most agencies or shops. That’s why our Branded CSS solution covers everything and our customers don’t have to do anything.
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.
Google CSS Partner Status is an exclusive premium status granted by Google to larger CSS providers. It allows the use of the Google CSS Partner Badge and leads to listing in the Google CSS Partner Directory.
In order to become a Google CSS Partner, one must meet the requirements for a Google CSS provider and also (A) have access to the Google CSS Education Hub, (B) have at least two employees with CSS certification in the company and lastly (C) have at least 50 active Merchant Center accounts linked to their Google CSS domain.
These advanced requirements can also be met using adstrong’s Branded CSS solution.
Essentially, we continuously ensure that all Google CSS requirements are met for our customers. We’re pretty good at that. With clients in the triple digits, our success rate is 100% and we’ve never had any Google policy violations. This is because we worked very closely with Google on our Branded CSS solution from the start to be 100% on the safe side. Specifically, the process for your own Branded CSS looks like this:
- We collect the data necessary to achieve CSS status (e.g. company name, desired CSS name, …). It typically takes 10-15 minutes to provide this data.
- We create your branded price comparison site. It meets all Google CSS requirements 100%, lists over 3,000 merchants, has sorting and filter options, is high-performance, multilingual, can be on your domain and also links to your homepage.
- We submit your CSS application to Google and after a week or two, Google will set up your CSS account.
- Finally, we optimally configure your CSS and hand it over to you with a corresponding onboarding.
And of course, we are always there for you with our top-rated support.
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.
We developed our Branded CSS solution in cooperation with Google and let Google assure us that that’s okay. Our approach is 100% compliant and even with a three-digit number of Branded CSS accounts, there have never been any Google policy issues.
With your Branded CSS you can rest assured that everything works optimally.
A good friend of the founder Ingmar runs an online gin shop and was one of adstrong’s first CSS customers. At the time, Ingmar noticed that many incoming customer inquiries came from online liquor shops and in conversations it turned out that these interested parties had seen the “By adstrong” link among their competitor’s shopping ads.
Since then, countless leads have come to us who had seen the “By adstrong” link in shopping ads and wanted “their products to show up at the top, too”. Since we do not offer agency services, we cannot use these valuable leads.
A virtue arose out of necessity – our Branded CSS solution. Here we ensure that these leads can also be helped and that they end up in the right place: with online marketing agencies. You can skim through our testimonials to see that this works.
Google Shopping Europe (GSE) has repeatedly confirmed that they keep a portion of all CPCs. However, GSE does not publish the exact size of this part. Therefore, no one knows exactly what percentage of CPCs are withheld by GSE.
At the beginning of the CSS program, some CSS providers ran A/B tests in which they pitted identical campaigns against each other with and without CSS. Several vendors have independently come to the conclusion that they had to reduce the CPCs in the CSS campaign by around 20% in order for it to get the same amount of traffic as the non-CSS campaign. For this reason, most CSS providers write that GSE retains 20% of the CPCs.
This means that at GSE a €1 CPC bid is reduced to 80 cents. Or to put it the other way around: to get an effective bid of €1, I have to enter €1.25. So 25% more.
That’s why at adstrong we say that a CSS increases effective CPCs by up to 25%.
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.
If you use the adstrong CSS or the adstrong Branded CSS, your shopping ads will not lose any reach – the campaigns will be displayed in the same way as with Google Shopping Europe.
However, this is not the case with all CSS providers. In order to get the full range, the CSS provider must provide special opt-ins with Google. Therefore, make sure that your CSS provider has opted in regarding “Shopping Ads beyond general search”.
You can use free listings when using a CSS.
However, when changing CSS, it can happen that a Merchant Center loses its free listings. 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.
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.
Only CSS providers can manage negative keywords for PMax campaigns. That is why it is particularly important for agencies to be CSS providers themselves. In this way, negative keywords can be managed efficiently & by yourself. You can fulfill customer requests directly while saving yourself the detour via an external CSS provider.
Of course, a CSS provider can also remove Merchant Center from its CSS. To do this, he sends a request to Google Shopping Europe via the CSS Support Portal and requests a Merchant Center switch. Google Shopping Europe then sends a CSS switch request to the Merchant Center.
Once this request is accepted in the Merchant Center, the switch back to GSE is complete. If the Merchant Center admin refuses to accept the request, the CSS provider can request the deletion of this Merchant Center.
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.
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”.
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.
After the CSS switch the CPC boost kicks in, the brand of the CSS provider is shown in the shopping ads, and the “by CSS” link leads to the CSS’ price comparison site.
Google Shopping Europe retains up to 20% of the CPCs.
That means a €1 CPC bid is effectively reduced to 80 cents. To counteract this, I would need to increase my CPCs by 25%. My CPC would then be €1.25 and if 20% is subtracted from that the effective CPC is €1.
Since using a CSS neutralizes the negative effect of GSE, the effect is equivalent to up to a 25% increase in CPCs.
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.
After you have invested 10 – 15 minutes to provide us with the data necessary for CSS set up, it takes one to two weeks until you have become a CSS provider with our Branded CSS solution.
Yes, adstrong’s Branded CSS solution can also achieve CSS Partner status for you.
The exclusive Google CSS Partner status allows the use of the Google CSS Partner badge and leads to listing in the Google CSS Partner directory.
If you are one of the 25% largest CSS Partners, measured by shopping ad impressions, you will receive Google CSS Premium Partner status. Some of our Branded CSS customers have done so already.