Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you have probably become aware that last June Google got themselves into a spot of bother with the European Commission over compliance of their anti-trust rules.
The European Commission declared that Google had not been giving other Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) a fair chance to serve ads via their platform, fined them £2.2bn and demanded that they change the way they operate with these partners.
Fast forward about 12 months and CSSs have really started to ramp up their activity and presence when it comes to serving ads in the Google SERP:
As such you can expect to see a lot more ads served by other providers and not just “By Google”. In fact, you may have noticed that the feature in which the provider of the ad is declared is also new. This is one of many steps that Google has taken to ensure they are playing by the rules, to avoid any future large fines. This, however, isn’t the only beneficial change that has come about from this change in strategy from the world’s leading search engine. In this short article we will look at how you can benefit directly, via your affiliate program.
Very simply, what is the benefit of running this sort of activity via my affiliate program?
Publishers that already have years of expertise in Price Comparison shopping platforms are taking full advantage of this new development and have put their price comparison sites to use, enabling them to bid for these positions.
Some of the key USPs of working with these partners include:
- You can run this activity via a CPA – which means no more paying for every click that you are sent. Pay instead only when there is a conversion.
- This is a risk-free way to promote parts of your product catalogue that you are currently not promoting directly via Google yourself.
- Working with a CSS to secure these slots on Google will NOT increase your own Google Ad spend, as the technology of the CSS ensures you are never bidding against yourself.
- With the above point in mind, this solution can complement your current Google strategy nicely!
- Although you CAN run your current Google strategy and this side by side, you could also save a lot of budget if you moved all activity over to a CSS on a CPA.
What sort of advertiser can benefit from this?
Any advertiser that currently benefits from Google product ads – so basically anything retail related. These slots are not eligible for those in the travel, services, and utility spaces.
What about the setup?
it’s is a really easy opportunity to get up and running. Simply by approving the CSS publisher to your program, and giving them access to your Google Merchant Centre (GMC) to retrieve a feed, you are good to go!
How can I learn more or get started?
At Webgains we have several key partners that can help you with this opportunity. Reach out to me and I’ll be more than happy to introduce you. Contact – sales@webgains.com