Affiliates play a vital role in partnership marketing, and brands cannot have an affiliate program without them. The worldwide affiliate marketing industry is valued at over $17 billion, with 84% of businesses utilizing affiliate programs. According to a 2024 Statista report, 70% of marketers are now integrating AI-driven tools to manage the complexity of this expanding ecosystem. Hence, it’s imperative to not only have an affiliate program but also a successful affiliate strategy that includes selecting the right partners.
While there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to selecting partners for your program, it’s important to consider the unique benefits that each partner type can bring to the table—and comparison shopping services (CSS) partners shouldn’t be overlooked. CSS partners help brands promote their products and services efficiently and cost-effectively. In this blog, we dive into how brands are successfully leveraging these shopping affiliates to increase activity and form profitable and smooth partnerships.
What is a CSS partner?
A CSS partner can promote your brand’s product(s) within the affiliate channel using Google and Microsoft Bing shopping. This can be used to compliment or enhance your existing shopping campaigns in Google or Bing, while leveraging a pay-per-performance payout model.
Benefits of working with CSS partners
There are many benefits to partnering with CSS affiliates in your program, and some of the most prominent ones include:
- Brand Awareness: They can widen your brand’s reach within the shopping space and appear across comparison sites to support brand awareness.
- Competitors: They can push competitors out across relevant search terms, on a CPA-only basis, gaining increased impression share.
- CPAi Opportunities: They can utilize a CPAi strategically to target less efficient products, high stock, or outlet products.
Ensuring CSS partner incrementality
Working with multiple CSS partners can create additional shopping coverage, but brands should treat incrementality as something to measure—not assume. Google allows merchants to work with multiple CSSs, and its auction dynamics are designed to avoid duplicate listings for the same product from the same retailer in a single set of results. The real opportunity comes from using CSS partners strategically: setting clear CPA or CPAi targets, prioritizing products or categories where additional exposure can support business goals, and monitoring overlap with existing Shopping activity.
Here are three ways CSS partners can support incremental CPA sales while helping brands manage overlap with Google Shopping:
- Unique Product Identifiers: The unique product identifier, such as an EAN or GTIN, helps Google recognize products consistently and reduce duplicate same-product listings from the same retailer.
- Strategic Targets: The CPA or CPAi target a CSS partner works toward should protect your in-house cost-of-sale goals while giving the partner enough room to compete in relevant shopping auctions. Brands can also adjust targets by category, margin profile, inventory level, or product priority.
- Cross-Channel Monitoring: CSS partner activity should be monitored alongside internal Shopping or Product Listing Ad performance to understand where partners are expanding coverage versus capturing activity that may have happened through existing campaigns. Review overlap, conversion quality, and category-level performance regularly.
Best practices and tips to successfully partner with CSS affiliates
If CSS affiliates seem like the right partner fit for your brand’s marketing goals and KPIs, be sure to keep the below considerations in mind as you move forward with the help of an experienced partnership marketing agency.
- While CSS partners can take a share of internal activity, remember that there is more to gain when implementing the use of these partners.
- Vary your CPA rates. If you want to safeguard your internal efforts, it’s recommended to have the CSS partner on a lower CPA than average for the internal channel.
- Be clear with partners on the dos and don’ts that align with your brand goals.
- Decide how many partners you want to work with, like if you want to focus on one main CSS partner or have a variety across certain platforms, such as Google or Bing.
- Understand that CSS partners won’t increase a brand’s CPC costs. Google is set up to not increase bidding on search terms if multiple CSS partners are bidding for the same product or brand, which means it will not raise CPCs in situations like a new competitor bidding on the same branded search terms.
Partnering with CSS partners can offer notable benefits to both brands and affiliates alike if they align with brand goals and KPIs. With guidance from an experienced partnership marketing agency, leverage CSS partnerships to cost-effectively boost brand awareness and revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CSS partner in affiliate marketing?
A CSS (Comparison Shopping Service) partner is an affiliate that promotes a brand’s product catalog within search engine shopping results. These partners help brands expand their reach and appear on comparison sites using a pay-per-performance (CPA) model rather than traditional cost-per-click.
How do CSS partners help drive incremental sales?
CSS partners can support incremental sales by reaching relevant shopping opportunities that internal campaigns may not prioritize, such as specific categories, high-stock products, outlet inventory, or less efficient SKUs. To confirm incrementality, brands should compare CSS activity against existing Shopping performance, review overlap with internal campaigns, and evaluate whether the partner is creating new qualified demand or simply capturing conversions that would have happened anyway.
How do CSS partners ensure incremental sales?
CSS partners provide incrementality by appearing in auctions your internal teams may not reach. Because Google uses unique product identifiers (GTINs) to prevent duplicate listings from the same retailer, CSS partners must find secondary auctions or comparison site opportunities to drive unique sales.
What is the benefit of using a CPAi model with CSS?
A CPA-per-item (CPAi) model allows brands to strategically target specific parts of their inventory. This is particularly effective for promoting high-stock items, outlet products, or less efficient categories without affecting the commission structure of the entire catalog.
