New starter kit: Comparison Shopping Services (CSS)

CSS Centre

The CSS Centre is a platform to manage your participation in the CSS programme. Core CSS Centre features allow you to do the following:

Administration:
- Manage your participation in CSS programme opportunities
- Manage the logo that is shown on Google
- Prove your CSS eligibility
- Apply CSS-specific user management, including setting access rights to associated Merchant Center accounts
Manage your merchants' portfolio:
- Grow your portfolio with the self-service merchants' onboarding feature (switching MC accounts)
- Get your portfolio organised via labels and filters
- Gain a holistic overview of participating CSS domains, as well as all associated Merchant Center (MC) accounts
- Provide a single point of entry for all associated MC accounts
- Manage your merchants' issues and growth at scale via aggregated diagnostics, tips and best practices
Manage your CSS product pages:
- Understand issues that do not allow your CSS product pages to be shown across Google
- See all CSS product pages and their performance

You can find an overview of all the features in the CSS education hub and in the CSS Centre Help Centre.

CSS newsletter

The CSS newsletter is an official communication sent to all CSS on a weekly basis to share any important information that involves:

Product updates
New betas
Important changes

To sign up for the newsletter, fill in this form.

The education hub is a platform designed for CSS where you can access all relevant Shopping ads resources (product formats, campaign basics, insights, trends, etc.) to best manage your business and help merchants grow.

Process to sign up

To have full access to the education hub, complete this form to register interest and start the NDA application process.

Once the form has been submitted, you'll receive an email from css-nda-request@google.com to complete the process.

Note: To have full access to the education hub, you'll need to sign this NDA, regardless of any previous NDAs that you may have signed with Google.

Get familiar with support paths

Depending on your issue, different Google teams can help you move forwards.

Use this support link for any queries related to:

Account switches
Campaign implementation and modification
CSS marketplace request
Feed audits
Feed implementation
Feed optimisation
Onboarding support
Parallel tracking exemption and opt-ins
Troubleshooting for CSS
Update your 'By CSS' links

For all troubleshooting queries including billing and invoicing, Google Analytics, Merchant Center, and policy and ad reviews, speak to a customer support agent by accessing live chat and by email.

FAQ

How can I increase the offer limit for a merchant or for an MCA?

Use this form (Admin support section) to request an offer limit increase.

How can I turn on parallel tracking or be exempt from parallel tracking?

Request it through this form (Parallel tracking exemption and opt-ins section).

To learn more about parallel tracking for CSS, click here.

What are Comparison Listing ads?

Comparison Listing ads (CLA) have been launched in all 21 (EEA+CH) countries, but we need a minimum of three CSS competing in an auction to be able to show ads. When choosing a country, note that not all countries may have the minimum of three CSS competing at the moment. You can ask your CSS Google account manager for more details.

To learn more about CLA, refer to this deck and this Help Centre article.

If you're interested in running CLA, contact your CSS Google account manager to be allowlisted.

How can I opt in or opt out of Display remarketing or Shopping ads beyond general search?

By default, a CSS is only able to place products in the Shopping unit on Google's general search results pages.

To opt in for:

Display remarketing
Shopping ads beyond general search (including the Shopping tab, image search and YouTube)

Use this form (Parallel tracking exemption and opt-ins section).

How can I switch a merchant from CSS A to my CSS?

If you're the admin of a CSS account, you can ask the merchant to switch from a different CSS to your CSS through the product self-service option. Learn more about switching merchant accounts between Comparison Shopping Services.

CSS Partner Programme information

CSS portal: We have a dedicated portal for Comparison Shopping Services. You'll be able to:

Discover what the CSS programme is about
Take a look at the benefits of becoming a partner or Premium partner
Read success stories of merchants working with CSS

To access the CSS portal, click here.

CSS programme: Our Comparison Shopping Partner programme is designed to benefit both CSS and merchants. Comparison Shopping Partners are specially trained to help grow your business by making the most of Shopping ads.

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