A Comparison Shopping Service partner is a Google-approved third party that lets retailers show Shopping ads at a lower cost than bidding directly through Google, by acting as an intermediary bidder. Retailers often route Shopping campaigns through a CSS partner purely to reduce ad spend.
An online furniture retailer switches its Shopping ads from Google's own comparison service to an approved CSS partner and reports lower cost-per-click for the same product listings and auction position.
No. A CSS partner operates within Google Shopping's own ad auction, not an affiliate network. Retailers pay for clicks rather than commission on completed sales, so it sits much closer to paid search advertising than to performance-based affiliate marketing arrangements.
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