Head of E-Commerce, Performance Marketing Leads & Multi-Brand Merchants · 1 min. read
Utilizing the Bid Advantage Without Losing Control: The White Label CSS Guide for Brands & Sub-Brands
How the CSS advantage in Google Shopping auctions arises, how merchant groups with multiple brands establish their own CSS, and why no campaign history is lost during the switch.
[ 01 ]
The CSS Mechanism Unpacked
If a merchant runs Shopping ads directly via Google Shopping, Google retains a margin for this own price comparison service. With another CSS, this margin is eliminated. The industry typically estimates this advantage at around 20%.
Practically, this means: with the same bid, the merchant competes with a more effective bid in the auction – or achieves the same position with a lower bid. An example: someone who previously bid €1.00 per click can achieve a comparable competitive position with approximately €0.80 due to the roughly 20% advantage. The actual effect depends on the category, competition, and bidding strategy.
[ 02 ]
Multi-Brand Setup
For corporations and merchant groups with multiple brands or country-specific shops, an own White Label CSS is particularly interesting. All brands can run through the same CSS, which appears under the name of the group or a parent brand.
The traffic from the "By [...]" link below the ads then flows not to a third-party provider, but to an own central portal or directly to the sub-shops. This way, not only the bidding advantage but also this additional traffic remains in their own hands.
[ 03 ]
Step-by-Step Migration Without Data Loss
The most common concern before a CSS change is the loss of historical data. This concern is unfounded: campaigns, bidding strategies, and performance history are stored in the Google Ads account, not with the CSS. The CSS is assigned at the Merchant Center level.
The typical process: 1. The White Label CSS is set up and confirmed by Google. 2. The Merchant Center is linked to the new CSS. 3. Existing campaigns continue to run and benefit from the CSS advantage from the moment of conversion. The setup usually takes a few days.
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