Awin Partner Top 10s – CSS affiliates
Written by Charlie Row on 5 minute read
CSS could be the missing piece in your acquisition strategy. We overview the top 10 partners driving a major movement in the affiliate channel.
Ever since Google opened its Comparison Shopping Service in 2017, allowing bids on ads within the search giant’s Shopping service, an increasingly large group of partners have been helping retailers drive awareness, revenue, and customer acquisition via highly tactical campaigns.
Rather than keeping everything in-house, advertisers can enlist experienced CSS partners (Comparison Shopping Services) to manage elements of their activity on platforms like Google and Bing, and meet customers where product searches tend to occur.
Explosive growth for CSS has brought a host of new players to Awin in recent years, many of whom offer a mix of algorithm-driven solutions for optimising bids and valuable in-house expertise.
To aid your selection, we’ve provided a rundown of the top 10 CSS partners on our platform.
If you’re a current Awin advertiser and keen to find out more about each of these partners or want to work with them, simply click the link featuring their affiliate ID and it’ll take you through to their profile page on the Awin platform once you’re logged in.
Redbrain uses product data, in-house analysis, and AI-powered bidding to connect everyone from CSS newbies to champions with in-market audiences. Widely recognised as one of Europe’s largest online shopping partners, in 2023 Redbrain helped their advertisers drive over £1 billion in incremental sales.
In 2017, Genie Shopping became one of the very first Google CSS partners after nearly a decade of running digital marketing efforts for online retailers. They’ve since introduced a flexible service offering, meaning brands can either self-manage their CSS activity and drive improvements through Genie’s unique bidding software, or have the group’s Shopping experts manage and optimise it for them.
Along with making them a top in-store partner, Shoparize’s intelligent ecommerce platform encompasses an extensive CSS offering. Advertisers can target some of the 10+ million visitors heading to Shoparize’s own comparison sites over a typical month. Alternatively, they can use the company’s vast CSS experience and technology to either set up new Google Shopping campaigns or improve the results of their existing ones.
ShopForward’s fully managed service will likely interest advertisers wanting expert guidance across key platforms like Google and Bing. By taking total control of campaign management, minus essential controls around selecting negative keywords and controlling CPA percentages, ShopForward boasts a strong proposition for scaling up CSS activity without a huge time investment.
On top of being a global fashion search platform used by over 160 million consumers worldwide, Lyst are also an ideal CSS partner. Two-thirds of Lyst’s talent are engineers, scientists, and product specialists, aiding their ability to power highly tactical and effective Shopping campaigns for fashion brands worldwide. Lyst currently manages over 1,500 feeds comprising 98 million products.
Incubeta’s 800-strong global team makes room for hundreds of in-house Google experts to help advertisers extract maximum ROI from their CSS campaigns. Recent efforts have seen Incubeta creating sophisticated algorithms to automate everything from campaign structure to bid optimisations and negative keyword suggestions, resulting in significant improvements in revenue.
Founded in 2006, Twenga have wasted little time in expanding globally with a focus on all things CSS. Becoming a Google CSS Premier Partner and Microsoft Advertising Select Partner has seen the company operating on the behalf of over 1,500 clients across Europe, the US, and Australia. Twenga’s impressive tech offering includes a proprietary pixel that fine-tunes campaigns with data from multiple sources, and an algorithm that focuses on long-tail inventory to promote products that aren’t covered by existing bids.
Shareight’s integration with several mass media titles like Grazia, the Mirror, and MailOnline allows for the targeting of customers in both the awareness and conversion-driving phases. Their unique approach has advertisers tapping into the often neglected moments where customers are exploring and evaluating their options. After creating a preference for a specific brand, Shareight’s CSS activity aims to close the cycle with a conversion, all on a single CPA.
Boasting dedicated offerings for advertisers, agencies, and even eBay and Amazon sellers, adstrong has seen value in applying its rich CSS knowledge and expertise across specific business types. Their 100% focus on Google Shopping has been rewarded in the form of CSS Premium Partner certification in all countries where it is available — a first for a German-based company.
Operating in 41 countries and with over 20 years of ecommerce experience, Kelkoo holds the honour of being Google’s first CSS Premium Partner. Nowadays, the group checks important boxes by using purchase intent data and algorithm-driven solutions to place advertisers’ products on a network that includes Google Shopping, Yahoo, and Bing, as well as several of their own comparison sites.
Learn more about the value of working with CSS partners through the affiliate channel in our guide on Awin’s Advertiser Success Centre.
