Cost Per Click Model needs micromanagement

• Unlike rev-share models, CPC campaigns need to be watched closely to determine the ROIs for individual products
• Product level bidding presents an opportunity to optimize your Comparison Shopping Campaign, however this product level optimization is time consuming and introduces a new layer of complexity

Data Feeds

• Constructing and Optimizing a data feed is often a very involved tedious task involving a significant investment in time
• Data feed management consists of frequent modification and the majority of merchants do not have the technical resources to do so

Submitting a Basic Data Feed

• Using a basic data feed (e.g. XML) from your provider can allow merchants to participate on most Comparison Shopping Engines but will undoubtedly lead to plummeting conversion rates
• Each Comparison Shopping Engine has unique requirements which often times deter merchants from exploring multiple campaigns

Bad Categorization

• 30% of all products given to Comparison Shopping Engines are either mis-categorized or not listed at all due to mapping issues
• CPC rates vary by category; therefore bad categorization can lead to dramatically lower ROIs

Lack of adequate customer service

• Most Comparison Shopping Engines will only provide Account Managers for their bigger clients
• Account Managers have incentives of their own and are usually more concerned with up-selling than with helping you to maximize your campaign

Lack of precise tracking

• Merchants often do not track the sales they are receiving from the Comparison Shopping Engines
• This leads to mis-management of their campaigns by listing products with negative ROIs

Does this sound like your experience?

A merchant goes "live" on a Comparison Shopping Engine using their basic Yahoo or Google Product Search feed.  The merchant checks back to see where their products are listed and discovers that some of the products are being listed under the wrong categories. 

They attempt to contact the Comparison Shopping Engine to see if they can rectify the situation and realize that the only way to have their products properly categorized is by modifying their data feed.  Their lack of time, energy, and technical know-how leads to them putting off this "problem" until their monthly budget runs out and their products are taken down.  Without the proper tracking tools they were unable to determine the return on their Comparison Shopping Campaign. 

At that point they either write off the initial deposit as a marketing cost, re-deposit and hope for the best, or discontinue their campaign convinced that the Comparison Shopping Engine doesn't work for them.