A shop can work with a CSS in two ways. Both are supported by Google; they differ in who holds the Merchant Center account.
1. Full switch of your own account
You keep your Merchant Center account and its id. The CSS sends a request, you approve it in Merchant Center, and the CSS becomes the CSS of the account. Nothing moves and the CSS does not become an administrator of your account. This is the standard path at verteco.shop.
2. Association through the CSS multi-client account (MCA)
The CSS runs a multi-client account and your shop becomes a sub-account in it: either a new sub-account the CSS creates for you, or your existing account moved under the MCA. Administrators of the MCA then have administrative access to the sub-account, its settings, feeds and diagnostics. Shops choose this when they have no Merchant Center yet, or when they want the CSS to manage the feed for them.
Side by side
- Account owner. Full switch: you. Sub-account in the CSS MCA: the CSS's multi-client account, with you as a user of the sub-account.
- Account id. Full switch: unchanged. Sub-account: a new sub-account id, or your account inside the MCA.
- Administrative access for the CSS. Full switch: none; the CSS receives product data through the CSS programme. Sub-account: full access to the sub-account.
- Feed management. Full switch: you. Sub-account: you or the CSS.
- Leaving. Full switch: switch back or to another CSS at any time. Sub-account: the sub-account is moved out of the MCA; Google supports this, it needs coordination with the CSS.
- Click costs. In both cases billed by your Google Ads account.
One account, one CSS
A Merchant Center account is served by one CSS at a time. Shops that want to compare CSSs side by side use several Merchant Center accounts with the same products, each with its own CSS and its own campaigns. The article Running a CSS A/B test describes that setup.
What verteco.shop does
The standard setup is the full switch of your own account. Komplet works with either setup, because it reads your public feed URL and the reports you upload, not your Merchant Center account.