SPONSOR POST: The Great CSE Rate Change

It’s that time of year again — comparison shopping engines have announced whether or not they will increase rates for the holidays. Any retailer using CSEs should take heed and plan their budgets accordingly or they risk being hit with some surprising bills.

Retailers should keep in mind that conversion rates are usually higher around Christmas, and many retailers still achieve their efficiency goals despite these increases. However, it is best to watch results carefully to ensure your costs are not getting out of control. Higher rates plus increased traffic could be very expensive if conversion rates don’t improve as they should.

Also, if clicks through to the retailer’s site aren’t working for some reason, that is a lot of expensive traffic to absorb. Monitoring conversions/revenue is a good way to identify operational problems. The sooner problems are caught, the sooner they can be fixed to keep your CSE program sending well-converting traffic.

The chart below shows a quick-reference guide so you can be aware of when and/or if rate changes will occur. Some are starting as early as the 15th of November, so be prepared!