When you're launching an advertising campaign, the last step is paying for traffic. As an affiliate, you have two main options:
Use your own card: This seems straightforward, but there's a catch. Not everyone has credit cards from USA, UK or EU banks, and many advertising platforms require these. If you're aiming to make big profits as an affiliate, using your own card might not be the best choice because it can limit your options and potential earnings.
Use a virtual card issuing service: This is the go-to method for most affiliates. These services allow you or your team to get a bunch of virtual cards, which you can use to pay for your advertising expenses. This approach helps you achieve a good return on investment (ROI) and make money, even if there are some restrictions in place.
There are plenty of virtual card services out there, and finding the right one for your needs can be a bit challenging.
For instance, some services don’t charge any fees if your card gets declined often. At first glance, this might seem like a great deal, but it has its downsides. If you overuse these cards, they can get blocked quickly. When this happens a lot, it can hurt the reputation of the bank that issued the cards. As a result, advertising platforms might start refusing to accept cards from that bank, making it harder for legitimate affiliates to operate smoothly.
Imagine you're running ads on Facebook. Sometimes, Facebook might block a transaction if it looks suspicious, like if multiple accounts are all using the same payment card. To avoid this hassle, it's smart for affiliates to use separate cards for each ad account, or even multiple cards for a single account.
Using a virtual card issuing service can help affiliates in several ways:
Card creation and management: Most payment services let you create virtual cards for free, but then charge a monthly fee to maintain each card. This fee is usually between $5 to $10 per card. However, some services might charge you a few dollars upfront for each card and then cover the maintenance costs. This might sound convenient, but it’s usually not the best deal.
Why? Because as an affiliate, you’ll likely need to create lots of cards, and these cards can get blocked or declined easily, especially if you're running multiple ad campaigns. Paying upfront for each card can add up quickly. It’s generally better to go for a service that issues cards for free and charges a manageable monthly fee for maintaining the cards, like AnyBill. This way, you can create as many cards as you need without worrying about high upfront costs
Commissions: Payment services make their money through commissions, so it’s important to understand all the different types of commissions they might charge. Sometimes, a payment service might advertise low rates, but they could also be taking a cut from the bank they partner with. This isn’t always transparent and can make the service more expensive than it appears. Always ask for a detailed breakdown of all potential commissions, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Another important fee to consider is the cost of adding funds to your card. This can be a significant expense when you're working with a payment card service. For example, AnyBill’s rates for adding funds to your card start from 3%. However, this percentage decreases as your spending increases, which can be beneficial if you’re running large campaigns and need to add funds frequently. Make sure to check if the service offers any discounts or lower fees based on your spending volume.
Funding methods: One of the main reasons to use a payment system is to access services that might not be available in your country. For example, the SWIFT system, which is commonly used for international bank transfers, might not work in some countries. In such cases, it’s important to have alternative methods for adding funds like using USDT or other cryptocurrencies. These alternatives can be very convenient, allowing you to easily add funds to your card and pay for services, advertising platforms, and other tools, no matter where you are in the world.
However, sharing this kind of personal information can sometimes lead to unwanted attention, which experienced affiliates prefer to avoid. They often look for services that don’t require any verification at all. AnyBill allows you to get started without needing to go through a lengthy verification process. This can save you a lot of time and hassle, letting you focus on running your campaigns.
The downside is that completing transactions with 3DS cards can sometimes be a bit of a hassle. Often, you need to contact customer support to get a special code to finalize the purchase. This can slow down your processes and make things more complicated than they need to be.
That’s why it’s a big advantage if the payment service can automatically send you the 3DS confirmation code without you having to do anything extra. AnyBill automatically emails you the code or send it through a messaging app like Telegram. This means you don’t have to worry about tracking down the code yourself, making the whole process much smoother and more efficient.
Having a wide variety of different BINs gives you backup options. If one set of cards stops working, you can easily switch to a different set instead. This flexibility can save you a lot of time and money trying to troubleshoot issues.
It’s also a good idea to check which specific banks the BINs are linked to. You can do this easily using an online BIN checker tool. The more diverse the banking partners, the better. Diversity in banking partners means your transactions are less likely to be red flagged at once because they come from a variety of sources.
Also, the bigger the payment processor company is, and the more clients they have, the more your transactions can blend in with all the others. This can help the cards you use seem more legitimate and get accepted more reliably. When your transactions mix with a large volume of other legitimate transactions, they’re less likely to stand out and get flagged.
Another important factor is the decline fee. This is a commission the processor charges to help filter out high-risk transactions. But if you use AnyBill, you may not even have to worry about decline fees at all.
When you team up with other experienced professionals, you have more leverage to negotiate better terms with affiliate programs and service providers. You can often get lower commissions or other beneficial arrangements by working as a group.
That’s why it’salso important to choose virtual card issuing services that are designed to support teamwork and collaboration. AnyBill, offers features that make it easy to work with a team. You can invite other team members, assign them specific roles and permissions, track detailed performance stats, and issue pre-made card templates for your colleagues to use. This streamlines the workflow and makes it easier to manage campaigns collectively.
AnyBill offers Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay card options for affiliates. And based on our own internal data, we've found that UnionPay cards tend to work well with Facebook, Mastercard is good for Google, and Visa is preferred for TikTok and OnlyFans.
Choosing the right payment method doesn't have to be complicated. Just focus on a few key factors:
Use your own card: This seems straightforward, but there's a catch. Not everyone has credit cards from USA, UK or EU banks, and many advertising platforms require these. If you're aiming to make big profits as an affiliate, using your own card might not be the best choice because it can limit your options and potential earnings.
Use a virtual card issuing service: This is the go-to method for most affiliates. These services allow you or your team to get a bunch of virtual cards, which you can use to pay for your advertising expenses. This approach helps you achieve a good return on investment (ROI) and make money, even if there are some restrictions in place.
There are plenty of virtual card services out there, and finding the right one for your needs can be a bit challenging.
For instance, some services don’t charge any fees if your card gets declined often. At first glance, this might seem like a great deal, but it has its downsides. If you overuse these cards, they can get blocked quickly. When this happens a lot, it can hurt the reputation of the bank that issued the cards. As a result, advertising platforms might start refusing to accept cards from that bank, making it harder for legitimate affiliates to operate smoothly.
Why use payment services?
Affiliates often find that having a bunch of different payment cards is super important for their business. Here's why:Imagine you're running ads on Facebook. Sometimes, Facebook might block a transaction if it looks suspicious, like if multiple accounts are all using the same payment card. To avoid this hassle, it's smart for affiliates to use separate cards for each ad account, or even multiple cards for a single account.
Using a virtual card issuing service can help affiliates in several ways:
- Scaling up your campaigns: If you want to make the most money, you need to maximize every profitable campaign. But if you’re running a bunch of campaigns with the same settings all on one card, you might get flagged for fraud and blocked. Using different cards for the same campaigns can really cut down on this risk.
- Making your work easier: These virtual card services let you quickly transfer funds between your various cards without having to constantly switch between different browser tabs or windows. This makes it super easy to increase your spending on a successful campaign or immediately stop transactions on a blocked account.
- Working across multiple platforms: To take advantage of seasonal offers, it's smart to use several advertising platforms at the same time. Creating a bunch of virtual cards and assigning a budget to each one for a specific advertising platform or campaign makes managing all those different platforms much more manageable.
How to choose a virtual card issuing service
When you're looking for a virtual card issuing service, there are some key things that experienced affiliates and media buyers pay close attention to. If you keep these things in mind, you'll have a better chance of finding the perfect solution for any affiliate marketing task you're working on:- Fees for issuing cards, managing them, and adding money
- Requirements for verifying your identity
- 3D Secure technology
- The card numbers (BINs) they use
- Features for working with a team
Fees
Every payment service has its own set of fees for things like creating cards, managing card info, and adding money to the cards. The more an affiliate has to pay in fees, the less profit they make from a campaign. That’s why experienced affiliates pay close attention to these fee details.Card creation and management: Most payment services let you create virtual cards for free, but then charge a monthly fee to maintain each card. This fee is usually between $5 to $10 per card. However, some services might charge you a few dollars upfront for each card and then cover the maintenance costs. This might sound convenient, but it’s usually not the best deal.
Why? Because as an affiliate, you’ll likely need to create lots of cards, and these cards can get blocked or declined easily, especially if you're running multiple ad campaigns. Paying upfront for each card can add up quickly. It’s generally better to go for a service that issues cards for free and charges a manageable monthly fee for maintaining the cards, like AnyBill. This way, you can create as many cards as you need without worrying about high upfront costs
Commissions: Payment services make their money through commissions, so it’s important to understand all the different types of commissions they might charge. Sometimes, a payment service might advertise low rates, but they could also be taking a cut from the bank they partner with. This isn’t always transparent and can make the service more expensive than it appears. Always ask for a detailed breakdown of all potential commissions, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.
Another important fee to consider is the cost of adding funds to your card. This can be a significant expense when you're working with a payment card service. For example, AnyBill’s rates for adding funds to your card start from 3%. However, this percentage decreases as your spending increases, which can be beneficial if you’re running large campaigns and need to add funds frequently. Make sure to check if the service offers any discounts or lower fees based on your spending volume.
Funding methods: One of the main reasons to use a payment system is to access services that might not be available in your country. For example, the SWIFT system, which is commonly used for international bank transfers, might not work in some countries. In such cases, it’s important to have alternative methods for adding funds like using USDT or other cryptocurrencies. These alternatives can be very convenient, allowing you to easily add funds to your card and pay for services, advertising platforms, and other tools, no matter where you are in the world.
Requirements for verifying your identity
Many virtual card payment services require you to go through a verification process known as KYC, which stands for "Know Your Customer." This process helps the service comply with banking regulations. Typically, it involves handing over personal information like your address, ID documents, and tax details.However, sharing this kind of personal information can sometimes lead to unwanted attention, which experienced affiliates prefer to avoid. They often look for services that don’t require any verification at all. AnyBill allows you to get started without needing to go through a lengthy verification process. This can save you a lot of time and hassle, letting you focus on running your campaigns.
3D Secure technology
Having cards with 3D Secure (also called 3DS) is very important because many advertising platforms prefer cards with this security feature. 3D Secure is a security protocol that helps ensure payments go through smoothly and reduces the risk of chargebacks and refunds. It adds an extra layer of protection by requiring an additional authentication step during the transaction.The downside is that completing transactions with 3DS cards can sometimes be a bit of a hassle. Often, you need to contact customer support to get a special code to finalize the purchase. This can slow down your processes and make things more complicated than they need to be.
That’s why it’s a big advantage if the payment service can automatically send you the 3DS confirmation code without you having to do anything extra. AnyBill automatically emails you the code or send it through a messaging app like Telegram. This means you don’t have to worry about tracking down the code yourself, making the whole process much smoother and more efficient.
The card numbers (BINs) they use
The more unique bank identification numbers (BINs) a payment service has access to, the better it is for you. BINs are the first six digits of a card number and they identify the issuing bank and card type. Common BINs are more likely to get banned by advertising platforms like Facebook. If your card numbers are too similar to ones that have caused problems before, your transactions might get flagged. This can be frustrating and can force you to pause your campaigns unexpectedly.Having a wide variety of different BINs gives you backup options. If one set of cards stops working, you can easily switch to a different set instead. This flexibility can save you a lot of time and money trying to troubleshoot issues.
It’s also a good idea to check which specific banks the BINs are linked to. You can do this easily using an online BIN checker tool. The more diverse the banking partners, the better. Diversity in banking partners means your transactions are less likely to be red flagged at once because they come from a variety of sources.
Also, the bigger the payment processor company is, and the more clients they have, the more your transactions can blend in with all the others. This can help the cards you use seem more legitimate and get accepted more reliably. When your transactions mix with a large volume of other legitimate transactions, they’re less likely to stand out and get flagged.
Another important factor is the decline fee. This is a commission the processor charges to help filter out high-risk transactions. But if you use AnyBill, you may not even have to worry about decline fees at all.
Features for working with a team
These days, it’s getting harder and harder for individual affiliate marketers to run successful solo campaigns on their own. That’s why a lot of affiliates have started joining forces and working together in teams.When you team up with other experienced professionals, you have more leverage to negotiate better terms with affiliate programs and service providers. You can often get lower commissions or other beneficial arrangements by working as a group.
That’s why it’salso important to choose virtual card issuing services that are designed to support teamwork and collaboration. AnyBill, offers features that make it easy to work with a team. You can invite other team members, assign them specific roles and permissions, track detailed performance stats, and issue pre-made card templates for your colleagues to use. This streamlines the workflow and makes it easier to manage campaigns collectively.
Conclusion
Before you choose any virtual card issuing service to partner up with, it's a good idea to ask the service's support team which specific ad networks their clients have had the best success with. This can help you determine which payment method will work best for your particular needs.AnyBill offers Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay card options for affiliates. And based on our own internal data, we've found that UnionPay cards tend to work well with Facebook, Mastercard is good for Google, and Visa is preferred for TikTok and OnlyFans.
Choosing the right payment method doesn't have to be complicated. Just focus on a few key factors:
- Commissions and fees for issuing and maintaining the cards
- How well the service supports teamwork and collaboration
- Access to reliable bank identification numbers (BINs) and 3D Secure technology
