Why Virtual Cards Are An Essential Tool for Tracking Online Ads
Buying digital media on behalf of your clients or even for your company creates a huge amount of admin and budgeting issues. A proper spend management solution can change this.
Virtual cards are the ideal alternative to company credit cards. In fact, virtual cards have gained traction over time. In fact, statistics show that the Virtual Cards market is predicted to reach a worth of US$ 1.3 Tn by 2032, with 12.2% projected growth between 2022 and 2032. You can create them when you need them, with a set amount of money, and use them immediately. They’re also much easier to manage.
The challenge with tracking ad campaigns
For the marketing department in an organization handling several accounts online and keeping track of what you are spending on online ads for different platforms can be hectic, and you can quickly lose track.
For advertising agencies handling different clients, projects, and accounts is even more challenging if you’re using a company credit card.
It can result in overspending, hours on the telephone with the bank, inaccurate data – and headaches for your team.
Credit cards may also put your company at risk and are notably inflexible because they easily get blocked when there’s suspicion of fraud.
When this happens, you need to change the card number assigned to each ad account manually, and setting firm budgets for each ad program can be challenging when you use the same card for everything and credit card limits are famously hard to change.
Additionally, using one credit card for each ad account will put you at a higher risk of theft, and the volume of charges on the card makes it harder to spot fraud.
For your finance team, credit cards are a reconciliation nightmare. They mean matching a mountain of invoices and statements and combing through ad platforms to track spending activity.
Agencies and organizations can lose days every month to this and still not know what they’re spending or where. It’s bad for business and bad for morale. All this time spent on admin chores only distracts staff from more fulfilling, valuable work.
Another factor that comes into play while using a credit card abroad is extra charges, and multi-currency payments are tricky to manage.
But no matter how big your team is, how many clients you’ve got, and how many campaigns you’re running at once – managing spend doesn’t have to hold you back.
Switching to virtual cards
Virtual cards and a digital platform simplify paying for ads on different channels.
From search engines to social media networks, paying and tracking ads is much more straightforward:
First, setting up the best virtual cards for your business is relatively easy. For example, with the Boya Virtual Cards, it only takes three easy steps to get set.
By using virtual cards, you can reduce the number of emails between finance and teams about receipts, reports, and requests, as all these things are integrated into one platform.
Virtual payment cards also get comprehensive, accurate spending data from marketing channels without having to match statements.
The cards also allow you to attribute different cards to campaigns, so you always know how much you’ve spent on a particular campaign.
This approach works better for your people, business, and clients.
How to use virtual cards
Imagine you are in a company’s marketing department or, better, running a digital marketing agency, and you are tasked with running ads on Facebook and Google Ads for a client.
You can create two or more online virtual credit cards and define a budget for each. When the cards run out of funds, you can top them up again.
Also Read: End the Incessant Tug of Wars Between the Finance and Operations teams with Boya
For longer campaigns, just set up a monthly or annual budget.
You can also assign the virtual cards to specific people on your team and make each user responsible for managing their card.
With the Boya Platform, your team can manage their virtual cards online, automate reports, and turn campaigns off once they end.
This prevents your company from paying for extra ads or going over budget.
What flexible spend management gives you
Real-time, in-depth tracking: When you don’t know which campaign a transaction relates to, your team has to sort it out manually – and only after the monthly statement.
Company cards connected to an expense management platform end the need to match transactions.
With platforms like Boya, you can create separate cards for each client, for example, if you are a digital agency, campaign, or media type, and see what each transaction relates to in real time.
Spend limits you can control: It’s up to you to set the limits on your virtual cards, unlike credit cards. You can use your clients’ budgets as a guide instead of letting third-party providers decide how much you can spend.
The ability to adjust your limits according to your needs will keep you going. Your team doesn’t get cut off in the middle of a campaign, and you stay in control of the situation.
Easy process, happier team: Repetitive, tedious admin is no help to any business. It cuts into necessary work time and can lead to inaccurate data.
On the other hand, smart company cards help speed up the expense process (you can invoice clients faster) and also help keep spending organized automatically, ultimately helping improve employee satisfaction.