The Business of Display Part 8: Credit Card Affiliate Offers

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Introduction

According to the Federal Reserve Consumer Credit Card Report, American consumers approached one trillion in credit card debt in mid-2016.

The average American has between 2 and 3 credit cards. Many have 4+ credit cards.

The credit card companies know this. They are in constant competition to one-up each other and offer consumers the “best” credit card, and Display advertising is one of the many channels they use to get their message out.

So guess what? Affiliates also are on the credit card case.

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How It Works: Step 1

An advertiser sends traffic to either an “affiliate review”

page or a page that reviews a

specific credit card.

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How It Works: Step 2

All links are tagged with an affiliate code.

(However, affiliates do not place the cards in random order. Some cards offer larger

commissions. Affiliates give these cards “star treatment” by featuring them higher up on the page. This is completely legal as long as they

disclose it.)

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How It Works: Step 3

The prospect clicks through to the affiliate link and signs up for the credit card. The credit card company pays the

affiliate if the prospect is approved.

How much is the commission?

Depends on the card. Most “good” cards will offer a commission of between $100-$150+

per approved customer.

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The Hard Part: Keepin’ it Legal

The finance industry is ripe with scammers and shysters. Some of the most popular cards will require advertisers to jump through hoops before approving them as an affiliate.

In addition, your landing pages, ads, and copy must be compliant with the FTC and each specific ad network’s terms and conditions. T

his is harder than it sounds, since the FTC and most networks are stricter when it comes to financial products.

Advertisers #1:CreditCards.com

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CreditCards.com - Ad Spend & Ad Networks

CreditCards.com has spent an estimated $2,535,936 over the past 6 months. The majority of their ad spend has been allocated to the Google Display Network and Yahoo! Gemini.

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CreditCards.com - Publishers

CreditCards.com chooses very general publishers with large amounts of traffic.

Credit card offers can work with pretty much any audience since we all have and use them.

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CreditCards.com - Ad Creatives

CreditCards.com spends the most on standard banner ads, particularly on ads related to balance transfer cards and 0% APR cards.

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CreditCards.com - Landing Pages

CreditCards.com uses affiliate review style pages targeted towards different types of credit cards.

For example, here is their cash back card landing page:

Advertisers #2:CompareCards.com

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CompareCards.com - Ad Spend & Ad Networks

Compare Cards has spent an estimated $1,158,912 over the past 6 months. Compare Cards allocates almost all of their entire display budget across four different Native ad networks.

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CompareCards.com - Publishers

Since the main ad network they’re spending with is Yahoo! Gemini, most of Compare Cards’ ad spending is allocated to Yahoo.com and other sites that serve ads from Yahoo! Gemini, including Photobucket.com and Myspace.com.

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CompareCards.com - Ad Creatives

● Compare Cards packs all of the bells and whistles that come with each credit card into their ad copy.

● They also run a few “targeted” ads towards seniors. The only real difference is that they put “Seniors” in the headline.

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CreditCards.com - Landing Pages

Compare Cards runs affiliate review style landing pages for each type of card they advertise.

They also have a general page that shows the current best credit card offers (September is the example here):

Advertiser #3:NerdWallet.com

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NerdWallet.com - Ad Spend & Ad Networks

NerdWallet has spent an estimated $272,448 over the past six months. Most of their ad spend has been allocated to Taboola (native).

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NerdWallet.com - Publishers

All of NerdWallet’s ad spend is spread out over very general publishers.

You’ll also notice that they recently started buying inventory on CNN.com through one of the growing Native networks, dianomi.

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NerdWallet.com - Ad Creatives

● NerdWallet uses a mix of ad creatives that contain photos of credit cards or ad creatives with photos of women holding credit cards.

● Their most seen ad creatives all focus on no interest/balance transfer credit cards.

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NerdWallet.com - Landing Pages

● NerdWallet is one of the few credit card affiliates that does not rely on the affiliate review style page.

● NerdWallet uses advertorial style blog posts that contain a list of the different types of credit cards and offers.

Overview of the Strategy

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Summary: Ad Networks

Credit card affiliates tend to mainly use Native ad networks and the Google Display Network.

I would start first on Native (Taboola and Outbrain)

Then test out some creatives on Google Display.

You might find it easier to get your creatives and landing pages approved on Native.

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Summary: Publishers

Most of the advertisers choose contextually targeted articles and sites.

Show your ads on pages related to personal finance and debt.

Also test pages and sections on larger publishers like Business Insider and Yahoo! Finance.

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Summary: Ad Creatives

● Most of the ad creatives you’ll see advertisers using include either someone (usually an attractive woman) holding a credit card:

● Or stock photos of physical credit cards:

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Summary: Landing Pages

Advertisers use primarily these two types of landing pages:

#1: Affiliate Review #2: Advertorial

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