Marketing Agencies Greatly Benefit from Enhanced Payment Processing
Emergent trends in online marketing have created unique payment processing challenges for marketing firms. The ideal merchant account provider for your marketing agency will facilitate billing across multiple clients and account types, provide sales analytics to help you optimize your resources, and offer tools like accounting integration and online invoicing. There are also providers you should avoid—namely, any provider that is known to push long-term contracts, expensive equipment leases, or deceptive price quotes.
To help you in your search, we’ve put together the following list of the best merchant accounts for marketing agencies. The companies on this list offer business management tools, online invoicing, client management integration, accounting integration, virtual terminals, and other features that make it easier for you to run your marketing business. More importantly, though, they are also known to provide low-commitment contracts with transparent pricing and quality customer service. To find the right provider for your ad agency, be sure to research each processor’s products and features and compare pricing and terms.
Top Picks for Merchant Services for Marketing Firms
Host Merchant Services
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Fast approval for most industries
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No contract or cancellation fees
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Highly rated customer support
Host Merchant Services is a Newark, Delaware-based merchant account provider that is well-suited for marketing firms and ad agencies. The company’s products and services include online marketing tools, mobile credit card processing, an online payment gateway and virtual terminal, custom third-party integrations, recurring billing, and merchant cash advance. Host also specializes in e-commerce businesses and provides a free website and business-class email to interested merchants. Host is an ideal option for marketing companies that would like to build a strong web presence at a reasonable cost.
Host Merchant Services has received only positive feedback on public forums, with most reviewers singling out the company’s customer service for praise. Host offers interchange-plus pricing with no early termination fees to all of its merchants, meaning that users will enjoy the most transparent pricing model and can cancel service without penalty. The Better Business Bureau gives Host an “A+” rating, and CPO also gives the company an “A+.”
For more information, visit the Host Merchant Services website or call (888) 727-4538.
PaymentCloud
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Fast approval for numerous "high-risk" industries
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Broad product and service offering
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Highly praised customer support
Based in Woodland Hills, California, PaymentCloud is a merchant account provider that specializes in serving standard to high-risk business types. The company’s products and services include point-of-sale solutions, mobile phone swipers, an online payment gateway and virtual terminal, EMV-compatible terminals, and merchant cash advances. These features allow merchants to accept payments on-site using their phones as well as through online billing. For those reasons, PaymentCloud is a good option for marketing firms as it allows them to process one time payments for a single project or set up recurring billing for monthly services from SEO analytics to executing each stage of an advertisement campaign.
PaymentCloud provides a dedicated account rep to all new merchants for the life of the account. The company has not received any negative complaints on consumer forums, and it customizes its pricing according to each merchant’s business type and processing history. The BBB does not maintain a profile for PaymentCloud at this time, but CPO gives the company an “A.”
For more information, visit the PaymentCloud website or call (888) 506-7859.
CDG Commerce
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Specialized services for most industries
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Simple and transparent rates
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350+ technology integrations, including Quickbooks
Located in Chesapeake, Virginia, CDG Commerce is another reliable option for marketing agencies of all sizes and types. CDG has been privately owned since 1998 and offers a proprietary online payment gateway (as well as a discount on Authorize.Net’s payment gateway), recurring billing, a virtual terminal, QuickBooks integration, mobile phone processing, sales reporting, security breach protection, and vulnerability scanning. CDG Commerce is ideal for marketing firms that require a simple, low-cost, fully integrated processing solution across all payment channels.
CDG Commerce only charges a low, fixed fee per transaction and offers competitive contractual terms, including no annual fees, monthly minimums, or termination fees. CDG also offers next day funding to most business types. CDG has earned an “A+” rating in our review as well as an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau.
For more information, see the CDG Commerce website or call (888) 393-1079.
Additional Options
National Processing
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Top-rated choice for businesses that want Clover POS
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Fast approval and next day deposits
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Quick equipment deliver and 24/7 support
National Processing offers several small business processing options and can assist marketing firms with identifying the right POS system or virtual terminal for their needs. The company offers two pricing options: one an interchange-plus program or a “zero-fee” program, both of which offer competitively priced rates.
National Processing has a clean reputation with just one complaint filed in the last three years, which is not concerning in nature. Our independent review finds National Processing to be a solid option for most marketing businesses.
For more information, see the National Processing website or call (385) 777-1235.
Shopify
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Top rated all-in-one e-commerce platform
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Serves almost any need from small to enterprise
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Numerous plug-ins for almost any business need
Shopify is primarily known as an e-commerce platform for online merchants, but the company also offers a point-of-sale software solution for iPad and iPhone. The Shopify POS app can accept cards via a headphone jack card swiper, or a $129 EMV reader and includes features like inventory syncing with a web store, emailed receipts, automatic tax calculations, basic email marketing, and in-store refunds. These online payment options and the familiarity of the Shopify brand are great for marketing brands that want to take payments in a flexible manner
The Shopify payment service can also be paired with a Shopify online store, which comes with numerous customization options. Shopify POS is a great fit for marketing firms who would like to accept payments on-site using their phones as well as through online billing. Shopify has an “A+” rating with the BBB, and we give it an “A+” rating as well.
For more information, visit the Shopify website or call (888) 746-7439.
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