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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Advertising Sales Specialist

💰 $50,000 - $120,000 (base + commission)

AdvertisingSalesMediaMarketingBusiness Development

🎯 Role Definition

The Advertising Sales Specialist is a revenue-focused seller responsible for generating new business and growing advertising revenue across digital, video, audio, and/or print channels. This role combines consultative sales, media planning, campaign management, and cross-functional coordination with product, ad ops and analytics teams to deliver measurable performance for clients and meet aggressive revenue quotas. The ideal candidate has a proven track record in media or digital advertising sales, is comfortable with ad tech terminology (programmatic, PMP, DSP/SSP, Google Ad Manager), uses CRM and analytics tools to manage pipeline and forecasting, and excels at crafting persuasive media proposals and closing complex deals.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Inside Sales Representative or Sales Development Representative (SDR)
  • Media Sales Coordinator or Account Coordinator
  • Marketing or Business Development Associate

Advancement To:

  • Senior Advertising Sales Specialist or Account Executive
  • Advertising Sales Manager / Sales Lead
  • Director of Advertising Sales or Head of Partnerships

Lateral Moves:

  • Account Management / Client Success
  • Programmatic or Ad Operations Specialist
  • Sponsorships and Partnerships Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Prospect, qualify, and build a robust pipeline of new advertiser leads through cold outreach, warm introductions, networking, inbound lead follow-up, and territory-focused account development to meet and exceed monthly and quarterly sales quotas.
  • Conduct consultative sales conversations to understand advertisers’ business goals, KPIs (e.g., brand lift, CPA, CTR), audience targeting needs, and budget cycles; translate insights into tailored media solutions and measurable campaign recommendations.
  • Create compelling written proposals and detailed media plans that combine direct-sold and programmatic inventory, sponsorships, native units, video pre-rolls and display to maximize advertiser ROI and yield.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, and contract language with advertisers and agency partners while coordinating legal and finance teams to finalize insertion orders, master services agreements, and any required addenda.
  • Manage the full sales cycle from lead generation to close and handoff: track opportunities in CRM, prepare internal briefing notes, confirm creative and trafficking requirements, and schedule kick-off meetings with ad operations.
  • Collaborate closely with Ad Ops and Campaign Management teams to ensure accurate trafficking, creative QA, frequency caps, geo-targeting, viewability benchmarks and on-time delivery of campaigns.
  • Monitor campaign performance in real time using DSPs, ad servers (Google Ad Manager), analytics platforms and internal dashboards; proactively recommend optimizations to improve delivery, pacing, and KPI attainment.
  • Drive upsell and renewal opportunities by analyzing campaign results, presenting ROI and insights in post-campaign recaps, and proposing extended flight dates, audience extensions, or additional sponsorship integrations.
  • Maintain up-to-date forecasts and pipeline hygiene in Salesforce or HubSpot; deliver accurate weekly and monthly revenue forecasts and participate in sales reviews with leadership.
  • Respond to RFPs and collaborate with cross-functional teams to craft competitive responses, customized rate cards, and bundled offerings for agency and direct advertisers.
  • Build and maintain long-term advertiser relationships, serving as the primary point of contact for strategic accounts and ensuring client satisfaction through timely communication, proactive problem-solving, and value-driven recommendations.
  • Execute account-based marketing and prospecting strategies, including tailored outreach, custom creative concepts, sample audience demos, and proof-of-performance case studies to convert high-value targets.
  • Coordinate pre-sale technical assessments and implementability checks with product and engineering teams for advanced targeting, measurement integrations, or custom activation requests.
  • Track market and competitor activity — including price points, packaging, and new ad formats — and feed insights back into product, pricing and sales strategy discussions.
  • Prepare and deliver persuasive sales presentations and product demos to agency teams, brand marketers and executive stakeholders, tailoring messaging to different buyer personas and decision-making committees.
  • Implement and enforce rate cards, inventory allocation and priority rules across direct and programmatic channels to protect yield and deliver promised campaign outcomes.
  • Manage multi-touchpoint campaigns involving native, video, display, social and email sponsorships; coordinate creative deadlines, asset handoffs, and QA checklists to ensure timely launches.
  • Ensure compliance with industry policies and standards (IAB guidelines, COPPA, GDPR/CCPA considerations where applicable) and coordinate with legal for any advertiser-specific clauses.
  • Support pricing strategy by conducting competitive analyses, contributing to promotional package design, and recommending discounting or bundling tactics that preserve margin while closing business.
  • Actively participate in industry events, trade shows, local networking, and agency reviews to generate leads, increase brand visibility and stay current on advertising trends and buyer needs.
  • Maintain detailed post-sale documentation including insertion orders, trafficking instructions, campaign audit trails, billing handoffs and reconciliation notes to support clean invoicing and dispute resolution.
  • Collaborate with analytics and BI teams to design A/B tests, incrementality studies, and measurement frameworks that validate campaign effectiveness and inform future media strategies.

Secondary Functions

  • Support marketing and product teams with voice-of-customer feedback, media product ideas, and insights from advertiser conversations to improve offerings and packaging.
  • Assist in the development of sales enablement assets (one-pagers, rate cards, case studies, pitch decks and demo scripts) and train junior sales staff on product features and media selling points.
  • Participate in strategic planning sessions to identify new verticals, partnership opportunities, or go-to-market initiatives that align with company growth objectives.
  • Prepare ad hoc analyses and executive-level summaries for leadership on market performance, revenue gaps, and opportunity conversion rates.
  • Contribute to cross-functional initiatives to automate reporting, streamline the trafficking handoff, and improve time-to-launch for booked campaigns.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proven experience with CRM platforms such as Salesforce or HubSpot for pipeline management, forecast tracking, and reporting.
  • Hands-on familiarity with ad servers and trafficking tools, especially Google Ad Manager (GAM) / Ad Manager, or similar platforms.
  • Programmatic advertising knowledge: DSP/SSP fundamentals, RTB workflows, private marketplace (PMP) and programmatic guaranteed deals.
  • Experience building media plans and proposals using analytics and audience targeting tools (Google Analytics, Comscore, Nielsen, or equivalent).
  • Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets for revenue modeling, pacing reports, and quota tracking (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP).
  • Competence with presentation software (PowerPoint, Google Slides) and ability to produce clear, executive-ready pitch decks and rate sheets.
  • Familiarity with ad creative formats (HTML5, VAST/VPAID for video, native specs) and the process for creative ingestion/QA.
  • Comfort reading and interpreting campaign performance dashboards and BI tools (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio) and summarizing insights for clients.
  • Basic contractual knowledge: insertion orders (IOs), statements of work (SOWs), and commercial terms used in advertising agreements.
  • Experience responding to RFPs and building custom pricing packages and bundled sponsorship offerings.

Soft Skills

  • Consultative selling and strong commercial instincts; ability to position media as a business solution rather than a commodity.
  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills for client-facing negotiation, internal alignment and executive briefings.
  • Relationship-building skills and emotional intelligence to manage agencies, direct advertisers and cross-functional partners.
  • Persuasive presentation skills and the confidence to present to C-level and marketing decision-makers.
  • Time management, prioritization and organization to balance prospecting, account servicing, and campaign oversight.
  • Analytical mindset with attention to detail for campaign reconciliation, billing accuracy and performance optimization.
  • Resilience and persistence in a quota-driven environment; ability to handle objections and turn no’s into future opportunities.
  • Collaborative team orientation: works effectively with ad ops, product, data and finance to deliver seamless advertiser experiences.
  • Problem-solving orientation: quickly troubleshoot delivery issues, pacing problems or creative rejections with practical solutions.
  • Adaptability to changing product features, market trends and advertiser requirements in a fast-paced media environment.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree preferred in Marketing, Business, Communications, Advertising, Media Studies, or a related field OR equivalent professional experience in media sales.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree plus industry certifications (e.g., IAB, Google Ads certification) or a master’s degree (MBA) for senior or strategic roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Business Administration
  • Communications
  • Advertising / Media Studies
  • Data Analytics (helpful for measurement-focused roles)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of direct advertising or media sales experience (digital, display, video, audio or print).

Preferred: 5+ years of progressive advertising sales experience with a proven history of meeting or exceeding sales quotas, experience working with agencies and direct brands, and familiarity with programmatic and direct-sold ad operations. Experience with enterprise or large-market accounts, negotiated sponsorships, and multi-channel campaigns is a strong plus.

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