Advertising Sales Representative (Ad Sales Representative)

Ad sales rep work is prospecting, pitching, and closing on a recurring cycle. You're identifying businesses that could benefit from advertising on your platform or publication, reaching out cold or following up on inbound interest, building rate proposals based on their audience needs, and turning those into signed insertion orders or agreements. Renewal season runs in parallel with new business — when you're having a good quarter, you're juggling both.

Every day starts with the activity stack: calls to make, emails to follow up, proposals to send, active campaigns to check in on. Rate cards give you a starting point, but clients negotiate — you'll spend time in conversations about value, audience size, CPM, and make-goods when campaigns underperform. Understanding the advertiser's business well enough to translate your inventory into their goals is what separates reps who close from reps who quote and wait.

The quota-driven structure means income varies with performance, and the best reps tend to thrive in environments where that feels motivating rather than stressful. You're building a book of business over time — clients who renew are revenue you don't have to prospect for again, and a healthy book takes pressure off the new-business side of the role.