What They Do: Advertising sales agents sell advertising space to businesses and individuals.
Work Environment: Advertising sales agents work under pressure to meet sales quotas. They work in a range of industries, including advertising agencies, radio, television, and Internet publishing.
How to Become One: Although a high school diploma is typically enough for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants who have a bachelor's degree. Sales and communication skills are essential.
Salary: The median annual wage for advertising sales agents is $52,340.
Job Outlook: Employment of advertising sales agents is projected to decline 8 percent over the next ten years.
Related Careers: Compare the job duties, education, job growth, and pay of advertising sales agents with similar occupations.
Advertising sales agents, also called advertising sales representatives, sell advertising space to businesses and individuals. They contact potential clients, make sales presentations, and maintain client accounts.
Advertising sales agents typically do the following:
Advertising sales agents work outside the office occasionally, meeting with clients and prospective clients at their places of business. Some may make telephone sales calls as well—calling prospects, attempting to sell the media firm's advertising space or time, and arranging followup appointments with interested prospects.
A critical part of building relationships with clients is learning about their needs. Before the first meeting with a client, a sales agent gathers background information on the client's products, current clients, prospective clients, and the geographic area of the target market.
The sales agent then meets with the client to explain how specific types of advertising will help promote the client's products or services most effectively. If a client wishes to proceed, the advertising sales agent prepares and presents an advertising proposal to the client. The proposal may include an overview of the advertising medium to be used, sample advertisements, and cost estimates for the project.
Because of consolidation among media industries, agents are increasingly selling several types of ads in one package. For example, agents may sell ads that would be found in print editions, as well as online editions, of a particular publication, such as a newspaper.
In addition to maintaining sales and overseeing their accounts, advertising sales agents analyze sales statistics and prepare reports about clients' accounts. They keep up to date on industry trends by reading about both current and new products, and they monitor the sales, prices, and products of their competitors.
In many firms, the advertising sales agent drafts contracts, which specify the cost and the advertising work to be done. Agents also may continue to help the client, answering questions or addressing problems the client may have with the proposal.
In addition, sales agents may be responsible for developing sales tools, promotional plans, and media kits, all of which they use to help make a sale. In other cases, firms may have a marketing team that sales agents work with to develop these sales tools.
Advertising sales agents hold about 100,700 jobs. The largest employers of advertising sales agents are as follows:
| Advertising, public relations, and related services | 35% |
| Newspaper publishers | 13% |
| Radio broadcasting | 11% |
| Television broadcasting | 9% |
| Self-employed workers | 2% |
Selling can be stressful because income and job security depend directly on agents' ability to keep and expand their client base. Companies generally set monthly sales quotas and place considerable pressure on advertising sales agents to meet those quotas.
Getting new accounts is an important part of the job, and agents may spend much of their time traveling to and visiting prospective advertisers and maintaining relationships with current clients. Sales agents also may work in their employer's offices and handle sales for walk-in clients or for those who call or email the firm to ask about advertising.
Most advertising sales agents work full time. Some advertising sales agents work more than 40 hours a week. Some work irregular hours and on weekends and holidays.
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Although a high school diploma is typically enough education for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants with a bachelor's degree. Sales and communication skills are essential. Most training for advertising sales agents takes place on the job.
Although a high school diploma is typically the minimum education requirement for an entry-level advertising sales position, some employers prefer applicants with a college degree. Publishing companies with large circulations and broadcasting stations with a large audience typically prefer workers with a college degree. Courses in marketing, communications, business, and advertising are helpful. For those who have a proven record of successfully selling other products, educational requirements are not likely to be strict.
Most training takes place on the job and can be either formal or informal. In the majority of cases, an experienced sales manager instructs a newly hired advertising sales agent who lacks sales experience. In this one-on-one environment, supervisors typically coach new hires and observe them as they make sales calls and contact clients. Supervisors then advise the new hires on ways to improve their interaction with clients. Employers may bring in consultants to lead formal training sessions when agents sell to a specialized market segment, such as automotive dealers or real estate professionals.
Agents with proven leadership ability and a strong sales record may advance to supervisory and managerial positions, such as sales manager, account executive, and vice president of sales. Successful advertising sales agents may also advance to positions in other industries, such as corporate sales.
Communication skills. Advertising sales agents must be persuasive during sales calls. In addition, they should listen to the client's desires and concerns, and recommend an appropriate advertising package.
Initiative. Advertising sales agents must actively seek new clients, keep in touch with current clients, and expand their client base, in order to meet sales quotas.
Organizational skills. Agents work with many clients, each of whom may be at a different stage in the sales process. Agents must be well organized to keep track of their clients and potential clients.
Self-confidence. Advertising sales agents should be confident when calling potential clients (making cold calls). Because potential clients are often unwilling to commit on a first call, agents frequently must continue making sales calls, even if rejected at first.
The median annual wage for advertising sales agents is $52,340. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $28,700, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $125,370.
The median annual wages for advertising sales agents in the top industries in which they work are as follows:
| Advertising, public relations, and related services | $60,770 |
| Television broadcasting | $56,810 |
| Radio broadcasting | $47,410 |
| Newspaper publishers | $37,270 |
Performance-based pay, including bonuses and commissions, can make up a large portion of an advertising sales agent's earnings. Most employers pay some combination of salaries, commissions, and bonuses. Commissions usually are based on individual sales numbers. Bonuses may depend on individual performance, the performance of all sales workers in a group, or the performance of the entire firm.
Most advertising sales agents work full time. Some advertising sales agents work more than 40 hours a week. Some work irregular hours and on weekends and holidays.
Employment of advertising sales agents is projected to decline 8 percent over the next ten years.
Despite declining employment, about 10,900 openings for advertising sales agents are projected each year, on average, over the decade. All of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
Newspapers and magazines are expected to continue to experience circulation declines. With fewer consumers viewing advertisements in print media, fewer advertising sales agents are expected to be needed.
Advertising will continue to grow in digital media, including online video ads, search engine ads, and other digital ads intended for cell phones or tablet-style computers. Although advertising sales agents are still needed in digital media, the ability to automate digital ad placement and the use of ad blockers by digital users will limit employment demand for advertising sales agents along these channels.
| Occupational Title | Employment, 2021 | Projected Employment, 2031 | Change, 2021-31 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percent | Numeric | |||
| Advertising sales agents | 100,700 | 92,700 | -8 | -8,000 |
For information about advertising sales in the newspaper industry, visit
For information about the radio advertising industry, visit
A portion of the information on this page is used by permission of the U.S. Department of Labor.