Get to Know Ad Sales Management

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Define the key roles in media advertising.
• Describe the needs and challenges for publishers.

The Media Advertising Sales Landscape

Did you skip an ad while watching a YouTube video today? Did you take a minute to think about switching to a low-calorie soy ice cream based on the poster at your grocery shop? It’s almost impossible to get through the day without seeing some advertising.

Of course, today, we don’t wait for a newspaper to check the ad section or glue our ears to the radio to listen for sales. Even though the concept of advertising a product to customers to generate sales remains the same, the ways to do it have changed. You can attribute the revolution in the advertising space to the massive shift in the media industry, consumer behavior, and the many new ways to reach customers.

The success of any advertising campaign depends on several groups working together for a common goal. Let's see who these groups are.

Group	Role Description
Publishers	Publishers own the channel of communications that carry messages from advertisers to the target audience. Examples include Sony, Comcast, The New York Times, Grocery Chains, and billboards.
Advertisers	Advertisers promote products and services. They need to consider the placement and type of ad, such as digital, linear, print, or out-of-home, and the availability and price of the ad.
Agencies	Ad agencies create the ads, plan their delivery, and hand them over to clients. Agencies can be either in-house or external to the company purchasing the ad. Agencies can act as conduits between publishers and advertisers, facilitating the creation and execution of ads.
Third-Party Vendors	Third-party vendors help advertisers, agencies, and publishers to reach their target audience. Their services include data, attribution, validation, measurement, ad serving, and technology.

These groups work together to create successful ad campaigns. Everyone has their role cut out for them, and deviations from the role can cause trouble. Nobody wants an ad campaign that aims at something, misses the mark, and backfires. Therefore, it’s important that each group follows a process that yields good results.

The Challenges

Advertising in the media industry has several, complex challenges. The complete process flow, from product introduction to product consumption, is complicated and involves many people and groups with distinct responsibilities. Here are the main challenges.

• It's difficult for publishers to find the right customers for each brand given all the different channels and networks.
• Manual processes and non-streamlined methods introduce errors and false information during crucial decision-making processes.
• Inefficient manual tasks across siloed departments are error-prone, which can delay the launch of ad campaigns and products. The lack of automation tools makes it hard for teams to do their work efficiently.
• Companies must coordinate with numerous third-party technology providers and support various industry standards.

Consequently, advertising solutions may be ineffective and complex projects are prone to failure. These challenges increase the publisher’s total cost of ownership and eat into the bottom line.

But the situation isn’t as hopeless as it may seem. A configurable, process-driven application that solves common industry problems can make all the difference. What does this all mean? The advertising industry is ready for digital transformation.

The Solution

Meet Media Cloud Advertising Sales Management (ASM), which provides several capabilities.

• Reduces manual, back-office processes so employees can focus on providing personalized experiences for every type of customer.
• Lets you build custom apps on the Salesforce Platform to improve consumer experiences and manage ad campaigns in one place, instead of jumping from one system to another.
• Engages consumers on any channel, in real time.
• Increases advertising sales revenue by reducing routine administrative tasks and facilitating team collaboration.
• Minimizes manual errors and order fallout.

Let’s move on to the next unit to learn more about ad sales and media planning.