How to get an Online Ad Sales job?

April 14, 2009 12:24 PM

How do you get job in the Online Ad Sales industry?

My boyfriend is interested in getting into online advertising. He's 32 and has extensive outside sales experience, no degree. We live in Los Angeles. A lot of the postings for online ad sales requires knowledge or previous relationships with advertising agencies. Can you recommend ways for him to build his contacts with advertising agencies? What other paths can he take?

posted by mspisces to Work & Money (1 answer total)

Most large web publishers have Outside Salespeople, Inside Salespeople, and often a Sales Coordinator who is sort of an Administrative Assistant to the Sales department.

Sales Coordinator is the entry-level position. Inside Sales is sometimes entry-level, and sometimes requires Sales Coordinator experience. Outside Sales almost always requires previous experience.

Online advertising is pretty complicated, with its own jargon, units of measurement, ad-serving and reporting technologies, etc. Usually people start Inside, learn how it all works, build up their contacts, and then get promoted into Outside Sales.
posted by prambutan at 5:41 PM on April 14, 2009