---
title: "Advertising Sales Agent"
description: "Sell or solicit advertising space, time, or media in publications, signage, TV, radio, or Internet establishments or public spaces."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-sales-agent"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Advertising Sales Agent

**Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-3011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-3011.00

Sell or solicit advertising space, time, or media in publications, signage, TV, radio, or Internet establishments or public spaces.

Also advertised as: Advertising Account Executive; Advertising Account Representative; Advertising Consultant; Advertising Representative; Advertising Sales Representative (Ad Sales Representative); Directory Advertising Sales Representative (Directory Advertising Sales Rep); Display Advertising Sales Representative (Display Advertising Sales Rep); Media Consultant.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,820 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $31.16/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,240 to $146,010, with the middle half between $47,020 and $99,990
- **Total US employment:** 91,700
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -7.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 7,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 30/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 91,700 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,240 |
| 25th | $47,020 |
| 50th (median) | $64,820 |
| 75th | $99,990 |
| 90th | $146,010 |
| Mean (average) | $80,670 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $101,320 | $94,680 | 3,510 |
| NY | $98,360 | $91,141 | 13,570 |
| MA | $80,500 | $76,118 | 1,480 |
| CA | $80,360 | $72,579 | 9,620 |
| DC | $75,030 | $68,271 | 320 |
| UT | $74,260 | $75,113 | 1,110 |
| CO | $73,420 | $71,246 | 1,110 |
| NJ | $69,620 | $63,986 | 2,110 |
| SC | $68,200 | $72,747 | 1,770 |
| IL | $66,290 | $66,318 | 3,790 |
| MI | $64,800 | $67,348 | 2,040 |
| WI | $63,270 | $67,241 | 1,290 |
| NE | $62,890 | $69,798 | 1,190 |
| OR | $62,810 | $60,768 | 960 |
| MN | $62,660 | $63,536 | 1,750 |

34 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 49 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-sales-agent/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/advertising-sales-agent.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 99,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 92,200 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 7,100 jobs, or -7.2%. Declining: -7.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Explain to customers how specific types of advertising will help promote their products or services in the most effective way possible.
- Prepare and deliver sales presentations to new and existing customers to sell new advertising programs and to protect and increase existing advertising.
- Obtain and study information about clients' products, needs, problems, advertising history, and business practices to offer effective sales presentations and appropriate product assistance.
- Provide clients with estimates of the costs of advertising products or services.
- Prepare promotional plans, sales literature, media kits, and sales contracts, using computer.
- Process all correspondence and paperwork related to accounts.
- Attend sales meetings, industry trade shows, and training seminars to gather information, promote products, expand network of contacts, and increase knowledge.
- Maintain assigned account bases while developing new accounts.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Persuasion — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Communications and Media — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.65 |
| C — Conventional | 4.34 |
| A — Artistic | 3.64 |
| S — Social | 2.96 |
| I — Investigative | 1.52 |
| R — Realistic | 1.18 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ENFJ | 72.6 |
| ESFJ | 71.2 |
| ENTJ | 69.3 |
| ESTJ | 66.4 |
| ESFP | 61.2 |

Best-fitting types: ENFJ, ESFJ, ENTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Advertising and Promotions Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advertising-and-promotions-manager) — median $133,660
- [Marketing Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/marketing-manager) — median $166,790
- [Market Research Analyst and Marketing Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/market-research-analyst-and-marketing-specialist) — median $78,760
- [Search Marketing Strategist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/search-marketing-strategist) — median $78,760
- [Telemarketer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telemarketer) — median $35,450
- [Public Relations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/public-relations-specialist) — median $74,750
- [Sales Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-manager) — median $148,270
- [Sales Representative, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-representative-wholesale-and-manufacturing) — median $72,080
- [Real Estate Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-agent) — median $52,830
- [Sales Representative, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Product](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-representative-wholesale-and-manufacturing-technical-and-scientific-product) — median $104,920

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/advertising-sales-agent