How To Become An Advertising Sales Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is an advertising sales director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an advertising sales director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $36.78 an hour? That's $76,505 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 33,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAdvertising Sales DirectorUS Average

Salary

6.0

Avg. Salary $76,505

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.40%

Asian 7.64%

Black or African American 3.45%

Hispanic or Latino 12.21%

Unknown 4.72%

White 71.58%

Gender

female 42.68%

male 57.32%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an advertising sales director

Explore advertising sales director education requirements

Most common advertising sales director degrees

Bachelor's

86.9 %

Master's

5.3 %

Associate

5.1 %

Start to develop specific advertising sales director skills

Skills	Percentages
Media Sales	32.16%
Revenue Growth	9.61%
Client Relationships	6.12%
Sales Management	5.26%
Account Management	4.40%

Complete relevant advertising sales director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New advertising sales directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an advertising sales director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real advertising sales director resumes.

Research advertising sales director duties and responsibilities

Achieve continuous profitability improvements through cost reduction programs successful OEM contract negotiations and outsourcing installation program.
Collaborate on social media and operations project to expand CRM platform for demand awareness, lead scoring automation and forecast accuracy.
Develop new accounts while maintaining and upselling existing accounts.

Get advertising sales director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become an advertising sales director. The most common roles before becoming an advertising sales director include account executive, sales manager team lead and advertising sales manager.

Prepare your advertising sales director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your advertising sales director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an advertising sales director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable advertising sales director resume templates

Build a professional advertising sales director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your advertising sales director resume.