Ad sales prospecting tools are worth their weight in gold.

With them, you can connect with the right brands, pinpoint people with buying power and deliver insight-driven pitches. However, the only way to realize these benefits is if the ad sales prospecting tool is backed by high-quality ad sales data.

Unfortunately, this is far from a given, with some tools on the market unable to answer the most pressing questions. How do you know if the tool has the reliable ad sales data you actually need? 

All you need to do is look for the six characteristics of quality ad sales data. 

What’s Ad Sales Data? 

Ad sales data provides sellers with insights into the prospect’s past and current advertising strategies. With these insights, they can build pitches that address the prospect’s business needs and challenges. 

For example, a prospecting tool with high-quality ad sales data could help a seller conduct a competitive analysis or understand the prospect’s use of advertising across formats. Sales intelligence software also provides data on spending shifts, creative campaigns, Master Service Agreements, programmatic partners and key contacts.

Though there are many different types of ad sales data to take into consideration when prospecting and keeping customers happy, quality ad data can be trusted if they have the following traits.

6 Characteristics of Quality Ad Sales Data

• High-quality sources 
• Consistency
• Verified by humans
• Comprehensive 
• Compliant 
• Customizable 

A Level Deeper: Understanding the Making of Good Ad Sales Data

1. High-quality Sources 

Most sales prospecting tools get their data from outside sources. While that may seem fine on the surface, by doing so, they’re sacrificing control, which opens the door to accuracy and timeliness challenges. 

For example, you may struggle to get updated data because the tool is still waiting on its source to provide insights. 

If you’re in a pinch looking to finalize a pitch before a meeting, you could be out of luck. 

This is why the best ad sales data comes from within the vendor’s walls.  

2. Consistent

The best ad sales data is consistent, allowing you to jump around the tool without worrying about accuracy issues. With consistent data, you can examine ad spend distribution from the same period, rank your leads in the most timely fashion and ensure that a competitive analysis actually reflects your current competitive set.   

3. Verified by Humans

Many ad prospecting tools rely on automated scripts and updates to validate their data. While there’s no denying the power of modern technology, that’s not always enough to keep the data fresh. The best ad sales data goes through a verification process that includes a human touch, ensuring that the review process keeps pace with the ad industry. 

At MediaRadar, we have our own internal team to research, compile and verify all of the data that comes into our system. We consistently ensure our data is of the highest quality by combining proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning with an in-house human verification process. 

4. Comprehensive 

The best ad sales data is comprehensive and gives you insight into the prospect’s ad strategy, their challenges and where they have the best opportunity to one-up their competition. 

For example, do you want to know if they’re using programmatic ads? The data should be able to tell you. How about if they’re investing in new ecosystems like OTT and TV Everywhere? Again, the data should give you the answer. 

These data points are your guiding light during pitches, so if the data isn’t comprehensive enough, you may be left in the dark. 

5. Compliance 

Industry standards are changing, meaning quality ad sales data must comply with the laws and regulations that tell you how you can source, handle and store data. Today, that means GDPR and CCPA, but more federal- and state-wide regulations are likely on the way and when they arrive, the data will have to meet these standards. 

6. Customizable  

No two pitches are the same, so the best prospecting tools give you access to data you can customize. With quality ad sales data, you can tailor the insights on a pitch-by-pitch basis, ensuring that what you’re presenting is applicable, contextual and timely to your prospects.

How Can You Use Quality Ad Sales Data? 

1. Rank Leads

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could rank your leads and determine the prospects to reach out to first? With good ad sales data, you can uncover brands that purchase ads programmatically, which DSPs, SSPs, exchanges or native platforms they’re using and find new leads by region or product category. 

Said another way, you can pinpoint the opportunities that’ll generate the most tangible impact on your company’s bottom line and dive into those first. 

2. Verify Contacts

Data decay is real, which is why so many companies are spending more to keep it clean. According to a 2020 study from Dun & Bradstreet, 73% of respondents reported that they’ve increased their investment in data quality. 

With the right data software, you can keep your contact data verified and ensure that you’re not wasting your time reaching out to someone who’ll never see your message or respond because they’re not in the market for your product or service. 

3. See Ad Spend Distribution 

The cross-channel nature of ad strategies can make it difficult to determine how a prospect thinks and where the opportunities lie. However, with the right data, this is easy. 

You can see trends, budget allocation, if digital is a large part of their buys or if they’re more focused on TV, print or social. You can then take this information and craft pitches that genuinely resonate.  

4. View Spend by Product 

Is a prospect investing more in the promotion of a particular product? Quality ad sales data lets you see this, helping you understand their priorities and go-to-market (GTM) strategy. 

With this information, you can personalize your pitch and suggest relevant opportunities that speak exactly to what’s on their mind. 

5. Identify an MSA 

An MSA (master service agreement) is an agreement between two parties. If there’s one in place, the door to that prospect is currently closed. As a result, it probably doesn’t make sense to reach out to them right now or for you to dedicate a ton of resources to nurturing them. A prospecting tool with quality data lets you know if an MSA is in place. 

6. Competitive Analysis

You can only gain an advantage over your competition when you have accurate, trustworthy and recent data on them. With the right ad sales data, you can view the entire advertising landscape, see which brands a prospect is working with, where your competitors place ads as well as how you can differentiate your pitch and prove your solution is superior.

“Great companies are built on great stories,” once explained LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman on his Masters of Scale podcast. 

What does that have to do with ad data? Data reveals part of your prospect’s story and those of their competitors. By understanding prospect and competitor stories via data (e.g. spending trends and creative campaigns), ad sales reps will have a clear path to building their pitch. 

Use Ad Sales Data to Get Closer toYour North Star 

Most prospecting tools offer a friendly means of interfacing with brands’ ad spend and media buyer content information. But only the best tools are backed by quality, consistent and accurate data that you can customize on a pitch-by-pitch basis. 

If you can find a tool with this quality of data, you’ll put yourself in the best position to succeed, one-up the competition and close more deals.