Ad sales commission calculator
Work out what each of your advertising sales reps has earned. Enter the revenue each rep booked, choose a flat, tiered or new vs renewal plan, add a quota and accelerator if you use one, and decide whether agency commission comes off first and whether you pay on booking or once the advertiser has paid. Print the result, save it as a PDF or download a CSV file. No sign-up.
Common commission structures in publisher ad sales
There is no standard plan. The rates in the calculator are an example; set your own. What publishers choose between is the shape of the plan.
Flat rate. One percentage on everything a rep sells. It is easy to explain and easy to check, but it pays the same for the first sale of the year as for the one that beats target.
Tiered rates. Revenue is split into bands and each band earns its own rate, so a rep earns more on the revenue above each threshold. Be clear whether the higher rate applies only to the revenue in that band, as here, or back to the first sale. The second version creates a jump at each threshold that reps may time their bookings around.
New vs renewal. Winning a new advertiser often takes more work than renewing a contract that already runs, so some plans pay a higher rate on new business. Agree in writing what counts as new: a first-time advertiser, a lapsed one, or a new product sold to an existing customer.
Quota and accelerator. A quota is the revenue a rep is expected to bring in for the period. An accelerator multiplies the commission on revenue above it, which rewards the extra sales without raising the cost of the expected ones. It can sit on top of any of the plans above.
Net or gross revenue: agency commission
When a media agency books an ad, it keeps a share of the gross rate as its agency commission and pays you the rest. If reps earn commission on the gross figure, the publisher pays commission on money it never receives. Some plans therefore work from net revenue after agency commission. Switch the agency toggle on to see the difference for each rep.
Paying on booking or on collection
Paying commission when the order is booked rewards reps quickly, but you pay out before you know the advertiser will pay. Paying when the invoice is paid ties commission to cash in the bank and gives reps a reason to help with late payers; the cost is that they wait longer. Some publishers split the two, paying part on booking and the rest on payment.
Where commission spreadsheets break
A spreadsheet works while every booking runs as sold. Real months are messier. An insertion is cancelled after the commission was paid, and someone has to remember to claw it back. A credit note reduces an invoice, so commission paid on the original amount is now too high. A contract is moved to another issue and lands in the next period. Each of these means checking the booking, the invoice and the payment by hand, and the commission sheet is easily the last place to be updated. Keep the plan in writing, close each period on a fixed date, and adjust for credits and cancellations in the next run rather than editing a closed one.
The bookings and invoices a commission plan starts from live in RunMags advertising sales: contracts, order rows per channel and advertiser invoicing in one system.
Setting prices before you set targets? Use the free magazine ad rate card calculator.
