What is magazine advertising sales software?

It is software a publisher uses to sell its own advertising directly to advertisers and agencies: advertiser records, proposals from your rate card, signed contracts, issue bookings and invoices. In RunMags, signed bookings flow into production and billing, so orders are not re-keyed. RunMags is not a programmatic ad server.

What is an ad sales CRM?

An ad sales CRM is a CRM for selling advertising. It holds advertiser and agency records, contacts and sales activity, and the proposals and contracts linked to the issues or dates each ad was booked for. In RunMags, a signed contract feeds the flatplan and invoicing, so the booking is not re-keyed.

How is a media sales CRM different from a general CRM?

A general CRM tracks a deal as a contact and an amount. A media sales CRM also records what was sold: the issue or date, the ad product in each channel and the agency involved, so the order reaches production and invoicing. RunMags does this, but does not yet have an inventory availability view or a double-booking guard.

What is ad booking software for magazines?

Ad booking software for magazines records each ad sold: the advertiser, the title and issues it runs in, the ad size and the price. In RunMags the booking is a row on the advertiser’s contract, signed print bookings appear on the flatplan for their issue, and billing invoices the booked issues from the same contract.

Can RunMags schedule one ad across several issues?

Yes. A contract row can be scheduled into several issues of a title, with frequency discounts on the order, and each issue is invoiced with its issue reference. RunMags does not yet hold space with an expiry or block double-booking of a premium position.

Can I manage print, digital and newsletter ad bookings in one place?

Yes. RunMags has product catalogues and bookings for every channel, including print, digital, web, newsletters, events and social, with a print flatplan. Every contract row references the issues or dates it was booked for, and print bookings appear in the flatplan for that issue.

Does RunMags produce insertion orders, contracts and invoices?

Yes. Sales reps build the proposal as a contract from your catalogues, and the signed contract serves as the insertion order. It goes out with a personal link to your advertiser portal, where the advertiser signs online. Billing then invoices the booked issues up to the billing date you choose, and each invoice row keeps its issue reference.

Does RunMags sync advertising invoices to Xero, QuickBooks or Fortnox?

Yes. Customers, advertiser invoices and their credit notes sync to Fortnox, QuickBooks or Xero per legal entity. Subscription invoices are not part of that sync; they stay in RunMags.

How does RunMags compare with Mirabel or Ad Orbit?

RunMags covers the direct ad sales workflow from advertiser record to signed contract, flatplan and invoice, in the same system as subscriptions and billing. Mirabel and Ad Orbit have features RunMags does not have yet, such as an inventory availability view and a double-booking guard, so compare them against how your team sells.

What does RunMags advertising sales software cost?

Plans are priced by the number of legal entities and magazine brands you run, and current monthly prices are shown on the pricing page. You can start a 14-day free trial without a credit card.

Magazine Advertising Sales Software for Publishers

RunMags has full CRM functionality to help you provide the best possible service to clients, present compelling advertising opportunities and close sales. Advertising sales is a core feature in RunMags and once a deal has been closed, data flow into production and billing processes, ensuring that you deliver on your commitments and that you get paid.

CRM is your playbook for winning with advertisers

To beat the competition you need to understand how you can help advertisers reach their goals and consistently deliver on commitments. You use RunMags to manage advertising sales but the road to successful sales is so much more than ad order entry. That very strategic working process is what we call CRM - Customer Relationship Management. See how RunMags works as a publishing CRM for advertisers, subscribers, contracts and billing.

RunMags will help you create and manage account records with company information along with relevant information such as contacts, activities, email, deals, invoices and more.

From advertiser to paid invoice: how ad sales work in RunMags

RunMags covers the direct advertising sales workflow a magazine publisher runs every issue, in one system:

Advertiser record. Each advertiser has one organisation record with its contacts, activities and follow-ups, the emails you have sent, its orders and contracts, and any outstanding invoices.
Proposal from your rate card. Sales reps add products from your catalogues for print, digital, web banners, newsletters, events and social. The catalogue price is copied onto the order row and can be adjusted there. Package bundles, frequency and prepayment discounts and agency commission are handled on the order.
Contract and online signature. The proposal goes out from a central email template with a personal link to your advertiser portal. When the advertiser signs online, the contract is marked as signed and your team is notified. You can also see when the email is opened and its links clicked.
Issue schedule and flatplan placement. Every line item on the signed contract references the issues or dates it was booked for. Print bookings appear in the magazine flatplan for that issue, where each ad shows whether its material has been received and how many artwork reminders have been sent. From there you can send a reminder with an upload link to every advertiser whose artwork is missing.
Invoice and payment. Billing invoices the booked issues up to the billing date you choose, and each invoice row keeps its issue reference. Invoices are sent from RunMags, and finance registers each payment against its invoice under Finance > Collection. Invoices sync to Fortnox, QuickBooks or Xero. Read more about publisher billing and payments in RunMags.

At a glance, sales reps and other users can easily understand how to best service the client. Historical sales is graphically displayed, current deals and recent engagements with client representatives form an understanding on what's most important to grow the account.

Contract management for advertising sales

Your advertising contracts form the foundation for your business. They document the contractual commitments that will feed your business cash for several months and as well as your obligations to deliver a service that will help your clients grow their business.

RunMags sports a very robust contract management module with product catalogues and bookings for every channel, including print, digital, web, events, social and newsletters, and a print flatplan.

You manage your inventory and pricing strategies and sales reps can easily pick the right products with corresponding accurate and up-to-date pricing.

Instant proposal delivery and eSignature to boost conversion

Centrally managed email templates ensure that sales reps present proposals professionally while also allowing them to personalize the message to connect with the client. The content editor can include personalized links for the client to click in order to sign the contract electronically.

Emails are delivered from your business domain, set up to ensure stellar email deliverability and a professional representation of your brand. Every email is tracked, so you can see when clients open it and click its links.

Business support throughout the entire commercial process

When most CRM systems stop supporting the business process at ad order entry and a closed sales order, RunMags gives you the tools to manage the contract through fulfillment, helping you ensure that ads gets placed as promised and that invoices are issued correctly.

All invoices are saved and readily available for future management of customer relations as well as comparative data analysis. Each customer contract agreement contains references not only to the inventory sold, but also to which magazine issues and timing that was included.

Effective coaching of sales reps

As RunMags is role based, sales staff can be assigned access to focus on advertisers and contract management. Team managers can run statistics and monitor performance in terms of quantity and quality of sales activities – to be leveraged for enhancing tactics and coaching sales reps to increase their effectiveness.

Each sales rep is presented with a sales dashboard displaying their results by week, effectively comparing actual results to sales goals set in cooperation with the team manager. The immediate feedback loop allows for effective coaching of talent that just started in their job as well as experienced sales reps.

Outsourced ad sales

With RunMags you can easily outsource your entire advertising sales operation. Simply assign roles to external sales reps and direct them to use the limited access they get in your RunMags installation. They only get access to the information you want them to have access to.

Who RunMags advertising sales software is for

Magazine and B2B publishers that sell print and digital advertising directly to advertisers and agencies, for one title or several.
Sales teams where reps should only see and edit their own customers, and where managers set sales targets per rep and channel.
Publishers who want bookings to reach production and billing without re-keying orders.

RunMags is ad sales software for publishers that sell their own advertising. It is not a programmatic ad server. Plans start at €399/month excluding VAT, with tiers based on the number of legal entities and magazine brands. See RunMags pricing.

Setting up or reviewing your sales process? Read our guide on how to sell magazine ads and follow an ad sales pipeline example for magazine publishers. Comparing ad sales platforms? See comparing RunMags with Mirabel, the MagHub / Ad Orbit comparison for ad sales teams, how RunMags compares with Lineup Adpoint, the AdSalesPro alternative for magazine publishers and how RunMags compares with Naviga Ad. Weighing MagHub against Mirabel? See our MagHub vs Mirabel comparison. Selling newsletter sponsorships on a platform such as beehiiv? See how RunMags compares with beehiiv.

An ad sales CRM built for media sales teams

An ad sales CRM, or media sales CRM, is a CRM built around the way publishers sell advertising: to advertisers and their agencies, issue by issue, across print, digital and newsletter products. In RunMags it sits in the same system as your production planning and invoicing.

Organisations and contacts sit together with their sales activity, and an agency relation on the advertiser puts the agency’s contacts on that advertiser’s contracts. Your pipeline is the contracts themselves: sales reps build each proposal from your product catalogues, and its status moves from preparation to sent and signed, with the advertiser signing online. Every contract row references the issues or dates it was booked for, signed print bookings appear on the flatplan for that issue, and billing invoices the booked issues with the issue reference on each invoice row.

A generic CRM tracks a deal as a contact and an amount. Media sales needs more: the issue the ad runs in, the ad product sold in each channel, the agency involved and the insertions still to invoice. In a general CRM those details end up re-keyed into a spreadsheet, the flatplan and the invoicing system. RunMags does not yet have an inventory availability view or a double-booking guard, so check how your team keeps track of space today.

If the same customers also subscribe to your magazines, see how advertisers and subscribers share one record in the CRM for magazines.

Magazine ad booking and scheduling software

Magazine ad booking software records which ad runs in which issue of which title, at what size and price, so the order can be produced and invoiced. In RunMags, a sales rep books the ad on the advertiser’s contract: each row is an ad product from your catalogue, such as a full page or a half page, scheduled into one or more issues of a title. Frequency discounts and agency commission are handled on the order, and billing invoices the booked issues from that same contract.

Signed print bookings for an issue appear in the flatplan as unplaced ads grouped by size, ready to drag onto a page, so production sees what has been sold for each issue and where it sits. The issue dashboard in Ad sales > Insight shows the business booked per issue.

Ad servers and classified booking tools schedule impressions, dates or single listings. A print issue has a fixed page count, a closing date and positions on real pages, and the booking has to reach the flatplan and the invoice. RunMags does not yet hold space with an expiry or block a premium position from being booked twice, so agree how your team reserves positions.

Magazine advertising sales software