As a publisher, you’ve most likely dealt with situations involving payments that are based on a percentage of an ad’s value. The most familiar scenario is an external agent’s commission payment. But what happens in situations that don’t involve an agent? In such cases, publishers may find themselves resorting to somewhat cumbersome workarounds to get the job done.
Does this sound familiar? It may surprise you to learn there’s an easy solution that lets you seamlessly handle such payouts. And if your company currently uses Adpoint as its media sales platform? It’s a solution that’s already available, right at your fingertips.
While Adpoint’s External Agent Commission tool excels at calculating commissions to your external agents, its flexibility means it can do so much more. This article explores the External Agent Commission tool, and how you can make it work for you when you need to pay a percentage of an ad’s value to another company or individual, both externally and internally.
Easily calculate commissions to your external agents
Our External Agent Commission tool lets publishers configure commission rules that apply automatically to ads meeting certain criteria. In the case of an agent’s commission, for example, the criteria might be as broad as simply reflecting that all sales made by the agent should trigger a commission payout, but other variables such as product and date range can also be built into the rules. When an ad sale meets the specified criteria, the tool:
- calculates the appropriate amount of commission according to the relevant commission rules
- generates a statement of commissions for the agent receiving the commission, which includes all commissions for the specific period
- displays the commission rules applied to the ad and the value of the commission earned
- generates an external agents’ report from Adpoint’s report dashboard
If necessary, you can also manually apply or adjust the commission rules, making it easy for the system to handle exceptions.
Customization features give you the flexibility to do more
Despite its name, you can apply the External Agent Commission tool to a multitude of situations. “The tool offers a fantastic range of functionality that you can apply to many areas of your business,” says Claire Mitchell, Product Manager (Finance & Analytics) at Lineup. “You’re not restricted to using it only in situations where you’re dealing with external agents.”
If you haven’t been using the tool’s functionality beyond the typical agent commission scenario, here are some sample use cases to get you brainstorming on the many ways you can apply the tool to meet your media company’s specific needs:
Subcontractors. Many media organizations use external subcontractors to help them sell ads. In most cases, these subcontractors receive a percentage of the value of any ad they sell. With Adpoint’s External Agent Commissions tool, you can easily generate payments for these subcontractors.
Social media companies. Does your media business employ the services of a social media company to handle your digital ad sales on various social media platforms? If so, you can use the External Agent Commissions tool to both track and calculate any relevant commission payouts.
Internal sales people. You can use Adpoint’s tool in situations that don’t involve an external individual or company. If commissions form a component of your sales employees’ compensation structure, you can create commission rules to generate the commissions they earn on the ad sales they make for your media company.
Syndication deals. Media syndication deals often involve payouts based on a percentage of ad value. If this is the case for your media business, the External Agent Commission tool lets you easily calculate the amounts due and payable on your syndication deals.
Understanding the external agent commission rules
If you’re already an Adpoint user, you can find the External Agent Commission tool in the Finance module under the tools section. This is where you’ll create the commission rules for your particular use cases.
The commission rules define each agreement that pays out a percentage of an ad’s value. The following are some basics to help you understand and use the rules:
- Multiple rules may come together to form the basis of an agreement
- You can prioritize the rules to pay the one with the highest priority, in the event of multiple matches
- Within the rules you can track when a rule was last modified, and who modified it
- You can duplicate the rules for different agents or different periods
This flexibility in defining commission rules makes the External Agent Commission tool indispensable whenever you need to generate payouts based on a percentage of ad value.
Learn more about Adpoint’s External Agent Commission tool
Interested in using the extended functionality offered by Adpoint’s External Agent Commission tool to help your media organization save time and money? If you’re not currently using Adpoint, book a call with us today to learn more. Already an Adpoint user? Contact your Customer Success Manager to find out more, and to obtain a copy of the External Agent Commission tool’s Training and Configuration Guide.
