Direct Ad Sales Manager

Location: London hybrid - 3 days Tues, Wed and Thurs in office or Remote within UK

Salary: £50–70k (OTE £100–140k) + equity

Muzz is the world’s largest Muslim marriage and dating app, reaching around 20 million Muslims globally, with a large UK user base. We are now selling ad space directly to brands that want to reach that audience, and we need our first dedicated person to build that business.

• Why direct: businesses have been asking to reach our audience directly. Selling direct gives us tighter brand safety than programmatic, and less dependence on large ad platforms.
• Where we are: our launch advertising partners are live, and inbound interest comes through muzz.com/advertise.
• The product: a native ad as a swipe card in the app’s Discover and Explore screens. Targeting is by country today, with gender and age targeting on the roadmap. Programmatic ads continue to run alongside.
• The stack: we are building our own direct ad server and a self-serve advertiser portal.

You will report directly to the CEO and own direct ad revenue end to end: find advertisers, close them, get their campaigns live, and keep them coming back. This is a first hire, so you will also shape how we sell.

This is a quota-carrying, hands-on role. There is no sales ops team, so you will run your own pipeline, contracts, invoicing and reporting.

What you'll do

Generate and close new business

• Build a pipeline of brands and agencies that want to reach Muslim audiences: modest fashion, halal food, Islamic finance, travel and Hajj/Umrah, charities, education, telecoms and FMCG.
• Qualify and follow up inbound leads from muzz.com/advertise.
• Pitch our reach globally and by major market, and sell native placements targeted by country (with gender and age to follow).
• Negotiate deals on agreed budget and CPM, with guaranteed impressions over a set country and timeline.
• Own every deal through to cash: insertion orders under Muzz Ltd, invoicing and payment collection.

Protect the brand

• Run every prospect through our advertiser screening before a deal is agreed. Criteria include no links to organised crime, no links to Israel or the IDF, no association with Islamophobia, no dating or dating-adjacent businesses, and good character overall.
• For agencies, make sure screening covers the end advertiser, not just the agency.
• Review creative with the team before it goes live.

Deliver and grow accounts

• Collect creative and targeting, and get campaigns live in our ad server.
• Track delivery against the guaranteed impressions, and manage extensions where a campaign under-delivers.
• Send campaign reports, run reviews, and turn first campaigns into repeat and larger bookings.
• Be the advertiser’s single point of contact.

Shape the product

• Feed advertiser needs into the direct ad server and self-serve portal roadmap: formats, targeting, reporting and payments.
• Maintain and improve our rate card and media kit, and build case studies.
• Set up and own the CRM and pipeline reporting.

What we're looking for

Must have

• 3+ years selling digital or mobile advertising directly to brands and agencies, as an AE, partnerships or media sales lead.
• A record of closing new business yourself, not only managing existing accounts.
• Fluency in CPM pricing, impression guarantees, insertion orders, targeting and campaign reporting.
• Comfort being first: building your own pipeline, process and collateral from scratch.
• Sound judgement on brand safety, and willingness to walk away from a deal that does not fit.
• Strong written and spoken English, and confidence with senior marketers.

Nice to have

• Existing relationships with brands or agencies targeting Muslim consumers in the UK, Gulf, Southeast Asia or North America.
• Experience at a consumer app, publisher or retail media network launching direct sales.
• Understanding of native ad formats, ad servers and self-serve ad platforms.
• Knowledge of UK advertising rules (ASA, CAP code) and charity fundraising advertising.
• Arabic, Urdu, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia or Turkish.