Ad sales

A program ad campaign sells advertising space in your season program book. Local businesses buy a page or part of a page, the money is paid out to your organization, and each sale is credited to the player who brought it in. Most programs set a per-player minimum, so the campaign is also how a family meets their ad sales requirement.

Campaigns live in the Hub under Sponsorships & Ad Sales. Each campaign card opens the campaign, where you will find three tabs: Advertisers (every ad sold, who bought it, and who gets credit), Player credit (each player against the minimum), and Campaign details (pricing, the share link, discount codes, and the program book settings).

Sponsorships are separate from ads — a sponsor pays for a tier of recognition rather than a page — but a sponsorship can be credited to a player the same way an ad is. Section 6 covers how that credit works.

Go to Sponsorships & Ad Sales and choose Create Campaign. Name it, set a deadline for artwork, and add your ad sizes:

1. Ad slots. One row per size — full page, half page, quarter page, back cover — each with a price and how many are available. Leave the quantity blank for unlimited. When a size sells out, buyers see it as unavailable.
2. Per-player minimum and reward threshold. Open the campaign, choose Edit campaign, and set Player Minimum — the dollar amount each player is expected to sell. Reward threshold is the reward level, and Reward is your program's own word for it (a hoodie, a letter jacket): a player whose confirmed sales reach the threshold sees “Hoodie earned” on their fundraising page, in your words. Leave Reward blank and no reward message appears anywhere. Both figures appear on every family's fundraising page for that player.
3. Discount codes. From Campaign details, choose Manage discount codes to create a percentage or dollar-off code that buyers enter at checkout. A discount code takes money off an ad the buyer pays for. To give an ad at no charge, use Record an ad and choose Comp — that records the reason and keeps the ad out of revenue.

Publish the campaign when the pricing is right. Publishing is what creates the buyer link and QR code.

Open the campaign and go to Campaign details. The Share this campaign card has Copy Link, a QR code, and View public page. Send the link to families so players can pass it to the businesses they ask. The QR code can carry a player's name, so a sale from that code is credited to them automatically.

What the buyer sees, in order:

1. The ad sizes and prices you set, with sold-out sizes marked unavailable.
2. Who gets credit. The buyer chooses Credit a specific player and picks one or more rostered players — the amount can be split any way they like — or chooses the general team fund with no player credit. A link or QR code that carries a player's name has that player selected already.
3. Business details and payment. Business name, contact, and an optional website, then payment by card or bank account. A bank payment takes about 4 business days to clear; the player's credit shows as pending until it does.

After paying, the buyer gets a confirmation email with a link to their advertiser page, where they upload artwork and see their receipt. The sale appears on the Advertisers tab once the payment goes through.

A business hands a player a check, or drops cash at the office. The ad is sold — it needs to be in the campaign, credited to the player, and in the program book. Open the campaign, go to Advertisers, and choose Record an ad:

1. Business and ad size. Enter the business name and pick the size they bought. The price comes from the campaign.
2. Method. Choose Check or Cash.
3. Amount received. Enter the money in hand and the date you received it. For a check, add the check number. If the amount is less than the ad price, the difference is recorded as comped and a reason is required.
4. Credit the player who sold it. Pick one player or split the ad between several. The splits add up to the ad price.
5. Private note. Anything you want on the record — where the check is, who collected the cash. Admins see it; the family and the buyer do not.

What recording does:

• The ad counts as sold. It holds its slot, appears in the campaign totals and the program book, and is in the designer packet.
• The player's credit toward the minimum is confirmed right away — no clearing period.
• The family sees the ad on their fundraising page marked Recorded — check or Recorded — cash.
• It is not card revenue. No processor moved the money, so it does not appear in your Stripe payout. Deposit the check and reconcile it in your own books.

A check bounces. Open the ad from the Advertisers tab and choose Void this record — a reason is required. The slot reopens, the player's credit for that ad is removed, and the ad no longer counts as sold. Record it again once the business pays.

Some ads are given, not sold: a page for the coaching staff, a partner group that trades with you, a make-good for a business whose ad printed wrong last season. Open the campaign, go to Advertisers, choose Record an ad, and pick Comp as the method. A reason is required — it stays on the admin record so nobody has to remember why the page was free.

Credit is optional on a comp. Credit a player when the business they brought in is getting the page; leave it on the general fund when it is the program's own page.

• The family sees the ad on their fundraising page marked Comped, with the comped amount shown beside the ad size.
• The public sees the ad in the program book like any other. Nothing marks it as free.
• Revenue is unchanged. A comp adds nothing to the campaign's revenue or to your payout — it is a page given, not a payment.

Recorded in error? Open the ad and choose Void this record — a reason is required.

“Credit toward the ad requirement” is recognition of what a player brought in. When a $250 ad is credited to a player, $250 counts toward their minimum, their fundraising page shows the business and the amount, and the Player credit tab moves. It is a record of a sale, not a balance.

Ad-sale credit and sponsorship credit can never be spent. They count toward the requirement and nothing else — a family cannot apply them at checkout, put them toward a registration fee, or move them to another player. The family statement says so beside their ad sales credit. This is deliberate: the requirement rewards the ask, and the money the business paid belongs to the program.

Change who gets credit. Open the ad from the Advertisers tab and choose Split credit. Pick the players and the amounts — the splits add up to the ad price — or move it to the general fund. The families involved see the change on their next visit.

A sponsorship or a business contribution counts too. On a sponsor's page, choose Assign credit and pick the player who brought the sponsor in. For money a business gave outside a campaign, go to Businesses & Recognition, choose Record a contribution, and use the Counts toward a player's program ad sales field. Either way the amount counts toward that player's requirement under the same wall — recognition, not spendable credit.

Buyers upload artwork from the link in their confirmation email, and you can upload for any ad — including one you recorded by check, cash, or comp — from its row on the Advertisers tab. When the deadline comes, choose Designer packet on the same tab for one ZIP of every artwork file plus a spreadsheet of each buyer, ad size, print dimensions, and who gets the credit — or Download all for the images alone.

Some businesses buy an ad purely to put money behind a player and never want a page. Open that ad and choose No ad wanted (donation only). It comes off the artwork-needed list, stops appearing in artwork reminders, and is listed in the designer packet as not running. Nothing about the money changes — the payment, the receipt and the player credit stay exactly as they are, and you can undo the mark at any time.