Local mobile advertising network, xAD, today announced the expansion of its national and local sales presence, and an increased emphasis on direct sales and marketing, which it will be pursuing through three executive hires. Ron Merritt is joining xAD as senior vice president of sales, Monica Ho is joining as the vice president of marketing and Dan Hight is the vice president of business development. These strategic hires come at a key time when the U.S. mobile local advertising is poised to explode.
To bring its unique mobile local advertising directly to small- and medium-sized businesses, xAD launched its own direct sales operation in Charlotte, NC earlier this month. This team, under the direction of Ron Merritt, is comprised of experienced sales consultants who will be offering turn-key mobile marketing and lead generation solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses, many of which have yet to run effective mobile advertising campaigns – until now. The sales team is off to an incredible start and is already exceeding expected close rates.
“xAD is part of such an exciting area of growth in mobile advertising,” Merritt said. “Our team’s early success further validates the need for mobile marketing solutions designed for the small- to medium-sized business. I’m excited to play a key role in the expansion of xAD’s reach among advertisers, and to illustrate to local businesses the opportunities within mobile.”
Merritt is coming to xAD with 14 years of sales leadership. Prior to joining, he served as vice president of local sales at Yodle, where he helped grow the company from a startup to a company ranked number 35 on The Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies list.
An additional executive hire, Dan Hight will also be joining the team as vice president of business development. In that role, he will lead xAD’s efforts on the national side, developing relationships with strategic partners, agencies, national brands, and re-sellers. Hight most recently worked at SuperMedia, where he was director of strategic marketing. Monica Ho is joining the xAD team from TMP Directional Marketing, where she was the senior vice president of marketing. With over 12 years of local marketing and advertising experience, she brings to the team knowledge of the advertising sphere as well as the know-how for how to market a company.
About xAD, Inc.
xAD is a mobile ad exchange specializing in location-based advertising. xAD is the largest local mobile ad exchange in the United States – connecting 1.2 million local advertisers with 300 million search requests and 10 billion ad impressions a month. Publishers use xAD to monetize their location-based apps, sites, and devices using xADs performance based premium placements. Advertisers use xAD to drive clicks, calls, and foot traffic to local businesses. All of xADs ads have location and contextual relevancy, leading to high eCPMs for publishers and high conversions for advertisers. xADs proprietary AdScoring technology ranks and quality-scores ads to match the optimal ad based on more than 26 variables. For more information on xAD, visit www.xAD.com.