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4 Reasons Brands Ghost You (and What to Do About It)

They said "we're interested" and then… crickets. You sent a great proposal, then they left you hanging.

The dreaded ghost. It's inevitable in ad sales, but sometimes avoidable.

After working across thousands of deals, I've noticed four patterns that have turned warm prospects into digital phantoms.

Here are the most common reasons you get ghosted, and what to do next.

💔 They Never Actually Had Budget

The harsh truth: half your "interested" prospects are window shopping. Tyre kickers. Time wasters.

Maybe they wanted to look busy in front of their boss. Maybe it was exploratory research for next year's planning. Or maybe they genuinely thought they had budget until their CFO reminded them about Q4 reality.

55% of sales reps say budget is the most common reason a promising deal falls through (Sales Insight Lab).

The fix: Qualify harder, earlier. Look at headcount, revenue, recent funding rounds, and actual media spend. Most importantly, get specific about timing: "Do you have budget allocated for this quarter, or are we looking at Q1?"

Don't be afraid to ask the uncomfortable questions. "What's your monthly ad spend looking like right now?" sounds pushy, but it saves everyone time. The prospects who get offended probably weren't buying anyway.

Just don’t ask about money right away, build a bit of rapport first.

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🤯 You Made Life Too Complicated

Confusion stalls deals. Analysis paralysis is a thing.

I've seen media companies send 47-slide decks for a simple newsletter sponsorship. Others create media kits with 75 different package options, like they're running a telecom company.

Decision fatigue is real. When prospects can't quickly understand what they're buying, how much it costs, and what happens next, they default to doing nothing.

The fix: One email. One outcome. Clear CTA. One CTA to rule them all.

Your proposals should have as few options as possible, ideally one or two. Each email should focus on one value point. Make the next step obvious: "Reply with your preferred dates and I'll send the IO."

Strip out everything that doesn't directly help them say yes. Your 22-page media kit might look impressive, but it's probably killing deals.

🕰️ Timing

Sometimes ghosts aren't personal — they're circumstantial.

The decision-maker went on paternity leave. Quarterly budgets got frozen. The company announced layoffs. A competitor just signed an exclusive deal in their category.

Research from Salesforce shows that 27% of deals fail due to timing issues beyond anyone's control, factors completely unrelated to your pitch or pricing.

The fix: Follow up, follow up, follow up.

But do it strategically. After a few weeks of silence, send a timing-focused email: "Hey [Name], haven't heard back — wondering if timing shifted on your end? Happy to circle back next quarter if that works better."

This gives them an easy out while keeping the door open. Many "dead" deals resurrect months later when circumstances change.

Set calendar reminders to ping old prospects quarterly. I've seen deals close 18 months after first contact because someone remembered to follow up when timing finally aligned.

🤬 They Were Never Ready to Buy

The most frustrating ghost: prospects who seem genuinely interested, go through your entire sales process, maybe even do a pilot, then vanish.

Harvard Business Review analyzed 2.5 million sales conversations and found that 40-60% of deals end up lost to customers who express intent, but ultimately fail to act. These customers will often go through the entire sales process — consuming valuable seller time and organizational resources, only to end up not crossing the finish line (source).

These aren't budget or timing issues. These are prospects who were never actually ready to make a decision, they were just exploring or learning.

The fix: Qualify decision-making readiness, not just need and budget.

Ask harder questions: "What happens if you don't solve this problem in the next six months?" If they can't quantify real consequences or urgency, they're probably not ready to buy, they're just researching.

Or even, “Are you looking to move ahead soon, or in the early exploratory stages?”

Of course, still be helpful, even send a proposal. But at least you now know to deprioritise the deal. Better to focus on people who are actually ready to act than chase window shoppers.

You can't prevent all ghosting. Even perfect qualification, concise proposals, and persistent follow-up won't save you.

But you can make ghosting less likely and fish some of those deals ‘out of the cracks’.

P.S. Need help selling more sponsorships? My agency Ad Sales as a Service helps media companies do just that.