Sourcing Specialist
Sourcing Specialist finds and vets offers, products and affiliate programs for arbitrage teams, checking payout terms, geos, warm-up requirements and legal restrictions.
What a Sourcing Specialist does
A Sourcing Specialist in nutra is responsible for finding offer sources for the arbitrage team: dietary supplement and health product offers from advertisers, networks and direct brands. The quality of this selection determines where the team spends its traffic budget. A good offer with clear conversion potential and a workable warm-up plan saves weeks of testing, while a weak one burns budget before the first results come in.
The role matters in a high-risk vertical because nutra faces strict ad platform rules, regulatory requirements for labeling and wording, and a high share of refunds and complaints. The Sourcing Specialist screens out products that cannot be advertised in the target geos or that are repeatedly blocked, and recommends offers that pass moderation.
In the team structure, the role usually reports to the affiliate lead or head of affiliate and works closely with media buyers, who receive the selected offers for testing. The specialist usually has no direct reports. They collaborate with buyers, lawyers and the team lead on warm-up, and maintain the shared list of vetted offers.
Responsibilities
- Search for new offers and products in the nutra vertical through networks, advertisers, direct brand outreach and industry channels.
- Check offer terms: payout, hold, geos, traffic requirements, permitted sources and volume caps.
- Assess the product and landing pages for compliance with ad platform rules and requirements for medical and marketing claims.
- Collect and maintain an offer database with terms, test history and the status of each proposal.
- Pass selected offers to buyers with recommendations on warm-up, creatives and suitable traffic sources.
- Agree on disputed wording or products with a lawyer or compliance specialist before a test launches.
- Analyze offer test results and document reasons for rejection: conversion, refunds, complaints and blocks.
- Negotiate payout, hold and additional terms with network and advertiser managers.
- Track changes in platform rules and regulatory requirements that affect offer availability.
Skills
- Understanding of nutra offer unit economics: payout, approval rate, hold, refunds and final margin.
- Ability to quickly assess a product and landing page for ad safety and platform rule compliance.
- Partner sourcing and recruitment skills for networks, advertisers and brands.
- Working with spreadsheets and databases to maintain offer lists and test history.
- Understanding of how trackers and postbacks work, enough to verify statistics accuracy.
- Communication with buyers: explaining why an offer is risky or, conversely, promising.
- Negotiation skills around deal terms and minimum traffic volume.
- Attention to wording in creatives and landing pages, especially efficacy promises.
- Understanding of basic legal restrictions on dietary supplement advertising in target geos.
Tools
- Google Sheets or Excel for the offer database and test reports
- Keitaro or Binom trackers for checking offer statistics
- Ad networks and partner dashboards for finding and requesting offers
- Messengers and team chats for quick communication with buyers and networks
- Shared task trackers for handing off offers for testing and recording decisions
How performance is measured
- Number of offers selected and passed to buyers per month.
- Share of offers that passed testing and delivered a positive margin result.
- Average time from receiving an offer to deciding whether to test it.
- Share of offers rejected after launch due to blocks or moderation issues.
- Forecast accuracy: how closely the offer assessment matches final test results.
- Quality of the offer database: up-to-date terms and complete offer cards.
By vertical
Nutra
The main challenge in nutra is compliance with ad platform rules and health-related wording. The Sourcing Specialist checks landing pages and products for permitted claims, assesses block risk, takes geos into account, and selects offers that can realistically be scaled, not just tested.
Levels
Specialist
The specialist independently runs offer search and initial screening, prepares offer cards for buyers and maintains the database. Decisions to launch large budgets are made by the team lead or head of department, while the specialist provides a reasoned recommendation on terms and risks.
How to get there
People usually enter the profession from traffic arbitrage, having worked as a media buyer or buyer's assistant and already understanding how offers, trackers and postbacks work. Other common routes include operations manager, partner program analyst, or network manager roles. Practical testing experience, even limited, is important, along with the ability to explain why an offer worked or didn't.
Start by learning the structure of affiliate programs and networks, calculating margin with hold and refunds included, basic ad platform rules for nutra products, and how trackers work. It also helps to understand landing pages and wording, since most rejections come from creatives and pages rather than the product itself.
Growth comes from building your own base of vetted offers and test history that you can show your manager. Over time, the specialist takes responsibility for a geo or product segment, joins negotiations and makes decisions on launching budgets. The key skill to develop is discipline in data management and the ability to explain decisions with numbers.
Next steps: Senior Sourcing Specialist, Lead Sourcing / Head of Offers, Affiliate Team Lead, Partnership Manager, Media Buyer (nutra)
FAQ
How is a Sourcing Specialist different from a media buyer?
A Sourcing Specialist finds and vets offers, while a media buyer runs traffic to the chosen offers and manages bids and budgets. The sourcing specialist decides what gets into testing, and the buyer decides how that test performs. In many teams these roles overlap, especially in smaller ones.
Do I need to know the legal requirements for dietary supplement advertising?
A basic understanding is essential, because wording determines whether an offer passes moderation. Specific requirements differ by geo and platform, so in unclear cases the specialist checks with a lawyer or compliance team. The main skill is spotting a risky claim before launch.
What determines income in this role?
Income usually depends on company size, the traffic volume affected by the offers the specialist selects, and whether a bonus tied to test results is included. Actual pay levels depend on the company, region and experience, so it is best to confirm them in the job posting or at the interview.
What experience is needed to get in?
Most often, experience in traffic arbitrage or related roles is required: working with offers, trackers, networks or ad accounts. Formal education is usually not required. Examples of selected offers and test results that you can describe serve as the best proof.
Why are so many nutra offers rejected?
Nutra falls under strict ad platform restrictions and regulatory requirements, and it has high refund and complaint rates. As a result, even an offer that looks profitable on paper can be blocked quickly. The Sourcing Specialist reduces this risk by screening out problematic products in advance.
Looking for a job in the industry?
Post an anonymous resume in our bot — recruiters from iGaming, payments and crypto search it every day.