Stacked Marketer’s The State Of Marketing Salaries In 2024

Online marketing is evolving so much it might as well be a Pokémon.

Technological advancements—which could make you wonder whether we simply “GPTd” this—economic uncertainties, shift to hybrid workspaces, and other impactful factors put the industry into a perpetual agile state. 

With all that noise, it’s easy to lose track of not only what you’re supposed to be doing, but even more importantly—how much are you worth? 

We asked the most representative group—marketers in the “trenches” which you belong to as well—to help us shed some light on the actual, real state of global marketing salaries.

And it’s juicy. So let’s jump in…

Report Background

🤔 Why this report: While you can find scattered data on big platforms, or a unicorn company comes along and publicly announces their salary—the data online is either too broad in terms of salary range or roles, or fixed to the US market. 

Rarely you can get real answers, especially when it comes to the global workforce.

However, tens of thousands of engaged readers all over the world read Stacked Marketer—allowing us to grab a decent sample first-hand. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of our respondents:

• Total surveyed marketers: 555 
• Type of work: 37% in-house, 28.5% business owner, 17.8% freelancer, 14% agency.
• Location: 47.7% U.S, 14.1%, European Union, 10.3% UK, 6.5% Canada, 4.9% Latin America, and more. 

Here’s the full breakdown:

🫡 Once again, big thanks to all our readers who took the time to share their views and help fellow marketers get a better understanding of their worth.

Key Report Takeaways: 

🟦 Nearly one-third of marketers fall within the $50-$100k salary range, indicating a wide distribution of income levels in the field.

🟦 Roles such as Data Analysts, Product Marketing Managers, and Consultants often command annual salaries exceeding $100k, highlighting the value of specialized skills.

🟦 Despite a turbulent year, over half of the marketers surveyed received a pay increase, suggesting resilience in the marketing industry against external challenges. 

🟦 A majority of marketers are unhappy with their current salaries, with 75% expecting a salary increase by the end of 2024, indicating widespread dissatisfaction and high expectations for future earnings—but how realistic is it?

Marketing salaries in 2024: The big picture

Let’s start this one with a bang—the big rundown:

Whew. A little less than one third of all marketers fall into the $50-$100k category. But besides the minority sitting in the highest $200k+ group, other groups are equal. 

So we need to dig deeper.

But before we do let’s have a look at the hourly rate of an average marketer.

In isolation, this doesn’t tell us much, besides that more than half of marketers (almost 58%) don’t work for less than $35/h.

But what does it tell us? If you’re still charging your hour below that benchmark, you may want to up your marketing game. Or your bartering game. Both would be the best.

Now comes to the nitty and gritty part.

How can your location and experience affect your salary?

Let’s start with where you live:

There’s an expected and visible discrepancy—especially in the higher salary end—between the more developed markets like Australia, Canada, EU, UK, and US and the rest. 

But just because finding better opportunities can be challenging if you’re located in lower-paying markets, it’s not impossible. And the chart confirms this.

Your experience can also see you snatch better opportunities:

This chart says that if you’re starting out—unless you’re extremely lucky or talented—you’ll hardly pass the $50k/year mark, and quite possibly earn less than $25k/year. 

However, if you’re over five years in the industry, there’s a case for you to earn at least $50k/year—no matter where you’re located. Your experience costs, so charge it accordingly.

Online marketers’ salaries depending on role

It’s not only where you work, it’s what you work.

Since not all marketing roles pay the same, let’s take a look at this annual salary breakdown based on the job title:

Nothing strange. It appears that the “bluest” annual salary comes from the highly-positioned roles within the company—while some unique roles as Data Analysts, Product Marketing Managers, or Consultants frequently earn over $100k+ per year. 

Now let’s look at the same thing, but from an hourly rate perspective:

It’s more or less the same. Minus the higher-up marketing role, it appears that the roles that fall into the least earning bracket (up to $35/hour) are:

• Content Writers (No record of $60+/hour)
• Content Managers (No record of $60+/hour)
• Marketing Assistants (No record of $60+/hour).

However, seasoned Copywriters, Paid Ads Specialists, Email Marketing Specialists, Product Marketing Managers, Project Managers, Designers, and others can all earn north of $60+/hour.

Online marketers’ salaries depending on the field of expertise

Marketers can wear a lot of hats and the role itself sometimes doesn’t define everything that you do.

So we decided to segment another chart depending on what we called “field of expertise.”

Here’s how it looks like:

This chart might give an even better idea of the state of the marketers’ salary range. 

First off, it appears that various aspects of marketing are paid equally low or equally high depending on factors such as your defined role and experience.

Take the Email Marketing Manager Role for example. You can see that some respondents who consider themselves experts in email marketing claimed to have $200k+ annual salary. But if you look at the Email Marketing Manager title, there’s no such thing.

Which means that they could belong to some of the bigger marketing roles—CMOs, VPs of marketing, marketing directors—who are upskilled in multiple marketing verticals.

Whether you’re a consultant, or working in-house, you’ll often be expected to know more than just your narrow expertise—plus you’ll always have to adapt to the new stuff. 

So you’re either in the top 1% of niche marketers who really crush their category—and you’re in the top paying bracket, or you’ll have to upskill and broaden your horizons for the same amount of cash.

That’s the reality.

How did salaries changed compared to 2023?

Last year was turbulent, frugal, and filled with news of layoffs. 

Here’s how it reflected on the salaries:

And while less than 4% had the misfortune to lose their job, there’s only around 11% of marketers who saw their salaries decrease compared to last year.

Over half of marketers did see a pay bump, with one third having a fiscal stalemate. But going by this report, the marketing industry has shown some resilience to external factors.

Also, these roles saw the biggest pay rise year-over-year*:

• Paid Ads Specialist (78.5% of respondents)
• Content Manager (59% of respondents)
• Product Marketing Manager (60% of respondents)
• Email Marketing Manager (63.5% of respondents)
• Creative Director (62% of respondents) 

(categories with too small samples were omitted*)

Are online marketers happy with their salaries in 2024?

Short answer—No. 

It appears that only 35% of respondents are happy with what they’re currently earning. 

Among two third of unsatisfied respondents, the unhappiest with their earnings are:

• Marketing Assistants (89% unhappy)
• Account Project Managers (83% unhappy)
• Email Marketing Managers (82% unhappy)
• Social Media Managers (75% unhappy)
• Chief Marketing Officers (73% unhappy)

But other than CMOs, marketers with higher positions in their company seem to be happier with their earnings—with VPs of Marketing being the only clearly happy (63%).

Does it get better with time? 

Sort of. It appears that beginnings can be quite painful, with 5-10 years being the most balanced when it comes to satisfaction. 

It also seems that after a decade in the game it becomes harder to keep yourself happy with the industry standard wage. Makes sense.

Do online marketers expect their salaries to increase in 2024?

That’s a resounding yes. Three quarters of all respondents expect to have a bigger salary by the end of this year.

Not strange. We’ve seen that 65% of surveyed marketers aren’t happy with their current salary.

Thus, there might be a bit of a bias involved when it comes to expectations here—with the unsatisfied group also expecting to see a pay bump sometime this year.

But how realistic could the wage increase be? The data shows that nearly half of the respondents either saw their earnings stay the same, decrease, while some of them went out of work.

With the industry not looking like it will turn for the better that quickly, it might be sensible to not pin your hopes up on big increases this year unless your company is doing exceptionally well. 

Bottom Line: The State Of Online Marketer’s Salary

We hope that this report’s learnings will help you understand your position better, help you adjust your expectations for better or worse—and weather the storm.

The most important insight from this report: The marketing industry is showing some decent resilience. 

That’s at least when it comes to the people who read Stacked Marketer. Coincidence? 

However, it doesn’t seem like 2024 will get much better soon. The difference between marketers’ expectations and what the market realistically looks like could bring a challenging period for companies who want to keep their best talents.  

But at the same time, companies that are doing well might have a pool of talented experts to choose from?

We’ll keep monitoring…