Digital Marketing Salary in USA in 2024

The road to becoming a digital marketer is quite smooth once you have acquired all the necessary skills. This job profile is more about implementing your creativity and tact in selling out a brand digitally in the best possible way. 

Recently, there’s been an upsurge in the number of aspirants who want to take up digital marketing as their career. This is mainly because digital marketing offers numerous specialization choices to professionals, including SEO/SEM, content marketing, PPC advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, brand development, etc. The best part is that candidates earn hefty annual compensation in each of these digital domains. All you need to do is stay updated with all the latest strategies and trends about digital marketing. 

Currently, the digital marketing sector provides many opportunities for aspirants from many different domains of academics. Moreover, the growth trajectory of digital marketing roles is much higher than in many other sectors. This article will provide you with the different salaries that exist under the digital marketing spectrum. 

Before that, let us first understand some aspects that influence the ultimate salary of any digital marketing professional. 

Factors affecting the salary of digital marketing professionals

Like any other field, various factors impact the ultimate salary structure of digital marketing candidates. The following are a few essential aspects for everyone to consider while negotiating a salary for the post of a digital marketing manager: 

1. Duration of work experience

Your work experience is directly proportional to your market value that directly impacts your salary. The area of digital marketing is a little different from traditional marketing and requires professionals to work around various social media tools and platforms. If you have enough experience backing your expertise in the field, you can easily fetch high-end salary packages. 

2. Digital or online reputation

This factor is often under-rated when it comes to understanding its impact on salary. Many designers, artists, writers, and even digital marketers often fail to understand that an excellent digital reputation widens their earning prospects. Online or digital reputation means how the existing industry perceives aspirants and their expertise, directly affecting their salary, whether freelancers or full-time professionals. The more well-known you are in the online circle, the higher will be your commanding salary. Thus, you must create an excellent online network.

3. Skills of the contender

As mentioned above, if you have a refined skill set, you can earn more salary. Digital Marketing is a dynamic field, and it includes all kinds of skills – from marketing to content creation and running ads to designing. Your ability to prove your previous work experience should be proportional to your skills. This will make you a valuable asset to any employer. 

4. Job role and position

The ladder of your career as a digital marketing expert highly impacts the salary you draw. The more senior your position is, the more money you can earn. Apart from this, the roles and responsibilities also affect the salary earned. If you’re responsible for effective brand campaigns and can carry out particular tasks benefiting the company, you have more chances to get higher pay than your counterparts.

5. Professional efficiency 

In digital marketing, every initiative that one takes is measurable. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing requires remarkable efficiency to ensure that a campaign runs well and generates a good investment return. 

With the above points settled, we shall now dive even deeper to look into the prevailing salary structures of different types of Digital Marketers concerning different stages and seniority of this career. 

Salaries of different digital marketing roles in the US 

Now, let’s look at various levels of a digital marketing job and the prevailing wage that one can expect at different levels. Ultimately, it’s one’s skills alone that will help you reach the zenith!

1. Junior Digital Marketer

This is an entry-level position, and freshers earn about $84,989 per annum. As one goes up the ladder, their pay scale shoots higher.

One isn’t required to hold a specific degree for this job level. However, if you have additional qualifications or certifications in digital marketing, you can be a better candidate for consideration than other contenders for the same post. 

As a junior digital marketing manager, the following shall be your primary responsibilities:

• SEO Content optimization
• PPC campaigns
• Keyword research 
• Creating content bucket 
• Email marketing 
• Blog writing
• Copywriting
• Web content writing
• Social media management and marketing 
• Preparing ad copies
• Creating ad campaigns
• Working along with external resources

2. Specialist Digital Marketing Manager:

People acquire this post with 5-15 years of work experience. These digital marketing professionals have multidimensional exposure to different fields and projects. Hence, their level of expertise is high, owing to which they are assigned specific tasks and departments. The average pay drawn by a well-experienced digital marketing specialist is around $61,196 per year.

Here is an experience wise list of how much salary can a digital marketing specialist can draw: 

• 1-4 years of experience: $45,000 per annum
• 5 – 9 years of experience: $54,000 per annum
• 10-15 years of experience: $65,000 per annum

3. Digital Marketing Managers

This is a level higher than specialist digital marketers and attracts a salary of approximately $94,246 and up. Digital marketing managers oversee every digital marketing initiative of the company. They ensure that everything goes on properly and help their colleagues when they face any difficulty.

The payout of regular digital marketing managers is much higher than most other digital marketing roles in the industry. Some companies even pay as much as $129,966 per annum if the candidate’s expertise justifies the job expectations. 

4. Chief Marketing Officer or CMO

The average salary drawn by a CMO is $176,216 per annum. If they are the Vice president (VP) of Marketing, the average wage would be about $149,772 per annum. To reach this high in the digital marketing ladder, one must have an advanced marketing degree and substantial work experience, over 15 years. Apart from this, they should also have the soft skills required for leadership roles, such as leadership abilities and excellent negotiation skills. 

5. Freelance Digital Marketer

Usually, people who want to be their boss prefer freelancing opportunities. While working as a freelance digital marketer pays well, you won’t enjoy the job security that accompanies a full-time position. However, if you have the requisite digital marketing skills, you can find plenty of freelancing opportunities that compensate handsomely.

That said, the money earned by freelance digital marketers dramatically depends on the hourly rate they charge and the number of hours they put in for their work. Usually, the hourly rate charged by most freelance digital marketers ranges between $55 to $100. 

6. Other Digital Marketing Roles 

The three payout layers of junior, specialist and manager levels that we spoke of earlier are only broad divisions of the digital marketing spectrum. It would be unfair to leave out the different special categories under this umbrella. 

So, here there’s a run-down of various other digital marketing roles and their. respective salary range: 

• SEO Experts– $54,175 per annum
• Social Media Specialists – $45,908 per annum
• Content Marketing Managers – $82,465 per annum
• Advertisement Specialists – $53,047 per annum
• Affiliate Marketing Manager – $66,346 per annum

If you’re searching for academic guidance during your professional journey – upGrad is the right place for you. upGrad’s MBA (Global), sponsored by Deakin Business School, helps you start right from scratch and pushes you to reach heights. With a learner base spread across 85 countries and more than 40,000 paid students globally, this course by upGrad is your key to becoming a successful digital marketing manager. This course gives industry-level exposure and 360-degree support while learning!

Conclusion

Digital marketing is a fascinating field filled with lucrative opportunities. From design to writing, keyword research to social media management, or developing Ad Campaigns – the field of digital marketing is challenging, dynamic, and helps you grow professionally! 

So, don’t wait – enrol in the MBA program today to become a valued digital marketing candidate!

Plan Your Career in Digital Marketing Today!

Apply Now for Digital Marketing Certification from MICA