Marketing salaries: how much do marketers get paid?

Marketers often ask me what they should expect from a marketing salary and at what level. It is a fair question. Are you underselling yourself? Are you being paid fairly in relation to your experience? What to get paid is a really important question to make sure you are not wasting your time.

If you are a marketing candidate looking for marketing jobs in London or the UK then you will be interested in understanding some broad categories and explanations of salaries and what to expect. 

Marketing salaries clearly will vary depending on the industry and on the business that you are working within that industry: there can be significant variation between businesses in a ‘well paying’ industries. 

Typically, finance, technology, professional services, FMCG, health, and pharmaceuticals pay particularly well. That said marketers can earn decent salaries across a range of industries and typically at the senior level marketers will earn well irrespective of industry. 

Below are typical bandings that we see for marketing roles. These are broad boundaries for you but there will be exceptions: 

  • Marketing Assistant - up to £20k 
  • Marketing Executive - up to £30k 
  • Senior Marketing Executive - up £40k 
  • Marketing Manager - £40-60k 
  • Senior Marketing Manager - £60-70k 
  • Head of Marketing - £70-110k 
  • Marketing Director - £120k+ 
  • CMO - 120k+ and can range to any level 

CMO and marketing director roles are the most likely roles to have long term incentive plans and or serious equity, that said with smaller businesses and start-up businesses there is the opportunity for all candidates to receive similar packages that in larger businesses can be restricted to the more senior members of the team. 

Photo of money

How to make sure that you are not wasting your time: 

Too many candidates have conversations and then realise that there is not enough budget for a role. It is timewasting to apply for roles and to take the time out of your day to speak with a business. 

Here are some seemingly obvious tips but too often even the most senior candidates do not seem to follow some of these rules: 

  • If you can before a conversation with a recruiter or a prospective business try and get as much information as possible in order to self qualify yourself. 
  • If you cannot once you are having a conversation try and move the conversation to your qualifications factors as soon as possible (there clearly will be other factors!)
  • Be explicit with potential employers or agencies before you start any process 
  • Beware of some recruiters who might not have your best interests at heart and as such they might mislead or push you down in your salary expectations to meet a job requirements 

If you're looking at your commercial worth then marketing recruitment agencies can give you an overview of salaries and your market worth. If you are looking for marketing recruitment agencies in London or the UK do have a look at our ultimate marketing recruitment agencies list. 

How we work at The Hidden Market: 

We work with you as a candidate in a fully transparent way and as a really intelligent solution in the market as a fully digital business you let us know your requirements and we'll do the rest and match you to roles that might be of interest. 

We work behind the scenes pipelining talent. We work with brands essentially as an extension to their brand, connecting brands to the best passive talent.

Our business is not based on ATS systems and as such we are tech facilitated but human-led. If you are looking for a role in marketing then you can register with us here.