10 salary negotiation tips for search marketers
Before you apply for a new role, it’s important to prepare for marketing salary negotiations and learn how to pursue fair pay with practical, realistic guidance.
Whether you work in SEO, PPC, or somewhere in between, salaries remain a contentious topic.
They are often hard to discuss, difficult to quantify, and challenging to change.
While many resources cover salary negotiations in general, this article focuses specifically on negotiating pay for marketing roles.
Difficulties with marketing salaries
Several factors make marketing roles harder to benchmark than many other professions, complicating salary expectations and negotiations.
No industry standard
Unlike fields with national governing bodies and defined career grades, marketing lacks standardization.
This makes it difficult to align salary bands across companies or compare roles on an equal footing.
Inconsistent job titles
Job titles in marketing vary widely.
A VP of marketing at one company may perform duties similar to a junior account manager elsewhere, while in another organization, the title represents the most senior marketing leader.
Because titles are used inconsistently, it can be challenging to assess role seniority and determine which salary ranges are appropriate.
Major market shifts in recent years
Marketers who last negotiated pay during the COVID-driven digital boom of 2020-2021 may find today’s job market markedly different.
Just five years ago, businesses rapidly shifted to online-first marketing, driving strong demand for digital talent.
Performance and organic marketers benefited from a candidate-favorable market, with new roles being created, frequent poaching, and rising salaries.
Today, conditions have changed. The rise of AI, global economic uncertainty, and company downsizing have reduced salary pressure for many marketing roles.
There is also more uncertainty around job stability, leading fewer marketers to change roles unless necessary.
As a result, the salary levels seen in 2020-2021 are largely a thing of the past.
Well-paid marketing roles still exist, but they are harder to find. That reality should inform your salary negotiations, not discourage them.
Some marketing channels can be misunderstood
Less marketing-savvy companies often advertise a single role intended to cover three or more distinct specializations, typically at bottom-of-the-market pay.
Even organizations that better understand marketing skill sets may struggle to grasp the full complexity and breadth of knowledge required to perform a role effectively.
This can lead to significant undervaluation of marketers.
Given that marketing salaries can be difficult for employers to navigate, how can you ensure you are fairly compensated for your experience and expertise?
The following nine tips can be broadly grouped into four areas:
- Know what you bring to the table.
- Know what is realistic.
- Identify and demonstrate what is valuable to the company.
- Stick to your boundaries.
Know what you bring to the table
We’ll start with the side of salary negotiations that, for some, can be very difficult: accurately valuing your own skill set.
If you are in a position to negotiate a salary, you have either already been offered the job or you work for the company and are hoping to secure a raise.
In either case, the company must already believe you are suitable for the role.
That does not stop it from trying to secure your services at the most economical price.
Knowing what you bring to the table is key to having the bargaining power and confidence to negotiate a fair salary.
This does not just mean how much direct experience you have in the role you have landed.
Tip 1: Demonstrate your experience in the industry
Don’t underestimate how much employers value candidates who have knowledge and experience within their sector.
You may also find that some industries struggle to hire marketing professionals, and your willingness to join that industry can command a higher salary.
If you’ve worked in notoriously difficult industries, such as gambling, adult entertainment, or pharmaceuticals, you may be able to negotiate higher pay because of it.
This can be due to the perception of difficulty in marketing within these industries.
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Tip 2: Promote your prior experience in and out of similar roles
Your years of experience in a role may feel like an obvious bargaining chip when negotiating salary.
However, don’t forget that an employer may also benefit from the knowledge and experience you gained outside the role you are applying for.
Just because your previous job titles may not sound similar to the role you are negotiating now doesn’t mean the skills you developed there aren’t directly relevant.
Review your CV and compare it with the role you are applying for. Identify the parts of your work history that align with the job description.
Look beyond the obvious and consider transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder management.
Tip 3: Highlight extra skills outside your job specification
Think about the skills you’ve developed over the years that may not be listed in the job description but are likely to be important for success in the role.
This can be particularly helpful if you are earlier in your career and lack directly relevant experience in similar positions.
Consider what you learned through volunteer roles, a first summer job, or even hobbies.
They may seem far removed from marketing, but you have likely gained lessons through those experiences that can support your current career.
Tip 4: Show your financial impact in previous roles
As with any ROI calculation, employers want to know whether the salary they may pay a candidate will deliver a return on that investment.
If you are negotiating a higher salary than originally offered, you need to demonstrate why it is financially worthwhile for the employer.
Be strategic in the examples you share. Rather than focusing only on increases in traffic or rankings, emphasize the revenue or cost savings you delivered.
You may be limited by NDAs and unable to share specific figures, but you can still reference outcomes, such as increasing organic search revenue by 5x or reducing a PPC budget by 20% while maintaining performance.
Know what is realistic
It’s one thing to understand your value based on the skills and experience you bring to a company. It’s another to assess that value accurately in the job market.
Ultimately, salaries are limited by what employers are willing to pay.
Tip 5: Be familiar with industry benchmarks
Do some research when considering your salary.
You may have been paid above or below the market average in your current or previous role, which can skew your expectations.
Review job ads in your geographic area that require similar skills and experience, and note the lower and upper ends of the stated salary ranges.
Be careful not to compare roles based on job titles alone.
As noted earlier, marketing titles are often inconsistent, and you may be comparing your role with one that is more senior or more junior.
Also consider the industry. Salaries in charities, for example, are unlikely to match those in tech or finance.
Salary benchmarking reports can also be useful, such as:
- Remote, content SEO roles in decline: Report
- Salary and Career survey: How much search marketers make
These resources can provide a more objective view of the market.
Keep in mind that salaries vary significantly by country, so avoid comparing U.S. and UK salaries directly.
Tip 6: Find out the internal salary ranges
When applying for a role, it is always helpful to understand the salary range being offered, although this is not always possible.
Some companies wait for candidates to make the first move on salary and may avoid sharing ranges to prevent offering more than necessary.
This is why it’s important to follow Tip 5 first, so you understand what your skills and experience are worth in the broader market.
Some organizations use salary banding. For example, a senior SEO specialist may be classified as a level 4 role, while a junior SEO role may sit at level 2.
If a recruiter is unwilling to share the exact salary range, you can ask about role levels or banding instead.
This can provide insight into where the role sits within the company hierarchy and what the potential salary ceiling might be.
If you are able to identify the salary range, try to determine what qualifies a candidate for the top of the band.
Is the company looking for additional “nice to haves” to justify the highest salary? In some cases, it may be reserved for candidates with experience in a specific industry.
Once you understand which skills command higher pay, you can emphasize them in your CV and during interviews.
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Identify and demonstrate the values of the company
As many candidates discover during interviews, what a company truly wants is not always clearly stated in the job description or early conversations with recruiters.
Hiring managers may not fully define what they are looking for in a successful candidate until they have interviewed several people for comparison.
As a result, you may be unclear about what matters most for the role, making it harder to demonstrate your suitability and justify the salary you are requesting.
Interviews can provide an opportunity to explore these values in more detail.
Ask interviewers what “success” looks like in the role or how they would describe the traits of their top-performing colleagues.
This can help you understand the characteristics and behaviors the company values.
Tip 7: Demonstrate how you live up to those values
Once you understand what the company values, identify how you can deliver that through the role.
For example, if “initiative” is highly valued, you can use the interview process to highlight how you demonstrate initiative in your work.
Use examples from past experience to show how you embody the company’s values, citing specific projects or situations where you demonstrated them.
If “transparency” is important to the organization, you might reference a time when you acknowledged a mistake.
Demonstrating alignment with the company, in addition to job proficiency, can make you a more attractive candidate and support a stronger salary case.
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Stick to your boundaries
When negotiating your salary, you need to know your absolute minimum. This is not just the lowest salary you can afford to accept.
It also means identifying what you need from a role to feel respected and valued, and what the overall compensation package must include to support that.
Going into negotiations with clear boundaries makes it easier to say no when an offer does not meet them.
Tip 8: Consider other benefits that may offset a lower salary
In some situations, accepting a lower salary may make sense.
You may be moving into a different role where you have less experience and are starting at a more junior level.
The opportunity to develop new skills can justify a lower salary.
Other tangible benefits, such as strong health coverage, additional paid time off, shorter working hours, or a gym membership, may also make a lower salary acceptable.
Tip 9: Identify other positives that may justify a lower salary
You may be moving into an industry you care deeply about.
For example, joining a charity may provide enough personal satisfaction to offset lower pay.
Be sure to factor these considerations into your salary expectations when defining your boundaries.
Tip 10: Decide how little is enough for you to walk away
After working through the previous tips, you should have a clear understanding of the minimum compensation you are willing to accept, or remain in, a role for.
Keep this in mind during negotiations. You may feel pressure not to lose the role by asking for more money, or worry about appearing overly focused on pay.
Joining a company and immediately feeling underpaid is not sustainable.
At the same time, asking for a raise as soon as you start is unlikely to help you establish yourself.
You may be better off declining a role if the company cannot close the gap between its offer and your minimum salary expectations.
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Empower yourself in marketing salary talks
You deserve to be paid what you are worth.
Use these tips to define your value, account for any mitigating factors, and arrive at a salary you are willing to accept.
Once you have that number, negotiating becomes a matter of clearly demonstrating the value you bring to the company compared with other candidates.
If the gap between what a company is willing to pay and what you believe your skills and experience are worth is too large, walking away may be the better option.
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