What's the average Digital Marketing salary in 2014?  Thanks to Propel London, a digital recruitment agency, we have the answer. Based on data of over 4,500 individual records (both from an online survey and their own internal i.e. job spec data), Propel's research shows that an entry level type job in digital can attract just under £25k overall, though if you're client-side, you can earn over £26k even while a junior!

To quote from the report:

The UK national average wage is estimated at around £26,500, meaning that juniors working in digital can command near the average wage, let alone aim well beyond it.

A small caveat to these figures is that 61% of the respondents are from Central and Greater London, which will skew the data and probably inflate it somewhat.

Propel's report, called Digital Salary & Industry Insights, has many interesting nuggets on attitudes towards job satisfaction and so on. The really useful bit is that it contains actual salary figures - how much you can expect to earn in a career in Digital Marketing. That's important for us because our MSc in Digital Marketing prepares graduates exactly for the types of jobs described in the report!

I love it that it breaks down digital marketing salary by discipline - i.e. search, social, and so on. It also corresponds to the way we're teaching the course (lots of practice, skills-based teaching in exactly these areas).

Here, then, the breakdowns of Propel's report that relate directly to the types of jobs that graduates of our MSc in Digital Marketing will be able to command. I've left out related areas such as ecommerce and digital project management salaries - these terms are less discipline specific and not as relevant. I would however encourage you to check out the full report (PDF) to get the complete picture.

 

Digital Marketing Salary (broad skill set)

Key insights:

• Marketers with mixed skills across the disciplines earn more than those with specialist skills
• At senior level, client-side roles pay on average 8.25% more than agency roles

 

Analytics Salary

Key insight:

• Senior Analytics specialists are in demand across the board
• At junior / mid-levels, client-side roles pay more

Social Media Salary

Key insight:

• Salaries for social media professionals have consistently increased
• At senior / C-level, pay is below the norm, compared to the other disciplines

Search Salary

Key insight:

• High, wide-ranging salaries at top levels with good opportunity for progression
• Highest band of salary going up to £200k

Key takeaways

While it's hard to generalise and give a recommendation of what areas and digital marketing disciplines you should specialise in for the best career, two findings emerge:

• Develop a broad skill set across Digital Marketing - this will help you early on and ease progression
• Acquire deep knowledge of the more technical skills (Search, Analytics) - this will give you the cutting edge at more senior / C-suite levels (there aren't that many high-paid jobs in social and content, for example)

Also, while working in a good agency is more likely to expose you to cutting edge digital practice, and you'll be able to work on many clients thus quickly developing expertise, it pays more on average to work client-side.

My final and most important piece of advice is to do what you enjoy the most. Develop and specialise in the disciplines that you love - be it social, search, or any other area of digital marketing.

That's because you'll be the best at any job if you LOVE what you're doing. And if you're the best, your career will take care of itself!