Search entrepreneurs earn between $85,000 to just about $200,000 in annual compensation (wage and bonuses), on common, based on a brand new Search Engine Land survey.
Why we care. Though the final 12 months has been difficult for quite a lot of causes (Google, the financial system, the rise of generative AI, and so forth.) it continues to be an excellent time to be a search marketer. Having this knowledge is useful for benchmarking your present compensation and understanding how your profession may progress.
Common wage vary. Govt administration (C-level, SVP, VP) positions earn probably the most, on common – $198,182 in annual compensation. This quantity was larger last year – $220,000.
In the meantime, on common, salaries elevated year-on-year for all the opposite teams in our survey:
- Administrators and senior administrators earn $156,221 (a rise from $122,760 a 12 months in the past).
- Managers earn $99,933 (a rise from $87,688 final 12 months).
- Employees earn $85,572 (a rise from $60,866 in 2023).
- Executives make 2.32 instances greater than their employees, based on our survey. This can be a decline from final 12 months, when executives made 3.62 instances greater than their employees.
Median salaries differ drastically. A number of elements can contribute to the good variance in median salaries (e.g., firm measurement, years of expertise). This was additionally true final 12 months. As a result of wage averages might be deceptive, let’s dig deeper into the numbers:
- Govt administration positions vary from $50,000 to $310,000.
- Director and senior director-level salaries vary from $28,000 to $329,685.
- Supervisor-level salaries vary from $14,000 to $270,000.
- Median compensation plateaus at corporations with greater than 1,000 staff, based on our survey.
- 52% of search entrepreneurs work at corporations with greater than 500 staff
Compensation will increase with seniority. Years of expertise proceed to translate into larger compensation.
The primary leap in wage comes round 12 months six or seven (~$87,000 to ~$100,000), and the second wage leap comes once you attain 12 months 10 (~$114,000 to ~$130,000), based on our survey:
Graduate diploma influence on compensation. General, 38% of respondents had a graduate diploma. However the median salaries of these with graduate levels in enterprise have been 25% larger, based on our survey.
- A graduate diploma was not a think about compensation, based on our 2023 Wage & Profession survey.
In the meantime, greater than 90% of search entrepreneurs have an undergraduate diploma.
Methodology. Our survey outcomes are based mostly on responses from 291 people in North America (79%) and Western Europe (21%). As a result of restricted variety of respondents, different areas have been excluded. We used the “median” outcomes for salaries to filter out values which may skew the outcomes.
The 2024 Search Engine Land Wage and Profession Survey was performed between December and February. Invites to take the survey have been amplified on and by Search Engine Land. The survey included greater than 20 questions associated to profession roles, wage, know-how, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents have been additionally requested to disclose their age and gender.
