Search entrepreneurs earn between $85,000 to almost $200,000 in annual compensation (wage and bonuses), on common, in response to 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 economic system, the rise of generative AI, and so on.) it continues to be a superb time to be a search marketer. Having this information 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 essentially the most, on common – $198,182 in annual compensation. This quantity was larger final 12 months – $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).
- Workers earn $85,572 (a rise from $60,866 in 2023).
- Executives make 2.32 instances greater than their employees, in response to our survey. It is a decline from final 12 months, when executives made 3.62 instances greater than their employees.
Median salaries range vastly. A number of components can contribute to the good variance in median salaries (e.g., firm dimension, years of expertise). This was additionally true final 12 months. As a result of wage averages could 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 firms with greater than 1,000 staff, in response to our survey.
- 52% of search entrepreneurs work at firms with greater than 500 staff
Compensation will increase with seniority. Years of expertise proceed to translate into larger compensation.
The primary bounce in wage comes round 12 months six or seven (~$87,000 to ~$100,000), and the second wage bounce comes whenever you attain 12 months 10 (~$114,000 to ~$130,000), in response to our survey:
Graduate diploma impression on compensation. Total, 38% of respondents had a graduate diploma. However the median salaries of these with graduate levels in enterprise have been 25% larger, in response to our survey.
- A graduate diploma was not a consider compensation, in response to 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, expertise, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents have been additionally requested to disclose their age and gender.
