Marketing and creative salary benchmarks and trends

Name: Salary negotiations
Creator: Robert Half

2027 Salary Guide

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Job seekers: Explore opportunities and grow your career.

Compensation is competitive for many marketing and creative roles that require both strategic thinking and technical fluency. In-house teams and agencies need professionals who can improve customer experiences, translate marketing data into actionable insights, implement marketing technology and support AI-enabled campaign execution.

Salary misalignment can occur when employers offer below-market pay or expect a broad mix of skills without adjusting compensation. Pay can also vary between in-house and agency roles, with base salary, bonuses, flexibility and project variety all informing a candidate’s decision to accept an offer or change jobs.

Hiring managers: Meet with us to get customized salary insights and guidance so you can build offers candidates say yes to.

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The salaries below default to national averages. Select a job category and city to find figures for a specific market. Starting compensation can vary significantly based on a candidate’s skills, experience and certifications, as well as other factors including industry; company size, complexity or revenue; and demand for the role. To reflect this variability, we report our compensation data in 3 levels: low, mid and high.

Ventas

Marketing

Puesto de trabajo

Baja

Mid

Alta

Gerente regional de ventas

7994100

9000000

10810500

Gerente comercial

5858264

6875000

7823941

Gerente de ventas

5040755

6250000

7350521

Gerente de desarrollo de negocios

4359375

5625000

7376375

Gerente de categoría

4043750

5075000

7451250

Jefe zonal

2596071

3650000

4500000

Jefe de cuentas claves

1767857

2500000

3080357

Ingeniero de ventas técnicas

2489028

3163000

4001828

Baja

The candidate is new to the role or has limited experience and is still developing core skills.

Mid

The candidate has moderate experience in the role or one similar, meets most requirements, and may hold transferable skills or relevant certifications.

Alta

The candidate has extensive experience in the role, demonstrates advanced skills, and often brings specialized certifications or industry experience.

Marketing and creative compensation trends

Data at a glance

56%

of marketing and creative leaders are making more competitive offers, especially for business-critical roles with limited talent pools.

41%

are offering salaries above their planned range, citing the need to secure candidates with specialized skills as a top reason.

65%

are offering higher pay for relevant AI skills, with 38% offering more for AI-related expertise than for other tech skills.

Specialized skills commanding premiums

Professionals with the following skills may command higher pay:

Financial analysis

Budgeting and forecasting

Excel (Advanced)

Big data

ESG reporting

AI skills

National accounting standards

Financial modeling

Salary negotiations

Specialized finance and accounting professionals have greater leverage in salary negotiations as employers increasingly reward hard-to-find expertise with targeted pay premiums instead of broad salary increases.

72%

of managers are willing to negotiate base pay.

58%

say candidates frequently negotiate higher salaries based on specialized skills.

34%

of professionals struggle with knowing their market worth.

Rewards that prompt career moves

When base pay is similar, marketing and creative professionals weigh the full compensation package before deciding to accept a job offer or change employers. Top benefits and perks that influence a job change:

Work‑life balance and flexibility

Paid time off, hybrid or remote work options, flexible hours

Financial incentives

Bonuses, profit-sharing programs, stock options

Explore more total rewards insights

Roles, industries, certifications on the rise

Roles requiring specialized skills in areas such as marketing automation, analytics and digital campaign strategy are expected to have salary growth above the projected +1.8% average for marketing and creative positions.

+3.9% Marketing Automation Specialist

+3.5% Marketing Analytics Specialist

+3.0% Digital Marketing Manager

+2.8% Digital Project Manager

+2.7% Digital Strategist

+2.7% Email Marketing Specialist

Employers in these industries need skilled professionals to advance customer acquisition, digital engagement, brand differentiation and e-commerce growth.

Financial services

Marketing and advertising consulting services

Retail trade and e-commerce

Tech and IT

Certifications can justify higher pay when they validate expertise in marketing technology, data analysis, and campaign and project execution.

Adobe Certified Professional (ACP)

Google Ads Certification

Google Data Analytics Certification

HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Salesforce CRM Certification

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Salaries and trends by profession

Get 2027 starting salaries and salary insights in our other professional fields.

Finance and accounting

Technology

Legal

Administrative and customer support

Non-clinical healthcare

Human resources

The salary benchmarks in the Salary Guide From Robert Half are the result of a rigorous, multistep process designed to reflect projected market trends for 2027. They are based on actual compensation for professionals Robert Half has matched with employers across the country and third-party job posting data from Textkernel that we use to independently validate the salary levels. Learn more about our methodology.

Non-salary data is based on online surveys developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Respondents include hiring managers and workers at small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across the United States.