Digital Marketing Specialist Salary: Your 2025 Guide

Digital marketing helps brands and businesses better reach their audience. It also helps organizations keep up with competitors and improve campaign monitoring and optimization, ultimately driving profits. 

Digital marketing specialists leverage digital marketing strategies and create online advertising campaigns to help businesses meet marketing goals. The demand for this role is high and will only increase as more companies shift their marketing efforts to the digital space. 

Delve deeper into the average digital marketing specialist salary as you explore what digital marketing specialists do and the factors that might impact your earning potential.

What is a digital marketing specialist?

A digital marketing specialist creates and implements an organization's digital marketing campaigns and strengthens its online presence. As businesses shift toward targeting potential customers through digital avenues like social media campaigns or emails, they rely on these professionals to help ensure their strategies are successful. Digital marketing specialists also connect with and grow a business’s ideal audience through digital avenues like social media, apps, emails, and websites.

While the specific tasks of a digital marketing specialist vary based on the needs of a particular business, some responsibilities include:

• Researching the latest advertising strategies and trends

• Building brand awareness 

• Developing content based on customers’ needs and goals

• Researching competitors and emerging market trends

• Collaborating with other departments 

• Publishing different types of marketing content

• Analyzing results and implementing new processes as needed

Digital marketing specialists use a variety of technical and workplace skills to complete their tasks, including analytical, creative, and strategic skills. Because of this, professionals from many different backgrounds find success in digital marketing specialist roles, such as digital marketers with experience running email campaigns, writing website copy, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Read more: Marketing Strategy: What It Is and How to Create One

How much does a digital marketing specialist make?

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), general marketing specialists earn $83,190 on average [1]. Take a look at how that compares to the average annual base salary for digital marketing specialists according to data from five popular job search sites [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]:

*All salary data current as of January 2025

The exact salary you might earn depends on many factors. For example, the industry you work in and where you work can affect how much you make. 

Factors that impact digital marketing specialist salary

The average salary of a digital marketing specialist depends on the role’s location, requirements, and industry. Your professional and academic background also influences your salary. Below, you can explore how these factors will impact what you can expect to make. 

Education

According to Zippia, 76 percent of digital marketing specialists have a bachelor’s degree [7]. While it’s possible to become a digital marketing specialist without a four-year degree, having a degree in business or marketing can translate into higher wages.

According to Zippia, the amount you can earn will vary based on your highest degree:

• Bachelor’s: $61,415

• Master’s: $68,413

• Doctorate: $68,939

If you don’t have a four-year degree, consider taking an internship or looking for opportunities to create digital marketing materials for your current employer or a private business. 

Certifications

Although you don’t need certification to work in a digital marketing specialist role, it can offer a great way to set yourself apart from other digital marketers and increase your baseline salary. Certifications show employers that you have in-depth knowledge of digital marketing skills, like SEO or content marketing.

For example, someone with a Facebook Certified Digital Marketing Associate credential earns an average of $73,000 yearly, while the average salary for certified professional marketers is $84,000 [8, 9].

Experience

As you gain more years of experience as a digital marketing specialist, you can expect that time to reflect a pay increase. Entry-level digital marketers make less than senior-level marketers, who often oversee employees in a managerial role. According to Payscale, the following is a breakdown of annual salaries based on experience [6]:

• Entry-level (one year of experience): $44,925

• Mid-level (five to nine years of experience): $62,527 

• Senior-level (20 or more years of experience): $67,011

Professionals with strong collaboration, strategic thinking, and communication skills tend to succeed in digital marketing specialist roles. A portfolio is an effective tool for demonstrating real-world expertise and your ability to use different digital marketing tactics and create a digital marketing campaign from inception to implementation.

Location

The salary of a digital marketing specialist depends on the business’s geographic location, the cost of living and working there, and whether the role is remote or in-office.

Highest-paying cities for digital marketing specialists

According to the BLS, the top five metropolitan areas that offer a higher-than-average salary for marketing specialists include [1]:

• San Jose, CA: $142,360

• San Francisco, CA: $125,670

• Seattle: $114,500

• New York, NY: $99,600

• Durham, NC: $99,450

Industry

The industry that a digital marketing specialist works in also influences expected pay. While almost any industry can benefit from hiring digital marketing professionals, some may pay more than others.

Highest-paying industries

Some of the industries with the most substantial earning potential for digital marketing specialists and their average annual base salaries include [2]:   

• Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology: $73,446

• Legal: $69,130

• Manufacturing: $64,064

• Information technology: $70,439

• Personal consumer services: $64,011 

Other common industries

Other industries that hire digital marketing specialists include health care, real estate, insurance, finance, and retail. Due to the growing competition in the health care industry, companies are looking for new ways to reach consumers. Retail businesses turn to digital marketing as more consumers turn to online shopping. 

The average base salaries for these industries include [2]: 

• Health care: $64,565

• Real estate: $57,662

• Insurance: $69,609

• Nonprofit: $65,256

• Retail: $64,796

Highest-paying companies for digital marketing specialists

According to Zippia, Meta and Microsoft are the highest-paying companies for digital marketing specialists, with salaries ranging between $123,000 and $127,000. Google, Jordan Company, and PacSun also offer salaries over $100,000 a year [5].

Related job titles

Digital marketing specialists are part of the wider digital marketing field, which includes various job titles that all share similar educational and work experience backgrounds. These roles and their base average salaries include:

1. Digital marketing analyst

Average annual US base salary: $71,016 [10]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033: 8 percent[11]

Duties include:  

• Providing digital marketing campaign strategies 

• Analyzing campaign results 

• Using programs like Google Analytics and knowledge of SEO 

• Conducting online research to gather data and learn about trends 

• Creating presentations containing your findings to other professionals 

Read more: What Is a Digital Marketing Analyst? Your Career Guide

2. Social media manager

Average annual US base salary: $55,569 [12]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033):  8 percent [13]

Duties include:  

• Promoting their company or brand on social media 

• Responding to questions and comments on social media 

• Creating and curating content to reach a brand's target audience 

• Running paid advertising campaigns on social media 

Read more: What's a Social Media Manager? And How to Become One

3. Staff writer 

Average annual US base salary: $55,908 [14]

Job outlook (projected growth from 2023 to 2033): 5 percent [15]

Duties include:  

• Researching, writing, and editing material 

• Generating engaging content that helps with SEO and advertising 

• Assisting with layout, planning, and content design 

• Working with creative and marketing teams to create content for brands

Next steps in digital marketing

Digital marketing specialists help grow an organization's online presence and work to implement their digital marketing campaigns. Factors like location, industry, company, and years of relevant experience can impact how much you earn. 

Continue learning about digital marketing or sharpen your digital marketing skills on Coursera with courses and programs designed to give you an edge in the digital marketing field. You can choose from options like Google’s Digital Marketing and E-Commerce Professional Certificate and Meta’s Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate. You’ll find these courses and more on Coursera, including Professional Certificates, an effective way to demonstrate your hands-on experience and background with different specialized topics, from content marketing to SEO.