Search entrepreneurs earn wherever from $60,000 to $220,000 in annual compensation (wage and bonuses), on common, in line with a brand new Search Engine Land survey.
Why we care. Search advertising is a beautiful and satisfying profession selection that may, over time, turn out to be more and more profitable. The keys to incomes that increased compensation? Seniority, function and the scale of the corporate or group you’re employed for.
By the numbers. VP and C-level positions earn probably the most – $220,613 in annual compensation, on common. Administrators and senior administrators earn $122,760; managers $87,688; and employees $60,866, all on common.
- Those that maintain the place of VP or increased make 3.62 instances greater than their employees, in line with our survey.




Salaries range drastically inside roles. Averages generally will be deceptive. So let’s break that down a bit additional to get a extra nuanced view:
- VP and C-level positions vary from $50,000 to $400,000.
- Director and senior director-level salaries vary from $25,000 to $300,000.
- Supervisor-level salaries vary from $15,000 to $300,000.




Why the variance? Location is one huge purpose (see our Methodology part under). However there are extra elements, reminiscent of the scale of the group and years of expertise.
Working example. Respondents who work on the largest firms get better compensation. Search entrepreneurs at organizations with greater than 10,000 staff earned $169,988, on common.




- 41% of the search entrepreneurs in our survey work at firms with greater than 500 staff.




Compensation will increase with seniority. Years of expertise sometimes translate into increased compensation.
The primary leap in wage comes round yr six or seven (~$66,000 to ~$88,000), and the second wage leap comes whenever you attain yr 10 (~$88,000 to ~$120,000), our information confirmed:




Graduate levels don’t consider compensation. Of the 276 respondents who answered this query, 66% mentioned they didn’t have a graduate diploma and earned $95,039, on common.
In the meantime, 16% reported having a graduate diploma in enterprise, however their common wage was solely barely increased at $98,988, on common.




- Context: Within the U.S., 14.4% of these age 25 and older maintain a complicated diploma (grasp’s, skilled or doctoral), in line with U.S. Census Bureau data.
In the meantime, greater than 90% of search entrepreneurs have an undergraduate diploma.




64% work at manufacturers; 32% at companies. Almost two-thirds of respondents labored at manufacturers.




- Virtually half (47%) of these working at manufacturers primarily reported into advertising, whereas 15% reported to digital or ecommerce.
The bulk (72%) of respondents mentioned their function was digital advertising.




Of the 11% who answered “different,” greater than half had “search engine optimisation” of their title.
Methodology. We surveyed 510 entrepreneurs between Jan. 11 to 23; 413 of these supplied wage data. Invites to take the survey had been amplified on and by Search Engine Land.
Almost 67% of the 510 respondents dwell in North America; 20% dwell in Western Europe. The conclusions on this report are restricted to responses from these people solely. Others had been excluded as a result of restricted quantity.
The survey had greater than 20 questions associated to profession roles, wage, expertise, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents got the chance to disclose their age and gender.
Extra to return. Over the following two days, we’ll have a look at the variations in salaries and careers of men and women, and likewise dig deeper into roles and obligations.