18 Marketing Manager Statistics for 2020

Written/Updated on June 1, 2020
By Jayme Severance

The future isn’t certain, but the outlook for being a marketing manager just might be.

Playing Chopin’s Etude Opus 25, No. 11 on piano may seem to have nothing to do with marketing—until you’re 29-seconds into the performance. That same sense of breathtaking speed embodies what it’s like to practice digital marketing.

Peaceful at times, but mostly frenzy and mayhem.

As part of those who work in marketing, you know that all too often when an organization faces epic budget constraints, things get cut. And cut quick. Marketing is one of the first departments to get scaled back.

In the same way, during times of economic downturn, there is a great sense of panic and uncertainty about the future. Job security while having the peace of mind you have enough to get by and feel comfortable doing so is a top priority for many.

Luckily, there is a job out there that fulfills both areas. Marketing managers know the kind of chaotic energy personified by the Chopin’s musical composition very well.

They have to.

Anywhere between multitasking, to being frequently interrupted by clients, to barrages of e-mails, you might think that your current position is good preparation for being a marketing manager.

But is it?

Marketing managers need to be a jack of all trades. As the idiom goes, you can be a jack of all trades—you could know a bit of everything. But you’re a master of none—because you know a bit of everything, you lack specialized knowledge in any field.

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This is especially true of marketing managers, who often rely on their teams to pull through difficult challenges. They may be masters of none, but that’s what the team’s for.

As you may reach to dust-off your resume, here are 18 statistics going deeper on what it means to be a marketing manager.

1. & 2. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the future for marketing managers looks bright, with a healthy edge in percent change (8%) in employment from 2018 to 2028 when compared alongside other occupations (5%)

Project Change in Employment for Advertising, Promotions and Marketing Managers

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Put another way, the above statistic really comes through when you can see the actual numbers for projected job growth.

Employment Data for Advertising, Promotions and Marketing Managers

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

This graph shows the projected employment for advertising and promotions managers vs. marketing managers.

While both professions are predicted to grow, the difference is stark when you compare the projected employment from 2018 to projected employment in 2028.

Naturally, the numbers would be different because there were several more times the amount of marketing managers than advertising and promotions managers.

3. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows, the rate marketing managers vs. advertising and promotions managers are employed through 2018 to 2028 has almost tripled.

This means marketing managers are more in-demand, as the number of marketing managers employed keeps increasing.

4. Marketing managers are among the highest paid in marketing today, according to Glassdoor.

Annual Mean Wage of Marketing Managers

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Generally speaking, the majority of well-paid marketing managers seems to be concentrated more on the east coast. This is demonstrated by BLS data of annual marketing manager wages by state in 2019.

5. Being a marketing manager means a having a secure job.

And Yahoo Finance believes that digital marketing—an area of marketing you’d find marketing managers in—is“recession-proof”at a $66.2k median wage.

Yahoo Finance Recession-Proof Industries and Jobs

Source: Yahoo Finance

6. Here’s a chart that shows the different career paths that come from being a marketing manager.

Marketing Manager Career Paths

Source: Pinterest

As you can see, many marketing managers become marketing directors, with about half becoming marketing directors.

7. Looking down the line at future career opportunities, almost all (98%) of CMOs hired today are external applicants, meaning there is an extremely small number of internal promotions.

8. Simply put, you can’t become a marketing manager right-out-of-the-gate, fresh from college. It takes years to obtain the know-how to best function in this role. In addition, it isn’t enough to merely know how to do the job. The graph below shows that a third of marketing managers have 5-10 years of experience.

Marketing Managers Experience Statistics

Source: Marketingschools.org

9. Continuing with higher education, over half (59%) of employers required applicants to have a bachelor’s degree. Another 12% also reported their preference for applicants with a masters degree.

Content Marketing Manager Statistics

Source: Dreamgrow

10. Business2Community shows that of the newly hired CMOs in 2015, 46% had MBAs.

11. While this is not yet a requirement, as analytics and data science have become more important in marketing, companies will look for applicants who have experience in these areas.

Heidrick reports that of the 48% of CMOs replaced in 2014 and 2015, 80% of their replacements had analytics experience.

12. According to Business2Community, a study also found that marketing managers and future CMOs need to have a customer focus.

Heidrick reports that “56% of newly hired CMOs have retention/CRM experience”.

13. Marketing managers still have a role in digital marketing. They are tasked with prioritizing future initiatives.

Based on a 2019 survey, half of marketing managers planned to prioritize using “more data to create the customized content that serves the customer journey” or investing “in technology that enables real-time delivery and personalization of data.”

Digital Marketers' Most Prioritized Future Initiatives

Source: Business2Community

The list also included a diverse set of priorities.This shows how broad a marketing manager’s duties can be. This also means that they’ll never get bored in this line of work—a definite advantage.

14. While content managers and marketing managers are two different jobs, they come together when it comes to hiring. Although you usually need a degree to be a marketing manager, experience is more important.

This is perhaps exemplified the best exemplified by virtue of the fact only 48% of employers want a content manager with a marketing degree. 39% have no preference.

15. Employers desire applicants to have a variety of skills.

For a content marketing manager position 69% of employers “require exemplary writing & editing skills” while only 22% of employers looks for strong analysis skills.

16. Marketing managers also need to have a knack for strategy. Although it is an important aspect of the job, there appears to be a disconnect on recording and integrating marketing and digital marketing strategies.

When asked about integrating their company’s digital marketing strategy, 45% of managers reported that they are doing digital marketing, but have no defined strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategy Statistic

Source: SmartInsights

17. More than half (83.3%) of job offers for a sales marketing manager originate from the sales and media categories, with a few outliers in between.

Marketing Managers Statistics

Source: JobisJob

18. Overall, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that oner the next 10 years there will be “a faster than average growth rate of 9 percent for marketing managers. This will translate to an additional 19,700 jobs in the marketing industry during that timeframe.”

Regardless, marketing managing is tough. That’s why it’s a high-paying profession.

What do you think? Is being a marketing manager in your future? Let us know by sending us a message in the chat below.


18 Statistics on Marketing Managers Sources

Bedgood, L. (2019, November). State of Digital Marketing—Priorities, Challenges, Trends, and More. https://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/state-of-digital-marketing-priorities-challenges-trends-and-more-02258776

Childress, L. (2019, May). The Highest Paying Marketing Jobs. https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/highest-paying-marketing-jobs/

Dreamgrow. (2018, June.) Content marketing Manager Responsibilities You Need to Know. https://www.dreamgrow.com/content-marketing-manager-responsibilities/

Henry, J. (2015,April). The 6 Skills Marketing Managers Need to Become CMO [Infographic]. https://www.business2community.com/marketing/6-skills-marketing-managers-need-become-cmo-infographic-01212781

Jobisjob. (2020). Sales Marketing Manager Job Description. https://www.jobisjob.com/sales+marketing+manager/job-description

Marketing Schools.org. (2012). Celebrity Marketing. https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/celebrity-marketing.html

Pinterest. Sales and Marketing. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/163396292714257295/

SmartInsights. (May, 2020.) 10 Reasons You Need a Digital Marketing Strategy in 2020. https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/digital-strategy-development/10-reasons-for-digital-marketing-strategy/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020, April). Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/advertising-promotions-and-marketing-managers.htm#tab-6

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020, March). Occupational Employment and Wages May 2019 11 2021 Marketing Managers https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes112021.htm

Yahoo Finance. (2019, September). 5 Jobs That Could Weather a Recession, According to PayScale. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-jobs-that-could-weather-a-recession-according-to-pay-scale-191031531.html

YouTube. (2008, December). Chopin Etude Op 25 No.11 Valentina Lisitsa. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx6-Z0nsWnw

YourFreeCareerTest. What does a Marketing Manager do? https://www.yourfreecareertest.com/marketing-manager/

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As the Junior Copywriter at MESH, Jayme brings a quality craftsmanship and artistry to assignments he creates. In his spare time, he passionately advocates for traumatic brain injury awareness to create a better tomorrow for people with similar conditions in his soon-to-be-published novel-length memoir: The Hayden Diary: Chasing The Prom From A Hospital Bed.

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