Digital Marketing Careers: Pay and Outlook
What BLS data says about pay and job growth for marketing managers and market research analysts, and what a certificate can and can’t do for you.
Course pages love salary numbers. Here are the official ones, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), for two jobs that digital marketing programs often point to.
The numbers
| Occupation | Median pay, 2025 | Jobs, 2025 | Projected growth, 2025–35 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advertising, promotions and marketing managers | $165,780 a year ($79.70 an hour) | 454,800 | 6%, faster than average (+27,900 jobs) |
| Market research analysts | $78,760 a year ($37.87 an hour) | 952,700 | 7%, much faster than average (+66,300 jobs) |
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, both pages last modified August 27, 2026.
What these numbers mean
- Median pay is the middle. Half of workers in the job earn more and half earn less. It is not a starting salary.
- Both jobs typically start with a bachelor’s degree. That is the typical entry-level education BLS lists for each.
- Manager roles need experience. BLS says advertising, promotions and marketing managers typically need work experience in a related occupation.
What a certificate can and can’t do
A certificate can add current skills, such as SEO, paid search, analytics or AI tools, on top of a degree or work experience. It can also show an employer that you finished a structured course.
It does not replace the degree and experience that these jobs typically ask for. And no program can promise a job. As the Federal Trade Commission puts it: “No school can guarantee you a job when you graduate.”
Use the numbers to question a program
When a program page shows salaries, ask:
- Is that figure the median for the whole occupation, or the pay of the program’s own graduates?
- How many graduates found jobs in the field, and how long did it take?
- Which year is the data from?
Our checklist covers the rest: Is an online certificate worth it?
