A fantastic career path is in digital marketing. Digital marketing has been a burgeoning industry where people may prosper and forge remarkable careers for more than 20 years.
The business is always evolving. One thing, though, will never change: businesses will always want intelligent individuals to oversee their digital marketing campaigns.
Research from eMarketer indicates that over the next five years, U.S. expenditure on digital ads will increase. The US should spend over $315 billion on digital ads by 2025. Although the rate of change is expected to slow down in the upcoming years, there should still be a large number of career chances in the digital marketing sector.
Similar patterns can be seen in a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics research. Although digital marketing is not particularly mentioned in their report, such information appears in this overall report.
According to their 2021 data:
“Overall employment of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers is projected to grow 10 percent from 2021 to 2031, faster than the average for all occupations. About 35,300 openings for advertising, promotions, and marketing managers are projected each year, on average, over the decade.”
Right now, the economy is in precarious shape. There appears to be an impending recession, but nobody is certain what will transpire.
The macroeconomic outlook for the next 12 to 18 months may be difficult, but the opportunities in the digital marketing sector should still be strong.
These kinds of chances can take you to work for a small or large agency, for an internal team, as an independent contractor in your own business, and so on. If you work in this industry, you'll probably end up working for several different companies in a variety of roles.
A person working in search engine marketing (SEM) will probably advance from junior to senior positions.
A person working in search engine marketing (SEM) will probably advance from junior to senior positions.
Let's examine the structures of many of these positions and the potential paths that your SEM career may follow. Although your journey is distinct, these are the current industry standards.
Entry-level/junior SEM roles
In most fields, the majority of people begin their careers in entry-level roles. This also holds true for the field of digital marketing. After graduating from college, a lot of people get their first position in an internal marketing team or with a digital agency.
Additionally, people transition into digital marketing from other organizational divisions. For instance, switching from management and product development to digital marketing.
Frequently, a great deal of prior digital marketing knowledge is not necessary for these positions. While most employers won't require a lot of experience, they will be searching for people who have:
- A drive to excel.
- An aptitude to learn.
- A strong ability to communicate.
Depending on where you work, each role's anticipated duration will vary.
Employers vary in how quickly they promote their employees. It's a good thing to progress more aggressively if you wish to switch roles soon.
Moving too quickly, though, will prevent you from having enough time to hone the abilities that will prepare you for your next position. Before receiving a promotion, people typically work in entry-level positions for 12 to 18 months.
Tasks and responsibilities
Entry-level and junior team members frequently work on projects that support the team's more experienced members. These responsibilities consist of:
- Creating reports.
- Conducting QA checks.
- Building SEM campaigns.
- Monitoring account performance.
- Attending training sessions and acquiring certifications.
- Taking meeting notes.
- Other foundational tasks.
Titles and roles
For every stage of your professional path in digital marketing, there are countless possible job titles in the SEM industry.
Typically, the title contains a channel indicator, like:
- Digital
- Search
- Social
- SEO
- Display
- Paid search
- Paid social
- Programmatic
The role or seniority makes up the second part of titles. You can anticipate titles such as these for entry-level roles:
- Associate
- Specialist
- Coordinator
- Strategist
- Assistant
Experienced SEM roles
Typically, after 18 to 24 months of expertise in digital marketing and SEM, an individual is prepared to move into a more senior position.
Like in many other businesses, you may still be expected to perform some entry-level duties even after you've earned expertise and even received a promotion.
An experienced position inside an organization will begin to influence connections both inside and beyond the organization. More seasoned team members frequently assist in supervising and training junior members. This does not imply that seasoned workers oversee entry-level jobs; such duties are often saved for those moving up the career ladder.
Once more, the length of these senior positions varies per organization. You should anticipate spending between twelve and twenty-four months in a position comparable to this.
I understand that most people are eager to go to the next phase of their professions, but before moving on to the next role, make sure you have mastered the one you are in. While it may be tempting to go faster, make sure to use these crucial foundational moments to lay a solid basis for your career.
Tasks and responsibilities
Whether you work for an agency or internally, as an experienced SEM, you will assume greater accountability and ownership within your team.
In accounts, experienced roles are frequently viewed as execution and quality assurance experts. These are the people who are prepared to be viewed as activation leaders because they have hands-on experience with accounts. These responsibilities consist of:
- Account management
- Large campaign builds
- Meeting agenda management
- Running partial or all client/internal meetings
- Project management
- Task delegation
Titles and roles
The title includes a channel signifier, just like entry-level positions do. Once more, those indicators might be:
- Digital
- Search
- Social
- SEO
- Display
- Paid search
- Paid social
- Programmatic
Position and seniority will make up the second component of these titles. Expect to see titles like these:
Senior positions in digital marketing and SEM start to oversee whole client engagements or internal initiatives. People in these roles serve as guides.
- Overall strategy.
- Internal and external communication.
- Client relationship building.
- Budget planning.
- Cross-channel management.
- Complex attribution.
- Team management.
These individuals are regarded as senior members of their team responsible for media activation.
After three to four years in these positions, people frequently move into team management. They frequently achieve equilibrium between:
- Account management.
- Client communication.
- Strategy development.
- Management of a small team.
This, in my opinion, is the point at which job duration starts to differ somewhat more between firms. The senior SEM position may be filled for a period of 18 to 36 months. It may seem like a long time, yet during this period, completely new talents are learned and developed.
Tasks and responsibilities
In SEM, moving up to a senior position requires careful balancing. You frequently still have work from the two previous roles to finish. This occurs when you have to cover for someone who is not in the office or fill a junior role.
But you also have managerial duties to perform. These obligations may consist of:
- Cross-channel strategy.
- Media planning.
- Budget forecasting.
- Owning internal/external communications.
- Team management.
- Driving methodology in media campaigns.
Titles and roles
As with the other categories, duties and titles can differ between firms. Expect to see titles like these:
- Senior manager
- Lead
- Director
- Senior director
Leadership SEM roles
In SEM and digital marketing, leadership positions entail:
- overseeing a group of internet marketers.
- recognizing the broad trends in the sector.
- directing the strategy of a high-level cross-channel campaign.
- managing staffing, resource planning, and relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Tasks and responsibilities
Higher level leadership positions start to emphasize strategy and development. Those who fill these positions must be able to see what the team requires in order to produce superior SEM outcomes.
One of the most crucial aspects of a leadership position is communication. Effective communication is essential when working with large groups, clients, C-level executives, and individual team members. Among the duties in this could be:
- High-level account strategy.
- Setting objectives and KPIs.
- Cross-channel media planning.
- Budget planning and scenario forecasting.
- Team management.
- Team member development.
- Staff planning and hiring decisions.
- Mentoring junior team members.
Titles and roles
SEM leadership designations differ greatly throughout companies.
You can anticipate seeing the following titles for these roles:
- Director
- Senior director
- Executive
- Vice president
Navigating your SEM career
In summary, we were unable to address every possible position and title in the SEM sector. This should provide you with a foundation for your career path, no matter where you are at.
We'll create a strategy in my upcoming post to help you become a fantastic SEM team player, learn as much as you can during your career, pick up new talents along the way, and have an incredible SEM career. Thanks for reading my article 🙏.
