What is a digital marketer? As the business owner, can you take on the role? You’re already doing most of the ad work as it is, and as far as what you know about marketing online.
And what about the elephant in the room – everything’s being automated now. Why not simply automate digital marketing, too?
The uninformed say that digital marketing’s becoming obsolete, waiting in the abyss where all things non-AI await their doom.
Is that truly, and honestly, so?
Before writing off human marketers as relics of days past, let’s look at the imprint they leave on a business and why their expertise may be more precious today than ever.
What Is a Digital Marketer?
A digital marketer promotes a business’s products or services through online channels: search engines, social media, email, websites, and paid ads. Their work is judged by numbers such as site traffic, leads and cost per sale.
The job description isn’t fixed, and in fact, covers a wide range. Digital marketers work according to business needs alongside their expertise. Where one might run paid ads, another could handle social media.
A single marketer handling every channel happens in smaller companies.
Although larger companies go this route, too, when the specialist carries broad expertise throughout the many doorways of marketing online.
The sections below break down the tasks, the neighboring job titles, the skills and the cost.
What Does a Digital Marketer Do?
A digital marketer plans and runs campaigns across online channels. The work is divided into six areas, and yes, it’s possible for a single hire may be able to cover all six. Depending on workload, two or three.
For complete email workflows tied to a CRM fall under a marketing automation specialist (our business owner’s guide to that professional’s role).
What Does a Digital Marketer Do on a Daily Basis?
Just as the role’s description isn’t cast from the same, uniform mold in every business and industry, the same is true of an online marketer’s daily tasks. The information below’s based on surveys in this occupation:
- 91% use email every day
- 87% sit continually or almost continually
- 61% work a 40-hour week
- 43% have face to face discussions with individuals or teams daily
- Time pressure hits 61% once a week or more, though not every day
- 52% call the work highly competitive
- 48% say their decisions have important results for coworkers or the company
Other tasks that aren’t in the bullets above may include wading in web metrics like conversion rates and visits, cost per click, paid placements, doing A/B tests, and reporting.
Unless the team has a separate PPC specialist or market analyst whose expertise is in these functions.
What Are the Types of Digital Marketers?
Not everyone’s aware that, when deconstructed from the whole, what’s listed under digital marketers’ job description hits as high as 36.
36 separate tasks (data from Search Marketing Strategists)! Even the federal job database shows how wide that range really is.
“Digital Marketer” is also an approved registered apprenticeship title under the same code.
1. Generalist Digital Marketers
Several task channels for this marketer. Some SEO, the email calendar, the ad account, the weekly report. Companies actively using a few small channels get the most from this marketer type – one person able to keep all those channels flowing where they should.
2. Specialist Digital Marketers
A specialist burrows into one area and is an expert in it: paid search, SEO, content, analytics. It can be quite linear, with this professional focused only on one aspect (or two, or three) of your marketing strategy. However, that word, “expert,” makes the difference. Especially in pay.
At any rate, because AI and tech are expansive, the role of the specialist marketer is, today, a reference to roles such as SEO strategist, paid search strategist, social media specialist, digital media planner.
If you’ve passed the “small” phase of your business journey, and if, we assume correctly, one channel bears most of your ad spend or leads, a specialist marketer’s the ideal hire.
How Big Is the Hiring Market for Digital Marketing in the US?
BLS counts 952,700 jobs in the broader category of market research analysts and marketing specialists in 2025 and projects about 82,000 openings a year through 2035.
What’s the Difference Between Digital Marketer vs Digital Marketing Manager vs Growth Marketer
These titles’ paths cross at times, but the routes don’t really merge into one. Here’s a short description for each role.
Digital Marketer
Works inside specific channels. Builds ads, publishes content, sends email, and reads the results. Usually reports to a marketing manager or directly to the owner.
Digital Marketing Manager
A digital marketing manager often supervises digital marketers, setting the plan and budget, and assigning work across channels, They’re responsible for overall results.
Growth Marketer
Ideas that go into testing throughout customer journeys, and deciding to double down on whatever makes the most impact in numbers, are the Growth Marketer’s. Pricing pages, onboarding emails, and referral offers are typical test subjects.
Marketing Virtual Assistant
This specialist takes assigned tasks such as scheduling posts, updating email lists, and pulling reports. They’re not really involved in strategy, since that’s the owner’s or the manager’s.
A business with one or two active channels and a clear plan needs a digital marketer. A business with five channels and no plan needs a manager first, since someone has to set direction before more people run channels.
What Skills Does a Digital Marketer Need?
A digital marketer needs working skill in at least one channel, comfort with analytics and clear writing.
Technical
- Channel skills in SEO, paid ads, email, social media or content, with depth in at least one
- Google Analytics 4 setup, conversion tracking and reporting on cost per acquisition and return on ad spend
- Hands on time in platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, HubSpot, Klaviyo or Mailchimp
- Basic HTML and CSS for editing landing pages and email templates
- A/B testing of subject lines, ads and landing pages
Soft
- Writing that works for customers and for the team
- Reporting results to owners in plain language
- Running several campaigns and deadlines at once
- Picking up new tools as platforms change
A strong candidate describes a past campaign in numbers: the budget, the result and the change made afterward.
[Optional lead magnet: Download the one page digital marketer skills checklist and interview scorecard. Link.]
How Much Does a Digital Marketer Cost?
In the United States, a digital marketing specialist averages $46,951 in base salary at entry level and $67,107 with experience, according to PayScale’s 2026 data. Marketing managers earn much more, with a BLS median of $161,030 in May 2024.
- Entry level specialist: $46,951 average base, range $37,000 to $61,000 (PayScale, 2026)
- Experienced specialist: $67,107 average base, range $50,000 to $91,000 (PayScale, 2026)
- Marketing manager: $161,030 median (BLS, May 2024)
- Advertising and promotions manager: $126,960 median (BLS, May 2024)
Base salary understates what an employer pays. BLS reports that in private industry, wages and salaries made up 70.0% of employer compensation costs in June 2026, and benefits made up 30.0%. Applied to the $67,107 experienced average, total compensation comes to about $95,900. Software subscriptions, recruiting fees and ad budgets come on top.
To compare these figures with a remote hire for your own hours and budget, use the [free outsourcing calculator]. [Link]
How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Digital Marketing?
Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey (401 marketing leaders, January to March 2026) found marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue, up from 7.7% in 2025. Most respondents work at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, so treat the figure as a reference point for a small business. Companies Gartner rated as AI ready averaged 8.9%.
Run the percentage on your own revenue. At $500,000 a year, 7.8% is $39,000. At $1 million, it is $78,000. That budget has to cover software, ad spend, content and any people.
Now put a hire against it. PayScale’s average base for an experienced digital marketing specialist is $67,107, which comes to about $95,900 in total compensation once benefits are added at the BLS private industry average. At 7.8% of revenue, a company needs roughly $1.23 million in sales before that one salary equals the whole marketing budget. For an entry level specialist at $46,951 base, about $67,100 in total, the figure is roughly $860,000.
Below those revenue levels, a full time hire takes the entire budget. A smaller budget points to one or two channels, or to part time or project based help.
Will AI Replace Digital Marketers?
AI is absorbing individual tasks in a digital marketer’s job, and the small business data collected this year shows employment holding steady.
In the SBE Council’s March 2026 survey of 517 small business owners, 82% used at least one AI tool, with a median of five. Just 8% saw AI as a substitute for workers. 52% called it a complement and 34% said both. On staffing, 48% reported no change in employment, 19% reported net job creation and 9% net reductions, while 40% plan to increase hiring and 53% plan to hold steady. Owners say AI saves them a median of 5 hours a week, plus 11.5 employee hours.
Marketers themselves are less settled. In the Marketing AI Institute’s 2025 State of Marketing AI Report, 53% of nearly 1,900 marketers said AI will eliminate more marketing jobs than it creates, up from 40% in 2023. BLS projects 7% employment growth from 2025 to 2035 for market research analysts and marketing specialists, against 3% for all occupations, with a May 2025 median wage of $78,760. BLS has no category for digital marketers, so that is the closest federal figure.
Accuracy is the weak point. 45% of owners name reliability and accuracy as their top concern with AI, 43% review AI output internally and 25% have no formal review process.
The digital marketer to hire in 2026 runs these tools and checks what they produce. 23% of owners name limited knowledge or training as their biggest barrier to using AI further. Someone who configures AI inside your existing platforms is a separate hire, covered in our guide to the AI specialist.
FAQs
How long does it take to see results from a digital marketer?
Paid ads and email can produce clicks and replies once a campaign goes live, since neither depends on search rankings. SEO moves slower. Ahrefs found that only 1.74% of newly published pages reach Google’s top 10 within a year, and 72.9% of the pages in the top 10 are more than three years old. Judge a new hire’s first months on paid and email numbers, and plan SEO as a long term channel.
Can a digital marketer work remotely?
Yes. The work happens in ad platforms, analytics tools, email software and content tools, all of which run online. A remote digital marketer needs access to those accounts, a weekly reporting schedule and some overlap with your working hours for reviews.
Does a digital marketer need a degree or certifications?
BLS lists a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry requirement for market research analysts and for marketing managers. It does not track digital marketer as its own occupation. Google Skillshop and HubSpot Academy offer free certifications, so many candidates hold them. Live campaign results with budgets and outcomes show more about a candidate than a certificate does.
What is the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing uses offline channels such as television, print newspapers, radio and direct mail. Digital marketing runs on online channels, where clicks, opens and purchases can be counted, and a digital marketer covers that side. Small businesses still use both. In the SBE Council’s March 2026 survey, 22% used direct mail, 15% television, 15% print newspapers and 11% radio.
Which digital marketing channel should a small business start with?
In the SBE Council’s March 2026 survey, owners named social media as their highest return channel (34%). Word of mouth followed at 24%, then paid online ads (10%), email (8%) and content marketing (5%). These are owners’ opinions of return. Tracked sales by channel give a firmer answer.
How much does a digital marketer make per hour?
On a standard 2,080 hour work year, PayScale’s $46,951 entry level average works out to about $22.57 an hour, and the $67,107 experienced average to about $32.26. Those are base pay rates for employees, before benefits. Freelancers set their own rates, and published figures vary widely.
Vaune Everis Cura has always been a writer in the truest sense, drawn to the art both as a personal creative pursuit and as a profession. Her experience penning content across digital marketing spaces and collaborating with business owners and market shapers has broadened her craft to include strategic direction and SEO insight. Having spent years with the InterContinental Hotels Group before stepping boldly into freelancing, she understands that at the centre of it all are genuine, meaningful brand–customer relationships built on purposeful, human content.
