A comprehensive guide to Demand Generation trends, salary ranges, role descriptions, and more!

Demand Generation Salary Guide

Table of Contents

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Introduction & About the Author .................................... 3

Understanding Your Salary Guide ................................... 4

Demand Generation Overview ……................................... 5

Hiring Challenges ............................................................. 6

Industry Trends ……………………………………............ 7

Making Sense of Salary Trends ………………………….. 8

Demand Generation Salaries & Role Descriptions ……… 9

Marketing Operations/Automation Salaries & Role Descriptions …………………………………………………

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About Versique ……………………………………............ 12

Talent & Job Search Resources …………………............. 12

Introduction

One of today’s most in-demand skill sets is understanding how to leverage both technology and data in order to improve the relationship between sales and marketing.

While there are many variables that factor into the compensation equation (bonus, stock, benefits, etc.), this salary guide will give you, as an employer, an idea of how to position your organization to attract the best revenue-producing marketers. If you’re a job seeker, it will give you the insight necessary to make the most of your next career opportunity.

Wes Lieser is an experienced Digital Marketing Recruiter at Versique, a Minneapolis-based executive search and consulting firm.

In his time with the company, he has profiled over one thousand Demand Generation candidates from across the country, working with companies in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, Austin, New York, New Jersey, Minneapolis, and Boston.

About the Author

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Learn More

The Demand Generation Salary Guide is a comprehensive resource for salary information

and hiring trends for Demand Generation positions across the country. Based on

information gathered over the past 24 months, this salary guide is the most current and

wide-ranging of its kind. The majority of the data was received from individuals in the

following cities and their surrounding areas:

• New York, NY• Boston, MA• Seattle, WA• Minneapolis, MN• Austin, TX• Denver, CO

If you are interested in learning hiring trends, salaries, and role descriptions specifically for

the Bay Area, download our specialty Bay Area Salary Guide.

There are two important things to note before we get started:

1. The salary information in this guide will be most relevant for technology companies.

2. As we do not have direct access to pay stubs or W2s, we take salary information we

receive at face value. To eliminate outliers and ensure the most accurate numbers,

salary ranges are calculated using 80% of relevant data points. For example, if the listed

salary range is $115K to $130K, it means that 80% of the data points will fall within that

range.

Understanding the latest salary trends and current hiring outlook is critical to your

organization’s ability to attract and retain the best talent. With this salary guide, you will

boost your competitive advantage and attract the best talent in the Demand Gen market.

In this guide you’ll find:

• The latest and most accurate salary data and role descriptions for top Demand

Generation positions nationwide

• Expert advice for hiring managers on how to attract top Demand Generation talent

• An in-depth review of the hiring outlook for positions related to Demand Generation

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Understanding Your Salary Guide

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Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in demand for marketers who understand how to leverage technology to increase sales and marketing efficiency, and drive revenue. Companies now have better ways to attract, nurture, and close leads – ultimately due to the data made available by improvements in technology.

Data not only gives you better insight into HOW to interact with your prospects, but also WHEN to interact with them. Persona building, lead scoring, and database segmentation are just a few critical parts of your nurturing strategy that shouldn’t be overlooked. You can have the greatest content in the world, but if the message goes to the wrong prospects, or reaches them at the wrong time, it won’t translate to meaningful results.

The most important aspect of Demand Generation for a marketer to understand is that success in this segment is not just about leads. While acquiring leads is important, a savvy Demand Gen professional knows that the ROI that results from those leads is the most important factor to watch. As reporting tools develop, leadership will view marketing ROI as a much more significant contributor to revenue.

Demand Generation Overview

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In recent years, Demand Generation has become one of the most quickly growing sectors in the marketing industry. Depending on the business, Demand Gen is typically divided into two components: the campaign/program side and the operations side. As this part of the industry grows, there will be more and more demand for experienced professionals to step in and build data-driven marketing strategies in all industries.

While Demand Generation is one of the most popular career paths in the marketing industry, it is not without its hiring challenges. One of the biggest challenges hiring managers face is the competition for talent. “There are simply more jobs than there are qualified people to fill them,” said one expert. It’s a candidate’s market and organizations in need of Demand Gen professionals will need to differentiate themselves to attract and retain top talent.

One of the other major challenges in hiring for Demand Generation roles is finding the necessary technological skills for the job. Marketing Automation requires a lot of technical experience, and it can be difficult to find candidates who have extensive experience with the necessary technology and tools.

Along with finding technical experts, hiring managers should look for professionals who know the limitations of reporting tools and understand that the B2B space requires a level of trust between a business and its vendor/partner. That same level of trust also benefits B2C companies in their interactions with consumers. Look for Demand Gen professionals with an expert handle on lead-nurturing email campaigns who know how to build up that trust and convert it to sales.

Hiring Challenges

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Industry Trends

There are a number of industry trends that set certain companies apart in the competition for talent. One

expert believes the following are the three trends that could make a company more attractive to top

Demand Gen professionals: Account-Based Marketing, Predictive Analytics, and Funnel Analytic Tools.

Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing refers to the targeting of select accounts, as well as the decision makers within

those accounts, to market directly to them. According to one expert, “The ABM model is essentially for

targeting enterprise companies. At the enterprise level, you have a committee of at least 5-15 people you

need to influence to purchase your product or solution. Companies like Engagio, founded by Jon Miller (Co-

founder of Marketo), Lean Data, LeadSpace, Termimus, and Bizible are all trying to help write the first

chapter in the Account Based Marketing history books.”

Predictive Analytics

One Demand Generation expert said, “Predictive Analytics is the ability to analyze your database of closed

or lost leads and then analyze your existing pipeline or lead funnel, and identify which leads have the

highest propensity to close.”

What makes Predictive Analytics (PA) so complex is that, once peripheral technologies are added to the

tech stack, one must assume that the implementation between Marketing Automation and CRM systems,

as well as the data within those systems, is “clean.” PA solutions are, by nature, dependent on how the MA

and CRM are built, as well as on how clean the data within those systems is.

Regardless of different marketers’ stance on Predictive Analytics, it reinforces what we already know:

better data leads to more accurate reporting.

Funnel Analytics Tools

There is a limit to the reporting capabilities of Marketing Automation and CRM systems. The typical lead

doesn’t click the “buy it now” button; leads need to be nurtured and trust needs to be developed in order

for them to convert to sales. That is where Funnel Analytics Tools come in.

According to one expert, “The real problem Demand Generation marketers have, is how to attribute all the

various marketing touch points to ROI. Some Marketing Automation tools make it difficult for marketers to

get a good sense of what funnel velocity looks like. There are various companies out there trying to tackle

the lack of deep marketing analytics that can accurately attribute ROI and a multitude of touch points.”

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Salary trends ebb and flow by industry and region. We take this into consideration when detailing salary ranges. Additionally, there are three variables to consider as you review the salaries in the following pages.

1. Job Title A title in one organization doesn’t necessarily equate to the same title in another. In fact, it’s not the title that matters most, but the scope of the role, which we’ve outlined in the following pages.

2. Promotional Levels We provide a variety of title levels for each type of role such as VP, Director, Manager, and Specialist. If someone is a “Senior Manager” or “Associate Director,” you can expect salary to vary slightly from a typical “Manager” or “Director” level salary.

3. “Attraction Cost” This salary guide is a summary of what candidates are currently making. If your organization is a startup looking for a Director of Demand Generation with 10 years of experience, that candidate likely makes a base salary towards the top of the “market value” range. Companies that want to hire the best will have to consider paying above market price to actually get the best.

It’s important to note that there are varying levels of digital acquisition expertise. For example, smaller companies may require their Demand Gen expert to also be a new customer acquisition (SEO, SEM, etc.) expert because they’re trying to run as lean as possible. While larger companies may give that responsibility to another employee. Either way, the two go hand in hand….it’s just a matter of who’s doing the work.

Finally, the information in the salary guide is based on information that we’ve compiled over the past 24 months. Many of our clients have been startups and SMB companies, so the data is heavier in those areas.

*Note: The salary information collected in this guide was rounded to the nearest thousand. The ranges on the following pages continue with the same pattern.

Making Sense of Salary Trends

VP of Demand Generation

This role requires 15+ years of experience and is very involved in building an organization’s

tech stack and ensuring that their team has the best possible resources to be successful.

The VP of Demand Gen leads the overall strategy and direction of 5+ marketers and is

typically directly tied to pipeline growth and aligning marketing with sales. In some

instances, inside sales (Lead Qualification Reps) may report to this role.

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To fully appreciate the impact of Demand Generation, one must first understand how the

modern sales and marketing process works. A Demand Gen professional is well-versed in

how to acquire, nurture, convert, and retain customers. Furthermore, they have a deep

understanding of the overall lead management process – they decide how leads are

acquired, scored, nurtured, and passed along to sales, all the while working endlessly to

shorten the sales cycle.

Startup SMB Enterprise

N/A $164,000 - $181,000 $198,000 - $221,000

Director of Demand Generation

This role is considered one of the most sought-after roles in Demand Generation. Companies typically look for people with equal strategic and tactical skills. Depending on the organization, a Director of Demand Generation will have anywhere from 1-5 direct reports. The ideal candidate would have the ability to develop overall Demand Gen strategy, but wouldn’t mind rolling up their sleeves to aid with tactical execution as well. This position requires 7-10 years of experience.

Startup SMB Enterprise

$112,000 - $128,000 $126,000 - $153,000 $149,000 - $171,000

Demand Generation Salaries & Role Descriptions

Demand Generation Manager

While Director-level roles are in the highest demand, manager roles are the hardest to recruit for, due to the variance in skills required to be successful. Managers should be experts in marketing automation, but should also have experience building and executing campaigns from scratch. This role requires 3-6 years of experience and is often the point where most professionals determine whether they want to go down the Demand Gen path, or the Marketing Operations path.

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Demand Generation Salaries & Role Descriptions cont.

Startup SMB Enterprise

$64,000 - $87,000 $74,000 - $95,000 $76,000 - $102,000

Demand Generation Specialist

No one goes to college to study Demand Generation (at least not yet) so these professionals typically learn on the fly. People in this role are generally responsible for executing campaigns that support marketing initiatives and reporting on the results using the CRM and/or MAP. The position requires 1-3 years of experience.

Startup SMB Enterprise

$44,000 - $57,000 $47,000 - $61,000 $49,000 - $77,000

A Demand Gen professional is well-versed in how to acquire, nurture, convert, and retain customers.

Furthermore, they have an understanding of the overall lead management process.

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If we look at Demand Generation as a vehicle, then Marketing Operations can be seen as the nuts and bolts that keep things running. Marketing Operations is about managing the day-to-day sales funnel and automation infrastructure to make sure that the lead management process runs efficiently. These positions are very involved with Marketing Automation and work very closely with both IT and sales to develop reporting and analytics that ensure that KPI’s are being met.

Marketing Operations/Automation Salaries & Role Descriptions

Director of Marketing Operations

This role leads the overall strategy and execution of the company’s lead roadmap, as well as the process to optimize funnel performance and shorten the sales cycle. This person, in charge of improving database cleanliness and overall business performance, should also continuously perform maintenance checks of existing campaigns and programs. The role requires 7-10+ years of experience.

Marketing Operations Manager

This position is extremely hands-on and technical, requiring the use of both Marketing Automation and CRM systems. This person manages the database and design workflows in the MAP to increase the flow of qualified leads over to sales. This role requires 4-6 years of experience. In smaller companies, “Marketing Operations” and “Marketing Automation” titles are often used interchangeably; however, in larger organizations, a Marketing Automation Manager acts more like a system administrator, while a Marketing Operations Manager focuses on lead management, shortened conversion time, and data cleanliness.

Marketing Operations Specialist

This position typically requires 1-2 years of experience using MAP and CRM. The person in this role manages the day-to-day operations for lead scoring, database segmentation, and campaign execution. They have a general understanding of the marketing infrastructure, but generally serve as more of a system administrator.

Startup SMB Enterprise

$112,000 - $131,000 $117,000 - $138,000 $123,000 - $146,000

Startup SMB Enterprise

$63,000 - $81,000 $65,000 - $89,000 $66,000 - $95,000

Startup SMB Enterprise

$47,000 - $60,000 $49,000 - $63,000 $52,000 - $70,000

About Versique

Talent & Job Search Resources

Versique is one of the largest talent acquisition firms in the Midwest, and specializes in both consulting and permanent placement. The firm’s team has more than 350 years of combined experience.

The recruiting and consulting team specializes in the following practice areas: information technology, human resources, digital marketing, engineering/operations, finance/accounting, sales, CPG (consumer packaged goods), and executive retained search. Versique also has an internal digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO, PPC, inbound marketing, and more.

Versique has filled thousands of positions and its network of connections is one of the strongest in the industry. We create amazing connections.

Contact Our Demand Generation Recruiting Team

Call today to find a new opportunity for yourself or to start the search for top demand generation marketing talent to add to your team!

952.935.2000 | Email Us

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