More than half of the online marketers in Israel have never taken a professional course on the topic, and yet they earn NIS 2,000 more than their colleagues who have had career training, according to a new salary survey conducted among 620 employees by Fialkov Digital, which specializes in result-based advertising.
"It may seem like it's better to avoid professional training, but there are people who do not have a chance of breaking into the sector without it," said CEO Or Fialkov. "If you do not have a background in communications then it is difficult to enter the industry without a class. By my personal estimate, people who would not pass a course, would not become part of the industry, and that is why people earn less even though they've had training. Nevertheless, professional training is not a requirement for any workplace."
In recent years, online marketing has become an essential tool wielded by every business and organization big and small. Advertising platforms like Google and Facebook continue to make gains, and the companies that want to remain relevant to users and consumers are allocating bigger and bigger budgets to their digital divisions.
"Almost every company today has someone responsible for their online image," explained Fialkov. "That position did not exist in the past, or the firms would contract an advertising agency, a marketing manager, or an external company. Now it seems that every company has a digital marketing manager, and it makes the sector more interesting, more challenging, and more competitive."
Survey Says
The results of the survey show that 55% of the online marketers in Israel were male and that 75% were in the 23-35 age range with only 10% of the new workforce above 40. The overwhelming majority (80%) are salaried employees, who earn on average NIS 2,420 less than their independent colleagues.
A significant majority (59%) are from Israel's central district, with the Sharon region a distant second place at 17%. Under a fifth of them (19%) work for international firms and receive substantially larger compensations NIS 17,700 average monthly salary compared to NIS 12,400 paid to those working for local companies.
Gender Gap
According to the survey's figures, the average salary for the field is NIS 13,500, but to no one's surprise, despite the disappointment is far from equal, with men averaging NIS 15,000 compared to the NIS 11,400 paid to female marketing managers. The gap only widens at the top, with a mere 6% of female workers earning more than NIS 20,000, compared to the 19% of male employees to reach such compensation.
When broken down to segments, a quarter of the new workforce earns NIS 4,500-8000 per month, a third earns NIS 8,000-12000, and another third earns NIS 12,000-20,000. The survey shows around 4% earn NIS 20,000-25,000, 3% earn NIS 25,000-30,000, and 6% receive compensation greater than NIS 30,000 per month.
If the salaries are divided by the different positions now part of the digital marketing field, the results show that the highest average salary is paid to media buyers (NIS 16,500) followed by the web analytics personnel, who earn NIS 15,750 per month. The "attractive" position of social media manager shockingly earns the lowest average paycheck in the field NIS 11,000 which is surprising given that they are often the first point of contact with a client and are forced to handle crises which tend to play out on companies' Facebook pages.
Recently, Agadir a high-end hamburger chain was the target of social media attacks in the wake of a provocative advertising campaign.
More worryingly, a third of the digital workers claimed their compensation was unfair or very unfair. That could be because 40% of them want to switch positions, a figure likely based on the age profile of those working in the field. Most of them are relatively young, which pushes them to attempt new roles and aspire to rise through the ranks quickly.
Tourism Trade
Close to half of the respondents said they work at a company which provides marketing services online; 41% work within the digital marketing division of an organization, and 10% said they work as freelancers for several outfits.
When the salaries are broken down by industry, the team at Fialkov noticed that the marketers for tourism businesses earned the most on average NIS 15,500. Behind them, at a distance, are those employed in finance, web, and game companies, with more than NIS 14,000 per month. The lowest compensation is paid out to those working for government and social organizations (NIS 9,400).
The survey further showed that some half of those polled work in classic digital marketing positions online campaigns, social media campaigns, and digital support for offline campaigns. Some 19% work in performance-based marketing (PPC), 6% in search engine optimization, 4% as media buyers, and 3% copywriting. Only 2% of respondents worked in affiliate marketing and a similar amount in web analytics.
"The rise of PPC, which includes Google and Facebook campaigns, has really been felt. Two years ago everyone talked about managing social media pages. It's still important, but PPC has taken a much more significant market share, and the latter is what everyone is after besides media buying and analytics," said Fialkov.
The survey also showed that 17% of the respondents were department heads at their organization, 14% were team leaders, and 9% were CEOs. At the top, the CEOs earn on average NIS 22,300, a senior manager earns NIS 19,900, and a team leader receives NIS 14,400 per month. An entry position, on the other hand, earns NIS 8,022 per month.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 31, 2015
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