Neon River Marketing Salary Survey 2021
We are delighted to share with you the results of the Neon River 2021 Salary Survey for Chief Marketing Officers and Heads of Performance Marketing. Based on proprietary data from interviews with candidates across a number of different client assignments, this survey provides some highly useful information on market rates of compensation.
Highlights
- The mean salary for CMOs was £142,858.30
- The mean bonus for CMOs was £17,208.33 or 12.0% of salary
- The number of team members in a CMOs team has a reasonable correlation with their salary (and also with their salary + bonus)
- The mean salary for Heads of Performance Marketing was £95,308.33
- The mean bonus for Heads of Performance Marketing was £11,250.11 or 11.8% of salary
- The size of the acquisition budget of a Head of Performance Marketing has a reasonable correlation with their salary (and also with their salary + bonus)
Methodology
- Salary and bonus data were collected from 121 CMO interviews and 124 Head of Performance Marketing interviews with candidates based across Europe.
- One of the challenging aspects of any salary survey is finding a measurable metric by which the seniority of candidates can be judged. Job titles are misleading and have different meanings in different company contexts. Whilst no seniority metric is perfect, this survey suggests that team size and budget size broadly positively correlate with salary and provide a reasonable guide to the seniority of a marketer’s role.
- The candidates interviewed come from a variety of backgrounds; some were CMOs, others VPs of Marketing, Heads of Acquisition, Directors of Performance Marketing and so forth. A Head of Marketing with a team of 100 might well be paid more than a CMO with a team of 5; team size is a better indication of seniority than job title. The surveyed candidates were from the internet, software and games sectors, with some candidates working for traditional businesses undergoing digital transformation. Candidates with either purely acquisition focused roles, or those who owned just performance marketing were counted as “Heads of Performance Marketing”. Those with more generalist marketing leadership positions were included as part of the “CMO” grouping.
- All salaries are in pounds sterling for ease of comparison, based on the exchange rate on 14th June 2021.
- For the CMO salary survey, data was collected on their salary, bonus and team size.
- For the Head of Performance Marketing survey, candidate data was collected about their salary, bonus, and acquisition budget size.
In Detail – CMO Salary Survey
- The mean salary for CMOs was £142,858.30
- The mean bonus for CMOs was £17,208.33 or 12.0% of salary
- The number of team members in a CMOs team has a reasonable positive correlation with their salary (and also with their salary + bonus)
In Detail – Head of Performance Marketing Salary Survey
- The mean salary for Heads of Performance Marketing was £95,308.33
- The mean bonus for Heads of Performance Marketing was £11,250.11 or 11.8% of salary
- The size of the acquisition budget of a Head of Performance Marketing has a reasonable positive correlation with their salary (and also with their salary + bonus)
Conclusion
We hope that our survey and data will be of use to candidates and hiring companies alike. We found that salaries for CMOs were on average 49.9% higher than those of Heads of Performance Marketing, showing a quite considerable step up in compensation. Bonus levels were very similar across both roles with bonuses of 12% on average for CMOs and 11.8% for Heads of Performance Marketing.
Interestingly team size correlated pretty well with compensation for CMOs, as did acquisition budget size to salary for Heads of Performance Marketing, suggesting that these metrics might be a good way to understand the seniority of candidates in these positions.
About Neon River
Neon River is a headhunting firm that works with internet, games, software and technology clients around the world. If we can help you in the future, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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