The demand for skilled marketing and creative professionals, especially those with digital experience, is persistent in agencies and businesses across Canada. Some employers say they will boost marketing and creative salaries for candidates with specific skill sets, but even so, many firms are working with tight budgets.Content development needs are varied across industries, and digital design and production as well as digital marketing teams are often tasked with supporting multiple campaigns. Many firms are tapping skilled contract professionals to keep priority projects moving forward.
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Marketing and Creative Hiring Trends in Canada
Tighter budgets have some firms delaying or cancelling less critical projects to focus resources on efforts expected to deliver the best return on investment.For initiatives managers want to support, securing the right talent may be difficult: hiring quickly enough to land the best talent is their greatest hiring challenge.Employers with inefficient hiring processes, including lengthy interview cycles, often miss the opportunity to recruit top professionals.
Marketing research and analyticsMarketing automationSEO/SEMCreative development and art directionLeadership/ management experienceMarketing research and analyticsMarketing automationSEO/SEMCreative development and art directionLeadership/ management experience
Agencies and businesses are experimenting with AI on marketing and creative projects to enhance collaboration and efficiency and to accelerate the pace of development.They are utilizing AI for data analytics and reporting, forecasting and predicting sales, measuring campaign performance, and audience segmentation and personalization.Still, some employers are concerned that over-reliance on AI tools will negatively impact the creative process, and professionals worry their skills may become less valued.Companies and their teams need to work together to find the right balance between using AI for competitive advantage and preserving the human element in creative work.
Shift in high-demand skillsMore contract workers or consultantsIncreased hiringOutsourcing of projectsShift in high-demand skillsMore contract workers or consultantsIncreased hiringOutsourcing of projects
How do we determine our salary figures and benchmarks? See our methodology.The salaries listed in the salary tables represent starting compensation only, meaning pay for someone new to a company in the position listed. Our estimates do not include bonuses, benefits or perks. We report salaries in percentiles and ranges, recognizing that professionals join companies at varied experience levels.Non-salary data referenced in this Salary Guide is based on online surveys developed by Robert Half and conducted by independent research firms. Respondents included hiring managers and employees from small (1-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-10,000 or more employees) private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada.
