Search marketers less happy with their jobs vs. last year

Search entrepreneurs are much less glad with their jobs than they have been a 12 months in the past, in line with a brand new Search Engine Land survey.

Why we care. Search advertising continues to be a rewarding profession. Nonetheless, any job comes with quite a lot of challenges and tasks that have been past the scope of the 2024 Search Engine Land Profession and Wage survey. However what is evident from our information is that job unhappiness elevated.

Job satisfaction decline. Whereas 67% of search entrepreneurs are extraordinarily or considerably glad with their job, this quantity is down from 76% a year ago.

• 19% are extraordinarily glad (down from 25% in 2023).
• 48% are considerably glad (down from 51% in 2023).

Job dissatisfaction additionally elevated to twenty%, up from 13% a 12 months in the past. 

• 13% are considerably unhappy (up from 12% in 2023).
• 7% usually are not glad (up from 1% in 2023).

Search advertising challenges. Probably the most ceaselessly cited problem is securing ample sources – time, expertise and cash – in line with 54% of respondents.

• Demonstrating and proving a constructive enterprise influence was a big problem for 43% of respondents.
• Cross-departmental collaboration was a problem for 41% of respondents.

Most rewarding features of search advertising. For 55% of respondents, demonstrating and proving a constructive enterprise influence was probably the most rewarding side of their job.

• 52% of respondents discovered supporting colleagues to leverage know-how rewarding. 
• 42% discovered maintaining with business adjustments in advertising and martech improvements and tendencies rewarding.

Profession priorities. What do search entrepreneurs need? Rising their earnings was the best precedence for 69%. Unsurprisingly, 97% rated “develop my earnings” as both a excessive or average precedence.

Three different private profession excessive priorities have been:

• Lowering work-related stress: 49%.
• Being extra productive at work: 47%.
• Incomes a promotion: 46%.

Key tasks of search entrepreneurs. On the director-level and better positions (i.e., director, senior director, VP, SVP, C-suite), 81% mentioned researching and recommending new advertising know-how merchandise was their high accountability. 

The highest accountability for 67% of managers/workers was designing and managing inside workflows and processes. 

Different tasks that fell to nearly all of search entrepreneurs of all ranges have been:

• Coaching and supporting advertising workers on utilizing advertising know-how merchandise.
• Designing, working and optimizing/testing advertising campaigns.
• Working advertising know-how merchandise as an administrator.
• Integrating advertising know-how merchandise with one another.
• Monitoring information high quality inside advertising know-how merchandise.

Right here’s the complete checklist of tasks we requested about:

Excessive utilization of spreadsheets. A major majority of administrators+ (71%) and managers/workers (75%) spend at the very least 10 hours per week working in spreadsheets (e.g., Excel, Google Sheets, Airtable). As was the case a 12 months in the past, spreadsheets proceed to be a basic device for search entrepreneurs.

Additionally of be aware:

• Undertaking administration instruments (e.g., Workfront, Asana, Jira, Wrike, Basecamp) are used constantly by administrators+ (60%) and managers/workers (57%).
• Administrators+ and Managers/workers reported equal utilization (60%) of promoting automation and marketing campaign administration instruments.

Methodology. Our survey outcomes are based mostly on responses from 291 people in North America (79%) and Western Europe (21%). As a result of restricted variety of respondents, different areas have been excluded. We used the “median” outcomes for salaries to filter out values that may skew the outcomes. 

The 2024 Search Engine Land Wage and Profession Survey was carried out between December and February. Invites to take the survey have been amplified on and by Search Engine Land. The survey included greater than 20 questions associated to profession roles, wage, know-how, job satisfaction and challenges/frustrations. Respondents have been additionally requested to disclose their age and gender.