Field and Event Marketing Compensation Report
Inside the Key Trends and Salary Standards for 2022
Welcome to the first ever Field and Event Marketing Salary Report, powered by Goldcast. As a virtual and hybrid event platform purpose-built for revenue marketers, it’s our goal to help field and event marketers thrive in their careers—and that includes creating better transparency around salary standards. But enough about us, let’s talk about the report.
Salary reports typically include a lot of averages—but averages can be deceiving. For example, the average salary for an Events Director role in San Francisco would be vastly different from a role based in Dallas given cost of living discrepancies.
Similarly, a Director role at a company like Google would differ greatly from an early stage startup since equity is often a piece of the overall compensation offer.
And of course, there’s no uniform way in which we all define the title “Director.”
All of this to say that salary will inevitably vary based on industry, years of experience, location, stage of the company’s journey, and many other factors. And so it should! So, while there’s no one-size-fits-all way to estimate a fair salary for a given role, the goal of this report is to provide guidance for event and field marketers to help ensure there is no major misalignment with how their peers are getting paid.
Free career advice and
negotiation workshop
Before you dive in, be sure to check out this FREE career workshop we hosted with Lindsey Lathrop, career coach and negotiations extraordinaire.
In this fast-paced session, you’ll learn: how to build confidence and promote yourself in the workplace, how to figure out a fair salary for your role, how to negotiate for the compensation you deserve, and common negotiation mistakes to avoid.
Lathrop-Ryan
Certified Career Coach 💡
About the report ✍️
Our team surveyed 205 Field and Event Marketers across 31 states and from companies of various shapes and sizes. A majority of respondents are based in the United States with an emphasis on California, Massachusetts, and New York. We had respondents across all levels of seniority, including associate, manager, director, and vice president.
Here’s a quick breakdown of respondents.
Of the 31 states from which we received responses, there was an emphasis on major event markets: 52% from California, 24% from Massachusetts, and 11% from New York.
Respondents by state
Respondents represented companies of all sizes: 30% from companies with 1,000+ employees, 18% from 500-1,000 employees, and 22% from 250-500 employees. This supports the trend that field and event marketers are being hired across the board—even at smaller companies.
Respondents by company size
Average salary for field
and event marketers 💸
First things first—how much do field and Event Marketers typically make?
We’re happy to report that the average base salary for Field and Event Marketers is $125,885.
The average salary for respondents in our top markets is $146,032 for California, $124,789 for New York, and $120,310 for Massachusetts.
While this information looks great on paper, as we noted earlier, it’s not entirely useful on its own. Let’s dig a bit deeper to uncover the more meaningful insights.
Top 5 compensation
trends to watch 👀
First, let’s talk about total compensation. In addition to base salary, 50% of respondents report additional compensation through bonuses and incentive pay. Which is exciting!
What’s the basis for these bonuses? Well, this was a bit of a mixed bag. Incentives were either aligned with company goals, personal key performance indicators (KPIs), or a mix of both.
For bonuses based on personal KPIs, the most common metrics were new pipeline and influenced pipeline.
Influenced Pipeline
As one would expect, salary grows as job titles change. The most dramatic increases happen early and late in careers. Associate to Manager transitions average a 66% increase in salary, while jumps from Senior Director to Vice President enjoy a 28% increase in pay.
Salary by job title
Our third trend is of particular interest for Field and Event Marketers looking to level up in their careers. Salary does increase with experience—but not as dramatically as with title changes.
We found that salary peaks after 15 years of experience. Because we see a lot of Manager and Senior Manager roles with 17-20 years of experience, the salary ramp up with title promotions is a lot higher than that of experience.
✋ A quick caveat: The 0-4 experience range has an average salary of $93,171. It’s usually very hard to start with that salary early in your career unless you’re based in California or another high cost of living market. Other markets reported much lower salaries for entry-level positions.
Salary by years of experience
Since California skews our data a bit here, let’s look at a breakdown of our major markets (California, Massachusetts and New York) against everywhere else.
As you can see, starting salaries are 53% higher in California compared to other regions. This gap tapers a bit as careers progress, with a 13% difference at the ten year mark and 35% different late-career.
So what does this mean? Should you say “sayonara” to your hometown and book the next flight to the west coast? Not at all. Instead, use these numbers as benchmarks, and do additional research on what fair compensation looks like in your local area (we’ve got some handy resources to help with this at the end of the report).
Salary by years of experience across
key markets
This was another interesting finding in our research—salary doesn’t vary much based on company size.
What does this tell us? Well, startups and smaller companies are now able to match the pay provided by more established players. The amount of funding pouring into startups lately has been helpful for companies to attract top talent at equal or sometimes higher pay.
This is good news for Field and Event Marketers looking for startup or small company experience. As recently as just a few years ago, it would have been hard to land a competitive salary at a smaller or newer company. This simply isn’t the case anymore, and marketers have a great opportunity to land the career they want without limiting themselves to large firms.
Average salary by
company size
Not surprisingly, Vice Presidents reported the highest salary. To zero in on salary and career trajectory, we tracked the average number of years of experience that most Event Marketers had before they became VPs. Note that years of experience only includes Field or Event Marketing related roles.
So, what did we find? It takes 18 years, on average, to land a VP title.
The good news? Event Marketing is a rapidly emerging field and roles do exist at the VP level. If event marketing is your passion, there is a seat for you at the executive-level table.
Title by years of
Experience
Additional resources 📖
Whew, that was a lot! We hope this data helps you have a better understanding of what to expect from a career in field and event marketing and empowers you to have informed conversations with peers and managers.
Looking for additional resources on Field and Event Marketing compensation and careers? Here are a few of our favorites.👇
Salary and compensation research
This report is a great starting point, but be sure to check other salary sources as well. There are several great databases with vast research on various titles, markets, etc.
☑️ Comparably and Glassdoor are excellent resources for not only salary information, but also additional benefits and company culture.
☑️ Salary.com and Payscale provide large data sets with detailed information on specific titles, years of experience, location, and more.
☑️ LinkedIn, every professional’s favorite social network, offers a handy salary tool paired with a job search feature that lists relevant roles.
☑️ BuiltIn is a wonderful resource for folks in the tech space, particularly in large markets like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, and many more.
Are you looking to connect with other event marketers in a friendly, welcoming environment? If so, you’re sure to find your people at these community groups. Check them out!
Finally, here are a few Goldcast resources to help you level up your career in Field and Event Marketing.
