Pardot Marketers Average Salary Guide

Pardot average salaries are a hot topic, and for good reason! The Salesforce Economy is growing at such an insane rate, salaries can be higher than similar roles elsewhere – or “a bit all over the place” as Ben phrased it in the average Admin salaries guide!

There’s no doubt that Salesforce professionals deserving of their compensation – they carry out a core function that allows businesses to reach prospects more efficiently, measure the return on marketing efforts, and in turn, optimise budget spend. How much do Pardot professionals earn, and how do you find this out?

At SalesforceBen.com, we have been enabling Admins with these statistics for a number of years. Our latest Salary Infographic gives insight into the salaries for US & UK professionals across the core Salesforce job titles – but this is the first time we have focused on Marketers.

I hope to bring context to what your salary should be. This information will back it up – so that you can be armed with ammo when asking for a raise, or applying for a new role.

Who are Pardot Specialists?

Salesforce Marketing Job Titles

Marketing is a multifaceted discipline and is not as clear cut as some of the other functions in the Salesforce Ecosystem.

One region may have different conventions and organisational structures than others, which has resulted in job title variations when the data was collated and grouped into roles.

There were 15 different roles identified, with each region having professionals in 2-4 of these; for example, the US has 4 defined roles, whereas the French sample would include 2 different roles. I split the 15 roles into 2 categories for easier comparison:

1. Salesforce-specific roles: there was one tightly aligned with the Salesforce certification ‘Pardot Specialist” in the Pardot certification pathway.

2. Hybrid roles, where generalist marketers have split responsibilities between Pardot administration and other sub-disciplines, such as field marketing, content strategy – the list is endless!

As I mentioned above, the data that Mason Frank were able to collect and verify means that some regions have salaries for Salesforce-specific roles, others stronger on hybrid roles.

*= contract onlyNote: X marks where role specific salaries are available in the data, by region.

AUS = Australia, BEN = Benelux, CAN = Canada, FR = France, DE = Germany, IT = Italy, JP = Japan, SGP = Singapore, ES = Spain.

To summarise the table above:

• Salesforce-specific roles: Benelux, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, UK
• Hybrid role: Germany, US
• Some of both: Australia, Japan, Singapore

Level of Experience

Let’s talk about experience. One single figure without context can be misleading: there will be a significant difference in the salaries of a Pardot Specialist with 1 certification and 1 year’s experience vs. a Pardot Specialist with 1 certification and 5 year’s experience. The results attempt to factor this in also.

Why am I telling you this?

Marketing is a multifaceted discipline and is not as clear cut as some of the other functions in the Salesforce Ecosystem; it’s a fact that marketing roles, generally, are harder to categorise and quantify.

Before we can start drawing conclusions from the data, we need to understand what is comparable behind the numbers. I hope this has framed the data we will now dive into.

Pardot Average Salaries

So let’s dive into the average salaries for a few locations based on the largest Salesforce survey, the Mason Frank Salary Survey.

The factors that will affect your average salary are:

• Seniority
• Location
• Market Demand, Skill Supply

There are other minor factors, such as the type of company you work for, the type of role, and certifications (which I will come on to later on).

United States

All figures in ($)

United Kingdom

All figures in (£)

Germany

All figures in (€)

Western Europe: Benelux, Italy, Spain, France

The figures that came back from the Western Europe sample (Benelux, Italy, Spain, France – excluding UK & Germany), were limited to Marketing Cloud specific roles.

Australia

All figures in (AU$)

Again, the figures that came back from the Australian sample related to Salesforce Certified roles, were limited to Marketing Cloud specific roles.

India

All figures in (₹)

Asia: Japan & Singapore

Figures in (￥), (S$) respectively.

Again, the figures that came back from the Australian sample related to Salesforce Certified roles, were limited to Marketing Cloud specific roles.

The Small Print

Salaries are correct at the time of printing, but for up to date information please contact Mason Frank directly.

Certain markets will exhibit 10-15% variance due to differences in costs of living.

The above salaries do not include bonuses and incentives. Additionally, multiple factors, including years of experience, specialized skills required and the complexity of the role, affect where the salary for a particular role falls within the range.

Salary Considerations

One single figure without context can be misleading: there will be a significant difference in the salaries based on factors – a couple of which I’ve already mentioned, that I promised to come back to.

Experience (Seniority)

Personally, once I mastered the fundamentals of Pardot and Marketing Automation, I thought I was set – not so fast! There was one thing missing: experience.

I believe there are three traits you need to become a successful Salesforce marketer – you need the operational know-how, communication skills, and experience. You may know Salesforce inside out, and be the most charismatic communicator out there – but unfortunately, experience is linear. If you have 1 year experience, you have 1 year experience.

Experience is vital – and the Salary Survey respondents agree. When asked which factors increase earning potential, 86% said ‘years of experience with Salesforce’ is important, and a further 12% said it was useful (also, don’t overlook that 56% recognised ‘years of experience in the IT industry’ as important). The factor that came in second is not unrelated either;  ‘exposure to large projects’ becomes more likely the longer you work in a Salesforce-related role, to which 76% said it’s important  and 21% claiming it’s useful.

Excelling further in your career is not just about knowing how to configure automation, build that campaign in rapid-speed, or implement something just because a stakeholder asked you to; the job of a Pardot Specialist is to advise based on specific marketing operations set up, best way to achieve a certain marketing objective, all the while ensuring what you’re building is scalable and structurally sound. The art of Salesforce comes from witnessing the masters at work, and learning from our mistakes.

That’s where the Junior, Mid, Senior groupings come in – so, where does your experience fall?

Junior

At a Junior level, marketers would have 0-2 years of experience. The experience can be gained working as part of a team, or an “Accidental Admin” at an end-user when their organisation purchased Pardot without deliberately filling the skills gap. Operational duties would include: the creation of marketing assets (emails, forms, landing pages), building simple automation, and social posting, too.

It’s likely they had a hybrid role, not solely focused on Pardot (eg. with content marketing/email strategy/field marketing responsibilities) – but these individuals will soar to the next level faster with their transferable knowledge of campaign execution.

Mid

In the mid-level, marketers would have 0-2 years of experience. They will proficiently be able to administer a fairly complex Pardot account on their own, using best practice. There’s the elements that surround the operational/technical duties, such as exposure to requirements gathering, understanding commercial KPIs, as well as some level of project management. Typically, they would have a solid understanding of their Salesforce setup also, and how Pardot can/must work in tandem.

Senior

A Senior level Pardot Specialist or Consultant, has 4+ years of experience. You will find most at larger Enterprise companies, where managing campaigns and operations for different business units requires someone who has worked in several different scenarios previously (each may even feel like an organisation in their own right!). Staying on top of releases is one thing, but prioritising which enhancements to take live, and deploying without any disruption to business continuity, is a skill set only a trained eye will possess.

Market Demand, Skill Supply

If you were to compare all Salesforce Marketing-related roles side-by-side (Pardot, Marketing Cloud, Marketing Automation roles), you may notice that one category of professional stands out above the rest: Marketing Cloud professionals.

We can begin reflecting on this trend using basic economics. Cost is determined by supply relative to the demand; if there is less supply to fulfil the greater demand, then the cost goes up.

What market forces are setting Marketing Cloud rates higher? And also, Pardot specialised roles versus broader Marketing Automation roles?

Here’s my speculation:

Time to Learn the Product

It typically takes longer to master the Marketing Cloud product, leading to less supply. Pardot was intentionally designed as a WYSIWYG, plug-in-and-play style product from day 1.

The table below outlines the experience that Salesforce recommends a candidate have before taking these certifications:

You may have noticed I left out Marketing Cloud Admin, for two reasons: a) it’s a relatively new certification, and b) it’s not a prerequisite for the next level in the certification pathway. Of course, these are rough indicators, and Salesforce do caveat that the months and years indicate product-specific, hands-on experience (and assumes prior experience in similar roles).

What I’m trying to illustrate, albeit crudely, is that it takes longer to upskill on Marketing Cloud. Even if these numbers aren’t strong, just ask any professional in the field, and they will provide anecdotal proof!

Salesforce Sales Team Commission

Salesforce sales team commission structure differs quarter to quarter, changing which products have a greater commission yield. This can create fluctuations, a greater demand for skills when many new customers are being onboarded.

Pardot Customer Base Geography

The Pardot customer base has been spreading to new regions. There will be a greater demand in places with less supply of professionals.

Certifications

Pardot certifications are another factor that have the potential to influence your salary.

Salesforce professionals love getting Certifications – they are a milestone in your career, that prove that you know what you are talking about, and are leverage if you are looking for a more senior position internally, or looking for a job in another company.

Speaking more generally, the survey also asked if they experienced an increase in their salary after earning (any) certification:

• 63% did, reporting an average salary increase of 26%,
• 37% did not, their salaries remained the same.

The chance that your salary could increase the more certifications you earn can’t be ignored but should be taken with a ‘pinch of salt’ alongside the other factors.

Notice how I said Pardot certifications have the potential to influence your salary.

Certifications in most cases won’t directly affect the salary you will achieve, your experience will. Let’s take two marketers: Rob and Alice. Rob is a Pardot Admin with 2 years experience, and has achieved 5 certifications. He is interviewing against Alice, a Pardot Specialist with 5 years experience (some Pardot Administration and marketing ops, combined campaign execution), and has 1 single certification. Assuming they are both good candidates with no major flaws, I would expect the hiring manager to hire Alice. I would also expect Alice to demand a higher salary based on her 5 years of experience.

To put context around those figures from the survey, they apply to all Salesforce certifications, and all seniority levels. Having the Salesforce Administrator certification if you are a Salesforce Administrator makes sense as a salary booster; marketing automation is not as narrowly defined, criss-crossing many more skill-sets outside of the technology itself. In fact, none of the Pardot Certifications ranked in the top 10 for ‘Certifications likely to increase your worth’ featured in the survey (again, these are not conclusive figures, but do support the secondary importance of certifications).

As I said, Certifications do prove that you know what you are talking about – hiring managers can safely assume you have a certain degree of knowledge. Moreover, they aren’t exactly a walk in the park, that shows you are motivated, driven, and committed to progressing your career!

There is one exception – applying to implementation partners (AKA consultancies/SIs). Certifications help these partners achieve new tiers and recognition in their Salesforce partnership (this post goes into the details why); therefore, Certifications become a currency they value, more than an end-user would.

At the end of the day, it’s a shame that we cannot make a direct comparison with the data available between Pardot-specific roles and broader Marketing Automation roles. Anecdotes and observations from the Salesforce job market that I’ve heard do support the notion that certifications boost your salary, but let’s not naively use certifications as a ‘magic pill’ without the context of individuals’ experience.

Type of Role

Permanent vs. Contract

In addition to seniority, results from the survey were split into two distinct types of roles: Permanent and Contract.

Permanent roles are the typical job where you are employed for an indefinite period, paid on an annual salary. As a contractor, you are brought onboard to utilise your expertise in one particular area, and your work is defined by terms, such as the period of work (often extendable), paid on a daily rate.

There are pros and cons to each side of the fence. Contractors do get compensated handsomely, in fact, of the respondents who said they would consider moving from permanent to contract, 81% would be motivated to do so for the higher earning potential. However, there are benefits and perks that contractors miss out on, mainly stability, benefits, and promotion. Plus, generally having income directly tied to the number of hours worked does not appeal to many (I would know, talking as a contractor myself!).

Here’s a great article on the topic: Contract vs. Permanent Roles: Which Is a Good Fit for Your Salesforce Career?

Specialist vs. Consultant

Marketing Specialists are employees of one company, where they will work on orgs owned by that organisation, whereas Consultants work for a Consultancy, and their knowledge and time is sold as a service to the consultancy’s client base. A Consultant would work with many different accounts on a short term basis, which could include implementing new Pardot accounts, setting up a complex marketing campaign, optimising and integrating multi-channel marketing, or performing a system audit.

Who would make a good consultant? Certain skills and qualities are a better fit for the consulting life:

• Communication: “having the ability to verbally communicate complex functional and technical requirements across a wide spectrum of job roles and hierarchies makes for a powerful consultant” (Matt Wade)
• Requirements gathering: diligently capture clients wants and needs, and document systematically for the client to accept; without sign off, project scope is likely to cascade, commonly known as “scope creep”.
• Stress tolerance: be able to stay cool, calm and collected, even when the technology may not be going to plan.
• Imagination: to bring inventive ideas to the table for planning solutions to make campaign execution smoother, or get around product limitations.

Power-up Pardot Admin

Increasing your Salary requires you do some research (reading resources like this post). Particularly if you are an ‘accidental admin’, you may not have even realised you were being underpaid relative to the skills market – I will stress again, the Salesforce Ecosystem is an exceptional tech job market where demand is outstripping supply.

Versatile Marketers

Career progression, in our field, also requires some digging into how you, as an individual, want to spend your days. MarTech skills landscape is rapidly evolving, meaning the number of avenues you could go down is endless – many marketers (myself included) are guilty of trying to pursue too many paths, instead of focusing on 1 or 2 specialisations, or a group of skills that foster one another. An example of skill sets that complement one another would be persuasive copywriting, good design and personalisation (data, execution), campaign set up and automation, and of course, email analytics.

Doubling Down on Salesforce

Doubling down on Salesforce-specific skills is an admirable route to go, of course (once you have let go trying to become a ‘jack-of-all-trades’)! We wrote a post at the start of the year titled: “6 Salesforce MarTech Trends for 2020 – and the Skills they’ll Demand”, pooling together our predictions on the hottest skills the ecosystem will demand. These will add a sharp competitive edge to your person:

• Pardot continuing to establish itself as a player in the Enterprise market, bringing new complex features that require consultants to implement, such as Business Units.
• Predictive Analytics: Einstein sweeping throughout the Salesforce platform has democratised both analytics and predictive intelligence. Understanding how predictive products work, eg. Pardot Einstein Campaign Insights, Einstein Attribution, will pay dividends in the future when more businesses implement these features and need guidance.
• Moreover, Analytics is a skill that will only rise in demand, with B2B Marketing Analytics being adopted by more Pardot customers.
• Unified Marketing Interface: eg. Pardot Lightning means Pardot Admins should no longer isolate themselves in Pardot.
• Plus, Pardot-only features and objects (eg. List emails, Landing Pages) are transitioning into Salesforce objects. An understanding of the Salesforce object schema (data model), and standard features such as reports & dashboards will strengthen your value as a professional.
• Data Protection / Preference Management: in the aftermath of GDPR, handling data in accordance with the legislation and company policies is sought after – and let’s not forget CCPA is coming.

We’ve seen these demands rise over time, but I still consider these skill sets as niche; I believe these skill demands will ring true into 2020 also.

Specialist → Consultant or Contractor

Our Admin2Consultant series was wildly popular, where Ben and Matt spoke about their career move from being full-time in-house Admins, to Consultants. Check out the series, all listed in this blog pack.

MarTech Mastery

As Matt Hill, a well-known recruiter on the UK MarTech market, said so well: “Marketing technologies are like the Olympic rings. Each aspect overlaps with another; together well-integrated marketing technologies are certainly greater than the sum of their parts”. Whilst Pardot & Salesforce Marketing Cloud will form the backbone marketing automation, he points out the importance of knowing how they interact with third party technologies that contribute to success; he references popular tools Movable Ink, Uberflip, Buzzsumo, Wistia as extra ammo to your resume.

Summary

Thanks to results from the Mason Frank Salary Survey, we have been able to start painting a picture of the state of Salesforce Marketing salaries – and why that may be the case. Plus, I’ve shared some insight into the multiple directions you could potentially take your Salesforce marketing career, for an exciting and fulfilling role.

Stay on the lookout for more results from the latest Mason Frank Salary Survey, the largest Salesforce survey, that uncovers