A digital marketer plans and runs a brand's marketing through online channels — paid ads, email, social, search, and content — and uses performance data from those channels to decide what to do next. Some digital marketers are more specialized in one domain and others are more generalists that have their hand in a lot of different areas.
What does a digital marketer do?
Roles in this field vary, so the actual scope of a digital marketer depends, often times, more so on the company than the job title. At a smaller company, one digital marketer is more likely to run several channels directly — social, search, email, and paid media, coordinated as one plan. At a larger company, the title might point to a single channel, like paid social or email, with other specialists owning the rest; or it might mean coordinating strategy across all of them while specialists execute.
Digital marketers sit on a marketing team, often reporting to a marketing manager or director, and work alongside social media managers, copywriters, marketing analysts, and designers.
Whether the role covers one channel or several, the job comes down to the same three things: building campaigns, measuring what those campaigns actually produce, and adjusting based on the data.
Key responsibilities
Not every digital marketer does all of this. The list below spans what the role can include; a given job usually covers a subset, depending on channel focus and company size.
- Plan and launch campaigns across channels such as paid social, search, email, and content.
- Manage paid ad accounts — setting budgets, writing ad copy, choosing audiences, and adjusting bids.
- Write and send email and lifecycle campaigns that move people through a funnel over time.
- Track performance against goals like clicks, leads, cost per acquisition, and conversions.
- Run A/B tests on creative, audiences, and messaging, and act on the results.
- Coordinate with other roles — content, design, analytics — so channels work together instead of in silos.
- Report results to marketing leadership and recommend where to shift budget next.
A week in the life
My week rarely looks the same twice, but a few things show up every week.
Analyzing performance is a daily activity. From the channel level down to the ad level, I’m always looking at opportunities to improve our media mix and learn from the ad creatives we have in rotation.
One of the things I find most fulfilling in my profession is developing solutions to complicated problems. Whether it’s a learning from a creative to data we uncover about one stage in the funnel, I love identifying what’s working/not working and developing tests and experiments around my hypotheses.
We have some pretty amazing people here at Campus that I get to work with as well. Every week, I work closely with our creative team, CRM team, product team, engineering team, and more.
From uploading new ad creative to running new, exciting experiments to helping steer overall strategy, what I get to work on during a weekly basis stretches across a wide spectrum, and that helps keep me on my toes!
Skills and tools
Hard skills
- Paid media management. Setting up and optimizing campaigns on platforms like Meta, Google, TikTok, and Snapchat.
- Email and lifecycle marketing. Building sequences, segmenting audiences, and writing copy that moves people along a journey.
- Analytics and reporting. Reading campaign data and translating it into a recommendation, not just a number.
- SEO and content basics. Understanding how organic and paid work together.
- Basic design and copy sense. Not always the one producing the creative, but able to brief it and judge what's working.
Soft skills
- Prioritization. Deciding where limited time and budget do the most good.
- Adaptability. Platforms and algorithms change often; the job changes with them.
- Clear communication. Explaining why a number moved, and what to do about it, to people who don't live in the data every day.
- Curiosity. Testing instead of assuming, and following up on a result that doesn't make sense.
Tools
- Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads, TikTok Ads Manager, and similar platform dashboards
- Google Analytics 4 for tracking site and campaign performance
- Email and lifecycle platforms such as HubSpot, Klaviyo, or Customer.io
- Hex or similar dashboard tools for reporting
- A CRM such as Salesforce for tracking leads through the funnel
- Project management tools like Asana for briefing and organizing work
What a digital marketer produces
A digital marketer's portfolio shows range across channels, not just one skill. Typical deliverables include:
- A campaign plan with a goal, channel mix, budget, and timeline
- A set of ad creative with the reasoning behind the hook, format, and targeting
- A performance report showing results against goals and a clear recommendation
- An email or lifecycle sequence with the logic behind timing and messaging
- An A/B test readout explaining the test, the result, and what to do next
For each piece, show the goal, what you did, the result, and what you'd do differently. If you don't have real campaign data yet, use a personal project, a small business you're helping, or a demo ad account. See these marketing portfolio examples for ways to present work like this.
Salary and job outlook
Because this role can mean different things at different companies, here's how a few related BLS categories compare, from specialist-level to manager-level:
- Market research analysts and marketing specialists (closest match for digital marketer, marketing coordinator, and marketing analyst): $78,760 median, May 2025. +7% through 2035.
- Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers (manager-level roles some senior digital marketing positions fall under): $165,780 median combined — marketing managers specifically at $166,790, advertising and promotions managers at $133,660 — May 2025. +6% through 2035.
- Writers and authors, which includes copywriters (relevant if your work leans toward content and copy): $76,910 median, May 2025. Little or no change projected through 2035.
How to become a digital marketer
Education. For its closest category, BLS says market research analysts typically need a bachelor's degree in market research or a related business, communications, or social science field, and notes that courses in statistics, research methods, and marketing are important (BLS: Market Research Analysts). Many people start with an associate degree and move into a bachelor's program. Campus's associate degree in business gives you a foundation, and credits you earn may apply toward a bachelor's degree, as determined by the receiving institution.
Entry-level jobs. Common starting points include marketing coordinator, digital marketing assistant, social media coordinator, and paid media associate. Titles and scope vary a lot by employer.
Build a portfolio. You don't need a job to start building proof of your work. Aim for three to five pieces that show your work to hiring managers:
- Pick a product or small business (with permission) and build a sample campaign plan for it, including channel mix and budget logic.
- Write and design a short ad set for one platform, and explain the targeting and messaging choices.
- Build a simple email sequence for a made-up or real product, with reasoning behind the timing.
- Set up a free analytics account and practice building a one-page performance report from sample or personal data.
- For each piece, note the tools you used and what you'd change next time.
Study the field. Learn skills that marketing employers value in the Digital Marketing and Creator Economy concentration, which covers the channels and tools digital marketers use day to day.
Digital marketer vs. social media manager
These roles overlap, and at smaller companies they're sometimes the same person. A social media manager focuses on one set of channels — organic and paid social — handling content calendars, community engagement, and social-specific campaigns. A digital marketer, when the role is scoped broadly, works across more channels (social, search, email, paid media) and owns how they work together. But "digital marketer" is also used narrowly at some companies — say, someone focused only on paid search — so the job posting's actual responsibilities matter more than the title.
If you like going deep on platform trends, audience culture, and content, social media management may be the better fit. If you want a role that spans multiple channels and connects the dots across a whole funnel, look for a digital marketing posting scoped that way — and check the responsibilities, since not all of them are.
FAQ
What does a digital marketer do on a daily basis?
It depends on how the role is scoped — some digital marketers focus on a single channel, others on several. But most versions of the job include checking how current campaigns are performing, adjusting budgets or targeting based on that data, building or refining campaigns, and reporting results to the team. The exact mix shifts by week depending on what needs attention.
What's the difference between digital marketing and social media marketing?
Social media marketing is one channel inside digital marketing. Digital marketing covers the full mix — paid search, email, content, and more — while social media marketing focuses specifically on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Do digital marketers need to know how to code?
No. Coding isn't a requirement for most digital marketing roles. Basic comfort with spreadsheets, ad platforms, and analytics tools matters more than writing code, though some technical curiosity helps when working with tracking or website changes.
How much does a digital marketer earn?
BLS doesn't track digital marketers separately. The closest category is market research analysts and marketing specialists, which had a median annual wage of $78,760 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with employment projected to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035. Pay for digital marketers specifically may differ.
This article is for general informational purposes only. Job titles, responsibilities, and requirements vary by employer, industry, and location. Completing a Campus program does not guarantee employment, a specific job title, or a particular salary.
About the author
Christian Conway is Senior Manager of Performance and Lifecycle Marketing at Campus, leading paid media and lifecycle programs. A growth marketer for nearly a decade, he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri–Columbia.