What Are In-House SEO's & Marketers making?

[GerryFoster]

I'm trying to do some market research in order to advocate for myself in getting a really substantial raise. This info is really hard to find on the net as folks like me rarely have public-facing info.

I also understand this is considered sensitive information - as such I am open to receiving private messages with salary info etc. I will not be sharing this outside of trying to average the amounts I might get.

I SUPER appreciate anyone willing to discuss. Thank you.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I think the going rate in automotive amongst vendor SEO departments is $65,000 to $90,000 for a strategist (the highest level before management). This depends on the company and where in the world someone is.

Lesser roles are in the $40,000 to $70,000 range.

 

[GerryFoster]

Thank you @Alex Snyder. I am looking for information regarding SEO's that work in dealership.

 

[Alex Snyder]

That is an extremely rare breed. Even the dealer groups that could afford to build full digital marketing departments usually outsource those types of jobs to website providers and marketing agencies.

 

[GerryFoster]

welp....that's what I am. An extremely rare breed. Priceless isn't an option for salaries though

 

[Ryan Everson]

Difficult to place a number without knowing your list of job responsibilities. But you need to demonstrate to your dealer group how much additional organic traffic your efforts are generating, how much paid search expense that is saving them, and how much of that traffic is converting into leads - which you can then roughly extrapolate to sales and subsequently gross profit.

If you went away today, where would they be a year from now - what additional expenses would they have to take on, and approximately how many sales would they potentially lose?

@Alex Snyder's ranges are a little higher than I would have pegged them at. But one thing to keep in mind is that the client load on the vendor side is often 3-10x what you may experience on the dealer side.

 

[craigh]

Are you doing only in-house SEO or are you also coordinating their digital marketing spend?
For in-house only I don't see many dealers budgeting more than a couple thousand dollars a month, so I don't know where the ceiling in value is there.

 

[Ryan Everson]

Also, one other thing to keep in mind - advocating for a really substantial raise would have transparently been much easier last year than doing so right now with the coming headwinds dealers are preparing for. Timing in life is everything.

And unfortunately, an SEO-only in-house position tends to be the first to get cut when times get tough. It's easier to cut what's viewed as an "overhead admin" type role vs a revenue-generating role.

So my 2 suggestions would be a) diversify your skillset / responsibilities if they aren't already and b) demonstrate how your activities indirectly generate revenue (and save expense) in both the near and long term.

Put yourself in your dealer's shoes and sell it in a way that will make it easier for them to say yes. Instead of "I deserve a really substantial raise because company X pays more." Say in the past 3 years, our organic traffic has grown X% YoY and generated X leads which translates into X sales and $X gross profit. To replace this free traffic, we would have had to spend X in paid search and X in management fees. Over the next year, here are my plans to continue to grow traffic and keep our expenses low...

The good news is you and your dealer group are indeed a rare breed. Not many dealers have the wherewithal to bring SEO in-house, it's a long-term commitment that tends to have delayed gratification in an industry that craves immediate results.

 

[joe.pistell]

Is the store a little fish or a big fish?

 

[Crossout11]

dealing with seo))
they're inhouse because of the fact they work in the company they promote