Product marketing: for all its beauty, it’s enigmatic, to say the least, particularly given the area doesn’t even have a clear-cut definition (we collected a whopping 160 PMM definitions, from product marketers themselves).
So, to offer some clarity, we’ve gathered a collection of interesting stats, vetted by the PMA team, to provide you with the insights you want and need to gain clarity about a role we all love most.
How much does a product marketer make?
While many PMMs bounce out of bed and waltz into work buoyed by their sheer love of the industry, the finances need to stack up.In our Product Marketing Salary Survey, we explored the varying degrees of how a career in the field can line the pockets of a PMM, taking into account factors such as location, seniority, reporting structures, and more.
- While the overall average salary for a product marketer came in at $117,041, not all PMMs took home a six-figure salary; full-time PMMs earned $117,829, freelancers $100,303, full-time employees at a consultant firm $86,875, while part-time employees made $59,500.
- Salaries varied depending on location, with North American PMMs earning an average annual salary of $134,587. Earnings for product marketers based in North America were topped by those based in the US, with an average salary of $137,132.
- Salaries amongst US-based PMMs varied by region. Those plying their trade in California received the highest average salary of $152,307. Comparatively, product marketers in Ohio earned an average salary of $95,208.
- There’s a financial discrepancy between how much product marketers earn, depending on geographic location. PMMs in South and Central America made $36,023, European PMMs $75,847, Middle East $81,094, Asia $46,220, while Australia’s average was $115,921, while US product marketers led the way with an average income of $134,587
- While there are more female product marketers, (47:53%), their male counterparts earn an average of $653 more, per month, except for Asia and the Middle East.
- Job titles do make a difference, as far as earnings are concerned. Each time a PMM is promoted, the average salary increases, with the most significant increase coming when product marketers make the leap from Product Marketing Manager to Senior Product Marketer ($34,880).
7. Product marketers working in Computer and Network Security earn a ballpark figure of $138,700, more than any other industry.
8. People who are employed to market both physical and SaaS products shade their counterparts as far as earning potential is concerned, taking home $120,230, on average.
9. B2B product marketers earn $6,340 more than those specializing in B2C.
10. Product marketers holding current product marketing certifications ($118,726) earned marginally more than those who didn’t ($116,568).
11. Greater responsibilities are recognized with a healthier pay packet. When product marketers manage more people and support more products, their salary tends to increase.
12. On average, product marketers working from home earn $132,811 per year, while office-based working earns more than $23,000 less ($109,247).
13. Pay progression varies, depending on geographic location. Our survey found product marketers in the Middle East and South and Central America were more likely to have stayed on the same salary for the last three years, while North American PMMs were 10% more likely to have received three or more raises.
14. On a scale of 1-10, product marketers rank their salary satisfaction as a ‘7’, on average. PMMs in Europe and the Middle East were less satisfied, comparatively, rating their satisfaction ‘6’.
15. Over half of product marketers (54%) believe the salary they earn reflects the business value the role adds within an organization.
Product marketing roles, responsibilities, and team infrastructure
The diverse roles and varied responsibilities associated with product marketing continues to play a significant part in convincing professionals to leave the comfort of familiarity, and delve into the unknown.
But what can they expect, in terms of what PMMs are responsible for, how roles differ, and how teams are structured?
16. The majority of product marketers report to marketing (61.7%), with others reporting to product (16.4%), CEO (11.7%), and business development (1.4%).
17. Product positioning and messaging is regarded as the main responsibility of a product marketer by 92.6% of PMMs.
18. 21% of product marketers never liaise with their customers, instead, receiving feedback from other departments in their company.
19. Most product marketers are responsible for supporting 5+ products (33.1%), an increase from 2019 (32.8%).
20. 1 in 5 product marketers work alone (21%), operating as a one-man-band. As the size of the companies increases, team sizes get bigger, with PMM teams at late growth/startups the largest (9).
21. 56% of product marketers have revenue generation as their main OKR.
22. The majority of product marketers spend most of their time collaborating with the product team (88.3%), closely followed by marketing (84.2%).
23. Leadership meetings were once off-limits to many product marketers, but now, 59% of PMMs have a representative in attendance, regularly.
24. Only 9% of C-suiters don’t ask PMMs to attend their meetings.
Product marketing budgeting statistics
25. More companies are investing in product marketing teams. 46.6% of companies have a budget of $250,000 per year.
26. The majority of companies’ product marketing budgets (33.2%) are spent on software and tools, while 29.2% invest in video creation and editing.
27. Just 10.9% of PMMs have indicated their employers are investing in the development of their staff.
28. Mid-growth teams with an established product marketing team invest the most money, with a budget of over $1.2million a year.
What is product marketing?
It’s a question many non-PMMs ask themselves, and it’s a question without a concrete answer.
With many lacking a thorough understanding of the role, has this affected the mindset of product marketers, at all, and how much of an influence do they have on the product they’re marketing?
29. Just 5.1% of product marketers said other teams and stakeholders at their companies fully understand the role of a product marketer.
30. On a scale of 1-10, product marketers believe they have an average influence level of 6.3 out of 10 on their company’s goals and strategies, while they rated their influence on the product as 5.9 out of 10.
31. Product marketers feel valued by their company 68% of the time.
32. 56.3% of senior management recognize the value product marketing teams bring to their organization.
33. With a lack of understanding surrounding the role, the importance of communication takes greater significance; 79.8% of product marketers have identified strong communication as the core skill needed to succeed in product marketing.
Product marketing career path
There’s no doubting the lure of product marketing; existing PMMs are sticking around and setting long-term plans, while the outsiders looking in are keen to write a product marketing story of their own.
Let’s paint a picture of what the future holds for product marketing.
34. 66.5% of PMMs are content working in the industry and are keen to advance to the next stage of the product marketing ladder.
35. Self-employment amongst PMMs is increasing. In the US alone, 30% of product marketers are laying the foundations for their own business.
36. Just 4.5% of product marketers are leaving the industry in favor of a new career direction.
C-suite perceptions
Product marketers are no strangers to the question: what is product marketing? No less from members of the C-suite.
The relationships between C-suiters and product marketers have been considered to be lukewarm, to say the least, with a perceived lack of understanding and appreciation from those occupying the top table.Our C-suite report gave us an invaluable insight into the views the top brass at orgs have when it comes to product marketing.
37. 82% of C-suiters have had product marketing functions at their previous companies.
38. Three in 10 (31%) executives have plans to introduce a PMM team at their organization.
39. 30% of C-suite executives have no plans at all to invest in a product marketing set-up; these companies had an annual revenue of less than $10m.
40. The majority of C-suiters consider product marketing to be a strategic role (67%), while over one-quarter view it as a tactical position (27%); just 2% view PMMs as a form of support.
41. PMMs and C-suiters both consider product messaging and positioning to be the main responsibility of a product marketer.
42. Encouragingly, over half of C-suiters (56.3%) recognize the diverse input of a product marketer, acknowledging how PMMs are the voice of the customer, equip sales reps with key assets, their role in generating revenue, personalizing customer experience, as well as the marketing process.
43. Over half of C-suiters said they speak with product marketing teams at their company every day (55%).
44. The less an executive interacts with a product marketer, the less support they provide for their PMMs.
45. Almost three-quarters of C-suiters say they invite product marketers to attend meetings (67%).
46. C-suite support varies from team to team; the average for product marketing was an encouraging 8.7 out of 10.
47. The majority of C-suiters (49%) feel their product marketing teams should report to Marketing.
48. As far as C-suiters are concerned, 49% consider a Chief Marketing Officer role as the ideal fit for senior/director/VP-level product marketers.
Sales enablement statistics
Sales enablement is a critical piece of the product marketing puzzle; without it, the beautiful landscape we’re immersed in daily wouldn’t come to fruition.
How do we know? Almost three-quarters (73.8%) of the 2,000+ PMMs who participated in this year’s State of Product Marketing report told us they spend a fair chunk of their time creating sales collateral.
49. Almost half of product marketers (47.9%) don’t have a specialist sales enablement team. Add to that, they’re not planning on introducing one anytime soon.
50. Sales enablement has been placed in the hands of the marketing team, according to 56.3% of product marketers.
51. 93.7% of PMMs stated they were responsible for creating sales content at their company even though sales enablement is more commonly owned by marketing.
52. Over three-quarters of product marketers (78%) consider customer case studies to be the most effective sales enablement asset.
53. While playbooks are widely acknowledged as being highly effective, 55% of product marketers are yet to put one in place.
54. 34% of PMMs organize sales enablement sessions only when a new product is due to launch.
55. Despite the importance of reviewing sales assets, 16.6% couldn’t remember the last time it was reviewed.
The preceding 55 stats offer a glimpse into the hurly-burly world of product marketing, yet it’s worth noting these trends are by no means set in stone. The profession continues to change, and the likelihood is if we checked out the same stats two-years down the line, the landscape will be very different.
