Skip to main content
Competrace
All levels studies

How many levels do digital marketing ladders have?

Data collected on

We read 10 digital marketing ladders that public employers and companies publish for their own staff and counted their levels. The median is 5 levels for digital marketers who do not manage people, and 5 is the most common count. Every source is linked below, and the data is free to download.

Key findings

  • Ladders run from 1 to 7 levels. The median is 5, and 4 of the 10 ladders use exactly 5.
  • 6 ladders publish a separate track for managers. The 5 that say where it starts put it between step 1 and step 3, and the median is step 1.

How many levels digital marketing ladders have

Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for digital marketers who do not manage people.

  • 1 level1 ladder
  • 2 levels0 ladders
  • 3 levels3 ladders
  • 4 levels0 ladders
  • 5 levels4 ladders
  • 6 levels1 ladder
  • 7 levels1 ladder

Which titles the ladders use

The bars cover the 5 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other 5 use grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Level 2” or “IC4”. One ladder can use several of these words.

  • Specialist4 of 5
  • Manager2 of 5

Manager counts only titles that do not require managing people.

Where the manager track starts

This chart shows the step, counted from the bottom of each ladder, where the first people-manager role sits. It covers the 5 ladders that say where it starts. Of the rest, 1 has a manager track but does not say where it starts and 4 do not say whether they have one.

  • Step 13 ladders
  • Step 21 ladder
  • Step 31 ladder

Download the data

One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.

Download the CSV

All 10 ladders

Levels for digital marketers who do not manage people, lowest first, as each publisher names them.
LadderLevelsLevel namesManager track
GitLab3
  1. Digital Marketing Manager
  2. Senior Digital Marketing Manager
  3. Staff, Digital Marketing Programs
Separate; start not stated
Monzo7
  1. Level 1
  2. Level 2
  3. Level 3
  4. Level 4
  5. Level 5
  6. Level 6
  7. Level 7
Not stated
Sourcegraph3
  1. IC3
  2. IC4
  3. IC5
Not stated
State of TexasPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)5
  1. Marketing Specialist I
  2. Marketing Specialist II
  3. Marketing Specialist III
  4. Marketing Specialist IV
  5. Marketing Specialist V
Not stated
UC San DiegoPublic employer5
  1. Marketing Specialist 1
  2. Marketing Specialist 2
  3. Marketing Specialist 3
  4. Marketing Specialist 4
  5. Marketing Specialist 5
Separate, from step 1 (level with Marketing Specialist 1)
UK Government CommunicationsPublic employer5
  1. EO/AIO
  2. HEO/IO
  3. SEO/SIO
  4. G7
  5. G6
Not stated
Universities of WisconsinPublic employer3
  1. Marketing Coordinator
  2. Marketing Specialist
  3. Marketing Manager
Separate, from step 3 (level with Marketing Manager)
University of British ColumbiaPublic employer1
  1. Level A
Separate, above the top level (step 2)
University of MinnesotaPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)6
  1. Professional 1
  2. Professional 2
  3. Professional 3
  4. Professional 4
  5. Professional 5
  6. Professional 6
Separate, from step 1 (level with Professional 1)
University of UtahPublic employer5
  1. Marketing Specialist I
  2. Marketing Specialist II
  3. Marketing Specialist III
  4. Marketing Specialist IV
  5. Marketing Specialist V
Separate, from step 1 (level with Marketing Specialist I)

How we did it

We read 10 digital marketing ladders that their publishers use for their own staff: 3 from companies and 7 from public employers, on their own sites or in documents they publish. We kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals, professional bodies’ standards and ladders only for sales, market research or events.

Many employers, and public ones especially, publish no ladder only for digital marketing. They file these roles under a general marketing or communications ladder, so for those employers we used that ladder as the closest fit.

Levels are the steps a digital marketer can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations (like “Marketing Specialist I” and “II”), each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.

The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.

Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. Each word counts only as a whole word. Manager counts titles like “Digital Marketing Manager” that do not require managing people.

This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, mostly from public universities and governments, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every employer does. Where a live page was gone or blocked automated reading, we read the Internet Archive copy, and the table says so.

We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.

Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.

See levels with their skills

The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our digital marketing career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.

Other levels studies