Marketing Managers in Australia: Salary Data, Career Paths & Overview (2023)

Marketing managers in Australia are about as critical to a brand’s success as anyone in a modern day business. Forming the customer-facing frontline, as a marketing manager you’ll be tasked with translating the branding, products and services of your company into a language that its audience can understand. The goal? To get the market excited about the brand and its offerings.

Marketing is changing faster than perhaps any other industry. Today’s world of Google AdWords, Facebook campaigns and Instagram influencers would be witchcraft to a marketing manager of 20 years ago. It’s a challenging profession that requires adaptability, personality, attention to detail and drive, but it’s also an incredibly rewarding career for those who do it well.

So what does the role of a modern day marketing manager look like? And what do the marketing managers of the future need to know about this career? Let’s take a look.

What is marketing management?

Marketing manager job description

A marketing manager manages marketing. That much is clear. But what does this role look like day-to-day?

The role of marketing manager can differ a surprising amount from company to company. You might be handed control of a single product, a suite of products and services, or a business’s entire brand.

Let’s say your company has developed a stunning product. The product team believe it’s an absolute game-changer. During the development process, that team has defined, in meticulous detail, the ‘what’, the ‘why’ and the ‘when’ of the product.

Your job as a marketing manager is to translate and broadcast this information in a way that generates excitement and demand in the market and manage the conversation between brand and audience thereafter.

The responsibilities

The role of a marketing manager brings with it a range of responsibilities.

The most important of these is managing both the planned and unplanned images of the brand and its products. Planned images are the carefully crafted marketing materials, endorsements and public addresses that are designed to sell either the brand or its products. Unplanned images are trickier – they are the images of the brand and its products that originate from outside the company. While unplanned images can be positive – a 5-star review online, for example – they often aren’t. In cases of product failure, a company representative misspeaking, or any other type of bad PR, it’s a marketing manager’s responsibility to control the damage. You must reassure the public that the company is doing everything in its power to correct a mistake, or carefully educate the public if the bad PR was baseless. The goal is to retain or improve the company’s reputation, no matter the situation.

Often a marketing manager will be asked to determine the marketability of a new product. This will involve conducting market research to understand how the product is received and test levels of public interest, which will inform product pricing, placement and advertising. This process requires collaboration with a number of other teams within the business, meaning marketing managers must boast excellent people management skills.

As a marketing manager, you will be responsible for crafting advertising campaigns for the products, services or brands under your control. These advertising campaigns might be small and simple, such as those that concentrate on a minor promotion of a single product, or broad and complex, like directing the marketing strategy of the entire brand. It will be your job to create eye-catching and creative advertisements and to identify the best channels through which to broadcast these marketing materials. You may also need to present your ideas to the client or your company to gain approval.

The tools

A broad job description demands an equally broad job toolkit. Marketing managers will use a combination of the following tools to perform their duties.

Marketing automation tools allow certain tasks within marketing to be automated. Some of the best include:

• Marketo
• Eloqua
• HubSpot
• Constant Contact

Social media marketing tools also allow certain tasks to be automated but concentrate solely on the social media sphere. Examples include:

• Buffer
• Hootsuite
• Sprout Social
• IFTTT (If This Then That)

Collaboration tools are designed to get everyone within the marketing department – or indeed in the entire company – on the same page. The following collaborative tools are perfect for marketing managers:

• Trello
• Asana
• ProductPlan

Measurement and analysis tools enable you to track the performance of your marketing campaigns and fix them on the fly. Some of the best include:

• Google Analytics
• Salesforce
• Pendo
• BrightFunnel

Marketing manager careers in Australia

The role of a marketing manager isn’t going away any time soon – in fact, it’s only going to get more important. As the internet and smart devices offer ever more ways for brands to market to their audience, demand for professionals within the field will grow. Between 2017 and 2022 the Australian government expects the number of jobs in the space to increase by over 10%.

But one does not simply walk into the role of marketing manager; this is a position that is generally earned through study and promotion. You’ll likely need to complete one of the following courses to land your first job in the marketing sphere:

• Bachelor of Marketing
• Bachelor of Business (Marketing)
• Certificate IV in Marketing and Communication
• Diploma of Digital Marketing

Career pathways that lead to the role of marketing manager are many and varied. The following roles could serve as the starting point on your journey or stepping stones to the eventual management position:

• Junior Marketer
• Marketing Assistant
• Marketing Officer/Representative
• Marketing Consultant
• Market Analyst
• Marketing Planner

While this list is far from exhaustive, it gives you an idea of the roles that you may find yourself in on the way to management. Gathering a broad knowledge base is vital for future marketing managers, as the position is a particularly multi-faceted one.

Marketing manager salary in Australia

The average marketing manager salary in Australia is $77K per year. But the location of the role and the experience you bring to it has an effect on the pay, as demonstrated by the following average salary figures listed by Payscale.

Marketing manager salary in Sydney, NSW

Entry-level salary: $50K to $98K

Experienced salary: $72K to $156K

Marketing manager salary in Melbourne, VIC

Entry-level salary: $45K to $94K

Experienced salary: $73K to $144K

Marketing manager salary in Brisbane, QLD

Entry-level salary: $45K to $82K

Experienced salary: $61K to $125K

Marketing manager salary in Perth, WA

Entry-level salary: $43K to $86K

Experienced salary: $62K to $124K

Marketing manager salary in Adelaide, SA

Entry-level salary: $41K to $86K

Experienced salary: $55K to $103K

Marketing manager positions are understandably concentrated in Australia’s capital cities, with Sydney and Melbourne hosting the bulk of the roles. But with over 60,000 marketing manager positions in Australia, work can be found in many regional centres too.

How do marketing manager salaries in Australia compare to the rest of the world? Not too badly, as it happens. Marketing managers in the world’s hottest professional marketplace – Silicon Valley – receive salaries of AU$69K to AU$139K as entry-level professionals, and AU$100K to AU$193K once they’ve gained experience.

Marketing manager jobs in Australia

1. Accenture

As one of the world’s leading global professional services companies, Accenture provides its clients with all manner of services, including strategy, consulting, technology, operations. As a Marketing Manager at Accenture, you have a hand in a wide range of business outcomes, from operations, communications and business processes on a global scale. At Accenture, Marketing Managers are encouraged to be innovative and creative, experimenting with new technologies like AI, automation and cloud. Check out current opportunities on Accenture’s job page.

2. Telstra

An Australian icon, Telstra offers its team an unmatched opportunity to positively affect the lives of everyday Australians. Employees enjoy the resources and assurance that comes with such an expansive organisation, and tech lovers enjoy handling the latest and greatest tech. Marketing Managers at Telstra tell Australia about the next big thing, managing campaigns and developing partnerships to create relationships with key content partners. Look at Telstra’s job listings to take the next step in your marketing career.

3. EY

Be at the forefront of professional services with a marketing career that stimulates employees to grow and produce at their best. EY’s supportive working environment encourages respect and inclusion, with careers filled with opportunities for professional and personal growth. Marketing Managers at EY deliver practical results for growth in business with outstanding communication skills and expertise. Check out EY’s careers page for more information.

Marketing courses and websites to follow

Marketing management isn’t a career in which you can sit still. Between search engine optimisation, social media marketing and the cloud, the last decade or two have been a whirlwind for marketers, and the need to upskill will only become more pronounced as technology continues to develop.

So how do you ‘level up’ your skill set once you’ve found your way into the workforce? You’ve got two main choices – formal training through university and college courses, or informal learning through blogs and resource hubs.

Courses

While most marketing managers will begin their professional journey with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) or a Certificate IV in Marketing and Communication, many will seek to develop themselves beyond this initial training.

Here are five opportunities for higher education, from short online courses to masters programs, which will help you to do just that.

1. Master of Marketing Management

Many Australian universities offer students the option to follow their marketing bachelor degree with a Master of Marketing Management, like this course offered by the University of Melbourne in concert with the Melbourne Business School. Learn in-depth marketing strategy, along with a thorough analysis of consumer behaviour, relationship marketing, branding and international marketing.

2. Master of Marketing with Honours (online)

Similarly, you could further your university education with a non-management masters, like Griffith University’s Master of Marketing with Honours program. It promises to equip you with a truly comprehensive skill set that will allow you to develop your marketing career on your terms.

3. Certificate of Buyer Behaviour and Analysis (online)

Learn how to analyse and apply consumer and buyer behaviour fundamentals in this short course offered by Curtin University. Over a 12 week period, you’ll learn how buyers give you all the information you need to run a successful marketing campaign, with concepts borrowed from a wealth of other fields, including psychology, economics and even anthropology.

4. Certificate of Evidence-Based Stakeholder Marketing (online)

Australian National University offers this online course that demonstrates exactly how to both identify marketing stakeholders and deliver the ideal campaign to them. Learn the fundamentals of good evidence-based marketing and how it supports key strategies.

Sites

But sometimes a quick Google is more appealing than a degree. The following online resources can prove invaluable or those who are looking for a less formal way to top up their knowledge tanks.

1. Influencer Marketing Hub

Are you looking to partner with an influencer in an upcoming campaign? Influencer Marketing Hub has you covered. With easy-to-digest blog posts, a wealth of infographics and a number of free eBooks, if the answer to your influencer marketing question isn’t here, it’s not worth asking.

2. Launch Engineering

By dividing their content up by the size of the business it has been designed for, Launch Engineering provides visitors with a beautifully simple roadmap to marketing success. Whether you’re a small start-up or an international powerhouse that turns over $100+ million, this site will help you launch any new product to anyone at any time.

3. American Marketing Association

If you’re looking to develop your career, the American Marketing Association has a wealth of professional development resources purpose-built for marketing managers. Scroll through their archives to learn how you can climb the corporate marketing ladder.

4. HubSpot

No one knows inbound digital marketing quite like Hubspot, and their marketing blog is full of up-to-the-minute information on how to get the most from your efforts. Their ‘How To’ articles are particularly insightful.

5. Marketo

With a treasure-trove of resources that cover every aspect of the marketing manager experience, Marketo is a one-stop shop for professionals looking for insights into their field of work.

Marketing managers in a nutshell

Choosing a career in marketing management is not for the faint of heart. You’ll need to conduct damage control, mastermind strategy, maintain serious drive and continually develop yourself.

But for those who thrive under these conditions, no career is quite as fulfilling. And with job prospects looking particularly rosy in the years to come, you can be sure that a job well is done won’t go unrewarded.