PPC SALARIES ARE SPLITTING: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

PPC salaries are diverging sharply at mid-career levels. The 10-15 year US experience band has flatlined between $133,500 and $136,000 for 3 consecutive years. Freelancers in the same range command a median of $202,895 and in-house strategists at 6-9 years earn up to $170,000. The split is not primarily about AI adoption, which now saves an average of 5.2 hours per week but has become an expectation rather than a differentiator. Mid-career agency practitioners are being squeezed from below by automation absorbing execution work and from above by senior roles that demand strategic business impact beyond campaign management.