Marketing director salary · base, bonus and package, 2026
What a marketing director earns, in base, bonus and package
A marketing director salary in 2026 runs from £70,000 to £90,000, with a median of £79,500, on Robert Half’s national figures for a permanent marketing director.
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £108,000.
Ashdown Group’s national median is higher, at £100,757.
Company size moves the number more than the title does.
Base is only part of the package: bonus, pension and employer’s National Insurance sit on top.
When you hire a marketing director through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Marketing Week Demand for fractional CMOs ‘driven by expertise over cost’ · 27 May 2026
Companies bring in senior marketing leaders mainly for expertise at a growth moment, not to save money. Decide whether your seat needs that expertise every day before you set a full-time salary for it.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a marketing director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Marketing Director candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Marketing director jobs on the board
No Marketing director roles on the board right now.
We only show real vacancies from the last three months, each marked whether we could confirm it is still open — we never pad the board. New Marketing director roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Marketing director roles on the board
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Marketing Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What a marketing director does, and what sets the pay
A marketing director runs the marketing function: the strategy and budget, the team and the agencies, the brand, and the pipeline marketing hands to sales.
Most report to the CEO.
Where a company also has a Chief Marketing Officer, the CMO usually sets direction at board level and the marketing director runs the function day to day.
For the full remit, see what a marketing director does.
Company size sets the pay first.
Exec Capital puts a marketing director at £70,000–£130,000 base in SMEs and scale-ups, £120,000–£200,000 in mid-market businesses and £180,000–£300,000 in larger businesses with significant budgets and brand equity.
In London, Robert Walters puts a medium enterprise (50 to 250 staff) at £94,000–£146,000 and a large one (250+ staff) at £125,000–£208,000.
Scope comes next: the size of the budget and team, and whether the role answers for revenue or only for activity.
Exec Capital says marketing directors who can prove their contribution to revenue command a consistent premium over those who cannot.
The seat carries legal exposure as well as a budget.
Non-broadcast advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing must follow the CAP Code, which the Advertising Standards Authority enforces.
Email, text and phone marketing fall under the rules the ICO’s direct marketing guidance explains.
On professional standing, the CIM’s Chartered Marketer status requires graded membership, continuing professional development and an assessment.
It is a useful signal, not a requirement.
02/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire a marketing director
1. Scope the seat before the salary
Write down the budget, the team, the channels, the revenue the function must support and who the role reports to.
A marketing director for a young consumer brand and one for a regulated B2B platform are different hires with different pay.
2. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits a company that needs a senior owner of marketing every day: hire a marketing director on that basis, or read how marketing director recruitment runs.
If you need senior judgement for part of the week, a fractional marketing director may fit.
If the seat is empty mid-campaign, an interim marketing director covers it full-time for a fixed term.
3. Set base and bonus together
Exec Capital says mid-market marketing directors usually have bonus structures tied to lead generation, brand metrics or revenue attribution, and puts the variable element at larger businesses at 25–40% of base.
Decide which part of the package rides on results before you make an offer.
What we do on a marketing director brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary marketing leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
Roles on the board are listed on marketing director jobs.
03/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional marketing director.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional marketing director holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim marketing director.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim marketing director takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent marketing director after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim marketing director holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent marketing director.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
04/ rates by stage
Marketing director salary by source, place and company size
Permanent marketing director pay as each publisher states it, all 2026 except the ONS figure (2025, provisional). Robert Half publishes starting salary projections (base); Ashdown Group publishes the middle half of salaries and the median; Robert Walters publishes ranges and the mean of advertised roles, for London only; Exec Capital publishes base pay by company size; IT Jobs Watch counts salaries in job ads. Robert Half, Ashdown Group, Robert Walters and Exec Capital are recruiters.
05/ economics
What the salary costs the business, beyond the base
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
Under automatic enrolment, the employer must pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings, which in most schemes are those between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, bonuses included (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
On Robert Half’s £79,500 median, employer’s National Insurance comes to £11,175 and the minimum pension to about £1,321, so the seat costs about £92,000 a year before bonus and benefits (our arithmetic).
The bonus is pay too.
HMRC treats a cash bonus as earnings, with PAYE tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted through payroll, so budget employer’s National Insurance on the bonus as well as the base.
06/ vetting
How we vet marketing directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Marketing Director tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
07/ marketing director salary uk
Marketing director salary UK: the national benchmarks side by side
The national figures measure different things.
Robert Half’s marketing director salary UK range, £70,000–£90,000 with a median of £79,500, is a starting-salary projection built from its own placements and checked against job-ad data.
Ashdown Group’s median of £100,757 sits within a middle half of £91,996–£140,184.
Read any single figure as one view of the market.
Job ads give a third view.
IT Jobs Watch counted 28 advertised marketing director salaries in the six months to 5 October 2026, with a median of £85,000 and a middle half of £82,625–£100,938.
It tracks job ads mainly in technology, so treat it as a check, not a benchmark.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings puts the median for full-time marketing, sales and advertising directors at £94,135 in 2025 (provisional), with a middle half of £65,527–£134,962.
That group is broader than the marketing director title, so it describes commercial leadership as a whole rather than this seat.
08/ marketing director salary london
Marketing director salary London, and the regions
The marketing director salary London employers pay sits at the top of every source.
Robert Half puts it at £95,250–£122,500, with a median of £108,000.
Ashdown Group gives a London median of £115,000 and a middle half of £105,000–£160,000.
Robert Walters, which publishes London figures only, gives an average of £121,100 in a medium enterprise and £178,300 in a large one.
Outside London, Ashdown Group publishes a median for each region.
The South East is highest at £106,481, then the East of England at £102,679, Scotland at £100,877 and the East and West Midlands at £100,000 each.
The South West sits at £99,138, Yorkshire and the North West at £96,639, the North East at £95,833 and Wales at £95,041.
09/ the levels
Head of marketing, director or CMO: where the salary sits
In London, Robert Half puts the median at £90,000 for a head of marketing, £108,000 for a marketing director and £200,000 for a CMO.
Robert Walters’ London averages in a large enterprise follow the same order: £115,400, £178,300 and £239,600.
The titles are used loosely, so pay the scope, not the title.
In a smaller company the head of marketing is often the most senior marketer, doing the director’s job without the title.
For the levels either side, see head of marketing salary and CMO salary.
10/ the other routes
Salary or day rate: the other ways to pay for the seat
Read this sectionClose this section
A permanent salary buys a marketing director every day, with notice on both sides.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim marketing director salary for the day rates.
A fractional marketing director works part of the week on a day rate or monthly retainer.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional marketing director salary.
The three are paid on different bases, so compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
11/ questions
Marketing director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a marketing director.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
