What Is a Digital Marketing Analyst? Your 2024 Career Guide

Digital marketing analysts use reports, metrics, and data to understand better what consumers want and how different marketing strategies impact them. With these discoveries, a digital marketing analyst can help create effective marketing strategies, helping a business reach its goals. In this job, you’ll focus on data and online social trends, performing research, and presenting your findings. You may also play a role in content development, search engine optimization (SEO), and finding online opportunities to build links and help meet marketing goals.

Learn more about the role’s responsibilities, how to become a successful digital marketing analyst, and information about salary, advancement opportunities, and the tools you’ll use.

Read more: What Is Digital Marketing? Types, Skills, and Careers

What is a digital marketing analyst?

Digital marketing analysts manage a company’s pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns and run marketing and advertising strategies that require a paid online presence. In this role, you will use web analytics, data tracking, and social media reports to gain insight into how customers interact with a business’s ad campaigns and marketing strategies. You may also synthesize gathered information into actionable marketing plans for the larger marketing team.

Read more: How to Get a Job in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing analyst tasks and responsibilities

As a digital marketing analyst, you must stay updated on marketing trends and find ways to relate them to your organization's goals. Other specific tasks may vary depending on where you work, but some of your responsibilities will likely include:

• Collaborating with marketing teams: You’ll be responsible for communicating regularly with the marketing team about campaign results, specific strategies, and if any ads or content need to be changed or adapted based on customer feedback.

• Writing marketing reports: Digital marketing analysts create reports that include online traffic results, click-through rates, the cost of a campaign, and the schedule for the ads themselves. These reports inform future campaigns and strategies.

• Managing pay-per-click accounts: Digital marketing analysts monitor the cost of pay-per-click accounts daily, ensuring the campaigns stay within budget and produce the desired results.

• Maintaining client relationships: As a digital marketing analyst, you’ll update your business’s clients on the budgets and results of their ad campaigns.

• Testing campaigns and making recommendations: Part of the responsibilities of a digital marketing analyst is to test and design different types of ad campaigns and monitor the results. Then, you’ll use that information to recommend trying new strategies and campaigns.

What tools do digital marketing analysts use?

Digital marketing analysts use various tools to measure performance, track budgets, and understand customer behavior to create marketing campaigns successfully. Having a background or experience with these tools will help you thrive in a digital marketing analyst role. 

Some of these tools include:

• Analytics software, such as Google Analytics

• Social media platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly Twitter)

• Microsoft programs, such as Word and Excel

• Data visualization tools, such as SAS Studio

• Automation software, such as Hootsuite or HubSpot

• Online marketing tools, such as Google Ads (formerly AdWords), Sitecore, or Microsoft Ads

Understanding these different platforms and tools is essential for meeting expectations as a digital marketing analyst. To learn how to use some of these tools, you might gain experience on the job, but you can also use tutorials, take courses, and earn certifications as a way to sharpen your abilities.

Read more: Google Analytics Certification: Benefits and How to Get It

How to become a digital marketing analyst

To start a digital marketing analyst career, you'll need to hone your relevant workplace and technical skills. You'll also typically need some formal education. Employers want to see demonstrated digital marketing experience.

Skills

As part of your path to becoming a digital marketing analyst, sharpen some of the common skills you'll likely use in the industry. Employers often look for workplace and technical skills that include: 

Workplace skills

• Communication 

• Time management 

• Enthusiasm for learning new things

• Organization

• Emotional intelligence 

• Creativity 

• Analytical thinking 

• Problem-solving

• Detail-oriented 

Technical skills

• Mathematics knowledge

• SEO

• Social media marketing 

• Content marketing 

• Digital marketing 

• Google Analytics

Education requirements

According to Zippia, 77 percent of digital marketing analysts have a bachelor’s degree, 18 percent have a master’s degree, and 3 percent have an associate degree [1]. Pursuing a business, communications, computer science, or digital marketing degree offers an excellent starting point.  

Certifications

Earning digital marketing certifications is a great way to stand out amongst candidates, advance into different roles, and show employers that you're committed to your career. Some popular options for digital marketing professionals include:  

• Meta Certified Digital Marketing Professional Certificate offered by Meta 

• Digital Marketing Pro offered by the American Marketing Association in collaboration with the Digital Marketing Institute   

• Digital Marketing offered by Hubspot Academy    

• Meta Certified Marketing Science Professional offered by Meta 

Experience

An entry-level position as a digital marketing analyst will give you the experience needed to grow within the role. If you’re brand-new to the field, you can also find internships that can help you gain hands-on skills as a digital marketing analyst.

Paths to becoming a digital marketing analyst

Two main paths lead to a digital marketing analyst role, though it’s important to note that this industry changes constantly. The first path is to get an entry-level digital marketing analyst role once you’ve graduated with a four-year degree in a relevant field. The second path is to move into a digital marketing analyst role from a position in a similar industry. For example, content marketing professionals can leverage their experience to shift into a digital marketing analyst role.

Digital marketing analyst salary and job outlook

According to Glassdoor, the base pay for a digital marketing analyst in the US ranges from $53,000 to $98,000, with opportunities for additional compensation [2]. Keep in mind that your salary may be influenced by location, experience, and education level.

This field is in high demand and growing much faster than other industries, as well. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the job outlook for market research analysts—a position similar to digital marketing analysts—will see a 13 percent growth through 2032 [3].

Digital marketing analyst career advancement

As a digital marketing analyst, you may advance into other positions that work within marketing or program management. Some of these digital marketing analyst jobs include marketing directors or program managers, with an eventual culmination in senior positions like marketing operations director or director of digital marketing.

Next steps

Digital marketing analysts are responsible for an organization's online marketing and advertising strategies. A bachelor's degree can help you get a job in this field, as can honing your skills, like attention to detail, analytical thinking, SEO, and social media.  

Learn more about digital marketing analytics with courses like Digital Marketing Analytics in Theory or Digital Marketing Analytics in Practice, offered on Coursera by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

You can also earn a Professional Certificate when you enroll in programs like the Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate or the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate, which are also on Coursera.