The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) conducted its first salary survey to establish pay scales for in-house Search Engine Marketers (SEMs) and while the figures are in dollars, they are a great insight into the market in the US for us Brits.

Apparently someone with between five and seven years experience can command a salary of between what SEMPO describes as ‘mid-to-high $100s to the $200,000’.

However, SEMPO says that the respondents to its survey reflected the relative newness of the industry with two thirds having less than five years experience.

It found about a fifth of those people with a VP job title earned between $100,000 and $120,000.  

The typical salary for senior managers and directors was between $70,000 and $100,000 – but a third said theirs was between $80,000 and $100,000.  

A quarter of those surveyed had a manager job title and they earned between $60,000 and $90,000 – but despite the title, almost half did not directly manage people.

Although SEMPO’s headline figure of ‘mid-to-high $100s to the $200,000’ is eye-catching, in parts wording of its press release appears to mix salaries with monthly budgets that SEMs are responsible for, and in the same breath it is also stating that a third of in-house SEMs are managing monthly budgets in excess of $200,000.

Message to staff: don’t get any ideas! :-)