Finnish marketing salary survey 2026 Published April 18, 2026

What Finnish marketers really earn in 2026.

113 marketers answered. We cleaned the data, cross-referenced it with every major signal we could find, and built you a report that tells you what pays, what does not, and where Finnish marketing is actually heading.

Start here: what should your role pay?
Data collection is still open. We will refresh this report as more people join the survey. If you work in marketing in Finland, add your numbers — it takes 7 minutes. Take the survey →
Adding an expertise or AI signal makes the prediction less precise on average. They’re here if you want to explore how those factors shift pay, not for precision.
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How to read this: the big number is a central estimate based on 2026 + 2022 survey data. The range below it is where 65% of real marketers with your profile actually land. Individual pay varies by company size, title, bonuses, and other signals this tool can’t see. Use it as a ballpark, not a verdict.
Each figure is a decile of Finnish marketing pay in this survey.
Headlines

Four numbers. The whole story.

The middle, the inflation gap, the year of layoffs, and the careers that got bent to survive. Every later section zooms into one of these.

Half the field earns less. Half earn more.
All 113 respondents, lined up shortest to tallest by pay. The bar in the middle is the typical Finnish marketer.
€4,667/mo
the median · person #57 of 113
€1,200lowest middle 50%: €3,750–€5,667 €9,583highest
The middle 50% sit between €3,750 and €5,667 — that band is “normal”. Below, you’re probably underpaid. Above, you’re in the top quarter.
The raise barely kept up.
Median pay went up 17%. Inflation went up 19%. Real change since 2022:
2%
Pay raise
+17%
Inflation
+19%
Finnish marketers earn roughly the same in real terms as they did in 2022. The nominal raise looks good, but inflation ate almost all of it.
7 in 10 marketers were hit by a layoff, budget cut, or restructure.
The economy already touched almost everyone you work with. This is why the mood is what it is.
70%
were hit by at least one in the past 12 months
Company had layoffs42%
Marketing budget cut30%
Team downsized24%
Role restructured20%
Many marketers picked more than one. Only 30% got through the year untouched.
62% are bending their career plans to survive.
Three different ways marketers are settling for less than they wanted.
62%
are compromising their career plans
26%
22%
14%
38%
Considered leaving Finland
Stuck in a job they’d quit
Took a role below their level
Plans unchanged
The pay picture

Build the grid with whichever two lenses you actually care about.

Seniority times company type is the classic cut, but the real question is usually more specific. Team size. Experience. Learning AI. Manager vs non-manager. Pick any two.

Interactive pay grid
Pick a row dimension to see pay by that slice. Add a column to cross-cut by a second lens. Darker cells mean higher pay.
Swipe horizontally to see more ›
Empty cells mean fewer than 3 people in the sample matched that combination. We hide those to avoid misleading you.
Pay by role

What each role actually earns.

Titles are messy in real life. We grouped 107 free-text job titles into 14 role families and looked at what each family takes home.

Median monthly pay by role group.
The shaded bar is the middle 50% of the market (P25 to P75). The tick and label is the median.
Head / Directorn=10
€5,917
Senior Marketing Managern=5
€5,667
Product Marketingn=3
€5,583
Marketing Leadn=6
€5,562
Founder / C-leveln=4
€5,365
Marketing Strategistn=4
€5,129
Analytics / MarOpsn=5
€5,000
PR / Communicationsn=7
€5,000
Brandn=3
€4,900
Marketing Managern=19
€4,833
Paid / SEO / Performancen=3
€4,275
Growth Marketingn=7
€4,250
Content Marketingn=6
€3,833
Specialist / Coordinatorn=19
€3,700
€3,000 €4,000 €5,000 €6,000
Middle 50% of the market (P25 - P75)
Median monthly pay
How to read this: the tick is the median (half of the people in that role earn less, half earn more). The shaded bar is the middle 50% — wide bar means pay varies a lot for that title, narrow bar means pretty consistent. n is how many people had that role in the survey. Rows are sorted by median pay. Groups with fewer than 3 people are hidden.
Unexpected findings

Three results we did not expect to see this clearly.

Patterns that jumped out of the data hard enough to demand their own section.

+€625/mo
AI learners already out-earn their peers.
Each dot is one marketer in this survey, plotted by salary. Two groups, two medians.
AI learners n=75 · median €4,900
€4,900
Not investing in AI n=38 · median €4,275
€4,275
€1,200 +€625/mo gap €9,583
66% of marketers with a salary on file are already investing in AI skills. The 34% who are not are earning less today, not tomorrow. The gap is €625/mo. Over a year that is roughly €7,500.
Pay ceiling
Non-managers cap at €6,000.
9 in 10 people without direct reports earn at most €6,000/mo. Managing people opens a higher ceiling.
Without direct reportsn=85
€4,458median
€5,416P75
With direct reportsn=28
€5,687median
€6,666P75
€8,458P90
Ceiling · €6,000 · P90 for non-managers
Half of non-managers earn below €4,458. Only the top 10% hit €6,000. A manager’s median already sits there, and the top 10% reach €8,458.
Attrition signal
The best-paid, best-resourced marketers are also the ones most likely to leave.
58% of marketers on teams of 9 or more are job hunting right now.
Looking for a new job (18 of 31)
Staying (13 of 31)
The Finnish marketing org everyone is trying to join is the same org everyone is trying to leave. If you run a 10+ person team, assume more than half your people are updating their CV this quarter. This is the single most important finding in the entire report.
Work setup

Expected vs preferred office setup: where the gap lives.

Rows are what your employer expects. Columns are what you actually want. The cells on the diagonal are the happy marketers. Everything off-diagonal is friction.

Want vs get: the remote-work gap.
Out of 113 marketers who answered: more than half want to work mostly remote. Only 1 in 7 actually get to.
Want to work fully or primarily remote
62 of 113 marketers
Get to work fully remote
16 of 113 marketers
29
marketers want fully or primarily remote, but their employer pulls them into the office at least one day a week. That’s the friction point worth watching.
Show the full mismatch matrix
Swipe horizontally to see more ›
WHAT YOU WOULD PREFER →
WHAT YOUR EMPLOYER EXPECTS ↓Fully remotePrimarily remote50/50 hybridPrimarily in-officeFully in-officeTotal
Fully remote (0 days)
7
5
4
·
·
16
1 day in office
1
9
2
·
·
12
2 days in office
2
7
6
·
·
15
3 days in office
1
8
12
4
·
25
4 days in office
·
·
·
·
·
0
Fully in-office (5 days)
1
·
1
1
·
3
No fixed expectation
3
16
16
4
3
42
Total
15
45
41
9
3
113
Read the diagonal first: those are the matches. The orange-bordered cells in the top-right are the forced-in-office crowd, 29 marketers in total.
Skills

What marketers are trying to learn in 2026.

Two lenses: how many people are prioritising each skill, and whether learning it correlates with earning more today. Some do. Most do not.

The #1 skill
AI Prompting is not a wave. It is the floor.
Every expertise category has people pivoting to it as a second skill.
65%
of marketers are learning AI in 2026
AI learners out-earn non-learners by €625/mo today. That is one of the strongest skill-to-pay correlations in the survey, alongside leadership (+€783/mo).
Every priority skill, ranked by who picked it.
The green tags mark the skills that correlate with higher median pay.
AI Prompting & Workflow Automation
65%
+€625/mo
Analytics & Data
32%
Marketing Strategy
30%
Advertising & Paid Acquisition
27%
€-488/mo
Growth Marketing
23%
€-250/mo
Content & SEO
23%
€-733/mo
PR & Communications
19%
+€283/mo
People Management / Leadership
16%
+€783/mo
Marketing Ops
16%
Data Storytelling & Reporting
15%
Does speaking Finnish pay?

Speaking Finnish does not pay. Working in English does.

Three out of four Finnish marketers already work at a company whose operating language is English. That is the group setting the market rate.

The four combinations at Finnish-HQ companies.
Rows: the working language of your company. Columns: whether you personally speak fluent Finnish.
You speak fluent Finnish
You don't speak fluent Finnish
English is the work language
€4,833
n = 19
€4,750
n = 61 biggest group
Finnish is the work language
€4,542
n = 14
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n = 2 hidden, too few
The top-right cell is the Finnish marketing default: company runs on English, respondent doesn't speak fluent Finnish. 61 of the 94 respondents with usable data sit there at €4,750/mo. Adding Finnish fluency inside the same English-speaking company adds around €83/mo. Moving to a Finnish-speaking company subtracts €208/mo. If you are learning Finnish to earn more, the data does not back you up. Pick an English-speaking company first. Finnish fluency is a tiebreaker, not a lever.

Finnish fluency on its own has essentially zero correlation with pay (+0.097, inside statistical noise at this sample size). Speaking Finnish is not a money skill in Finnish marketing. Learning Finnish in order to earn more inside an English-speaking company does not move the number in any meaningful way. The bottom-right cell (Finnish-speaking company, no fluent Finnish) is hidden: only 2 respondents, too few to report.

Career paths

The pay ladder of Finnish marketing, one rung at a time.

Median monthly pay at each seniority level. The jump sizes tell you where the real promotions are, and where the trap floors live.

Six rungs. Median monthly pay at each level.
Bar length = median pay (Director sets the ceiling). The pill between each rung is the jump from the level below.
01
Junior
€3,333
n=10
+€867 · +26%
02
Mid-Level
€4,200
n=41
+€800 · +19%
03
Senior
€5,000
n=20
+€355 · +7% · the trap floor
04
Lead / Manager
€5,355
n=30
+€2,978 · +56% · the biggest jump
05
Chief / Director / VP
€8,333
n=9
−€4,166 · −50% · founders earn less
06
Founder / Co-Founder
€4,167
n=3
Three patterns the chart makes obvious: Mid → Senior is the easy rung. Senior → Lead is where individual contributors stall and managers pull ahead. Lead → Director is the biggest jump in the whole report — and the narrowest door (just 8% of the survey makes it).
What actually moves pay

Six levers, ranked by how many euros each one is worth.

We ran correlations across every dimension in the survey. These six came out the strongest. You can pick any one to pull on.

1
+€2,667/mo
Main expertise: Copywriting → Marketing Strategy
Moving from the lowest-paid expertise to the highest is a €2,667/mo swing. Your job title is not destiny, but your area of focus is.
2
+€1,883/mo
Team size: Just me → 9+ people
Going from solo marketer to a team of 9+ adds €1,883/mo in median pay. Scale pays.
3
+€1,750/mo
Company type: Non-profit / Public sector → Enterprise / Corporate
Switching from the lowest-paying to the highest-paying company type adds €1,750/mo. This often requires one job change, not a career rebuild.
4
+€1,230/mo
Becoming a manager
Stepping into people management adds €1,230/mo. This is the biggest single-decision lever in the data.
5
+€792/mo
Learning Leadership
Prioritising leadership as a 2026 skill correlates with €792/mo more. Useful for people already eyeing the next rung.
6
+€625/mo
Learning AI
Marketers learning AI earn €625/mo more than those who are not investing in AI skills. Correlation, not causation, but the correlation is the strongest in the skills column.
The mood

Pay is rising. The mood is not.

Salaries are up. Job security feels down. Two out of three marketers say the economy has already bent their career plans. Here is what they said about the year ahead.

62% of Finnish marketers are compromising their career plans.
Only 38% say the economy has not changed anything.
Considered leaving Finland for better opportunities
26% · n=34
Staying in a job I would otherwise leave
22% · n=29
Accepted a role below my level or pay expectations
14% · n=18
No, it has not changed my plans
38% · n=49
Base: 130 marketers answered this question. Respondents picked one option only.
Last 12 months
70% lived through a layoff, a budget cut, or a restructure in the past year.
Only 30% got through the last twelve months untouched. This is why the mood is what it is.
Company had layoffs (marketing or wider)
42% · n=47
Marketing budget was cut
30% · n=34
Team was downsized
24% · n=27
Role was restructured
20% · n=23
Personally laid off or let go
11% · n=12
Put on temporary layoff (lomautus)
3% · n=3
Question: “Have you experienced any of the following in the past 12 months?” · Base: 112 marketers answered · Multi-select, so percentages add up to more than 100%. 79 people (70%) reported at least one of these events. 30% reported none.
Salary, last 12 months
50%
got a raise or a new job with higher pay
40% stayed flat. 5% took a cut. 4% weren’t working a year ago.
Went up (raise or new job)
50% · n=59
Stayed the same
40% · n=47
Went down (pay cut, fewer hours, lost bonus)
5% · n=6
Wasn’t working 12 months ago
4% · n=5
Question: “How has your salary changed in the last 12 months?” · Base: 117 marketers answered · Single-select.
Job hunting intent
63%
are open to moving or actively looking
34% are actively job-hunting now. 30% are happy where they are. 7% are staying only because the market feels too risky.
Yes, actively looking now
34% · n=44
Yes, open to opportunities
30% · n=39
No, happy where I am
30% · n=39
No, but only because the market feels too risky
7% · n=9
Question: “Are you planning to look for a new job within the next 12 months?” · Base: 131 marketers answered · Single-select.
Job security
28%
feel uncertain or actively worried
22% feel very secure. 38% feel somewhat secure but more cautious than a year ago. 12% are currently between jobs.
Somewhat secure, more cautious than a year ago
38% · n=50
Very secure, not worried
22% · n=29
Uncertain, could see my role being at risk
21% · n=28
Currently unemployed / between jobs
12% · n=16
Insecure, actively worried about losing my job
7% · n=9
Question: “How would you describe your current sense of job security?” · Base: 132 marketers answered · Single-select.
The contradiction you should sit with.
50% saw pay go up last year. 63% are still thinking about leaving, and 70% watched a layoff, a budget cut, or a restructure hit their workplace in the past twelve months. Even among marketers who got a raise, 49% (29 out of 59) are open to a new job. That is not a contradiction if you read it right: the raise was not big enough, the ground under the job still feels unstable, and more marketers are now choosing stability over ambition. Money stopped being the whole story a while ago.
What it all means

Six takeaways, in plain Finnish-marketer speak.

If you read nothing else, read this. Six things that matter for your next move.

01
The ladder still works. Moving between rungs pays real money.
The gap from junior to senior to manager is still the single biggest predictor of pay. Median monthly pay moves from roughly €3.3k to €5.7k across the career arc. If you are stuck, the question is which rung you are on, not how hard you are working.
02
Your area of focus decides your ceiling.
Strategy, ops, and growth pay more than content and social. This is not a judgement on value, it is a pricing signal. Picking the right specialty is one of the biggest levers you can pull without changing company.
03
Language is not the story. Company type is.
English-first companies pay more than Finnish-first companies by a clear margin. Speaking Finnish personally does not change your pay, because English is the default working language for almost every tech and scale-up in this dataset.
04
Remote is the new non-negotiable.
Most marketers prefer fully or primarily remote work. Employers still expect hybrid or office. The gap between the two shows up as quiet resignations and job searches, not as loud complaints.
05
AI is now a pay signal.
Marketers who are actively learning AI earn more than those who are not investing in AI skills. The gap is not huge yet. In a year it will be.
06
The mood is the headline, not the pay.
Raises are landing. Plans are still being compromised. Two out of three Finnish marketers are downshifting, staying in a job they do not love, or looking outside Finland. Read that as a warning, not a complaint.
Four years later

2022 vs 2026. Pay is up, but the shape changed.

Overall median pay rose from €4,000/mo in 2022 to €4,667/mo in 2026. That is +17% in nominal euros over four years. Inflation over the same period was about +19%. Real pay is flat, and the gains are uneven.

Biggest gainer
+27%
Female
Median pay moved from €3,676 in 2022 to €4,683 in 2026.
Biggest drop
+4%
Director / VP / C-level
Median pay moved from €6,583 in 2022 to €6,875 in 2026.
By seniority
Juniors got the biggest lift. Senior pay is almost flat.
Industry context

How this survey fits the wider Finnish marketing picture.

This report samples 113 marketers who answered a public questionnaire. It is not a census. Here is how the numbers line up with the industry reference, MMA's palkkatutkimus 2025.

This survey (2026)
  • 113 Finland-based marketers with usable salary data
  • €4,667/mo median gross pay
  • Self-selected respondents from the Awesome Marketers network
  • Skewed toward tech, English-first, and mid-to-senior individual-contributor roles
MMA palkkatutkimus 2025 (marketing only, sales excluded)
  • €4,340/mo median gross pay for marketing roles in 2025 (n=521 marketing respondents, base salary without bonus: €4,268)
  • +6.4% YoY on the marketing median (2024: €4,080, 2023: €4,000)
  • 82% of marketing respondents are women, and the women's euro in marketing is now 0.97 €, up from 0.93 € a year earlier
  • Median for men in marketing: €4,456. Median for women: €4,320
  • In-house marketing median: €4,459 (+5.2% YoY). Agency marketing median: €4,000 (+9.9% YoY)
  • By region: capital area €4,536, rest of Finland €3,984. By industry: industrial €4,808, services €4,240, retail €4,377
  • Pay composition: 55% base salary only, 43% base plus bonus
  • Pay transparency is rare: 79% say role-level pay info is not available at their workplace; in marketing only 12% have visibility
Source: MMA palkkatutkimus 2025, Aula Research Oy, fielded 7 to 26 January 2026 (n=2,033 total, n=521 marketing-focused). Monthly figures = annual / 12.5. Sales figures intentionally excluded here.
Read side by side, not as a replacement. MMA's marketing-only median is €4,340/mo. Ours is €4,667/mo. The €327/mo gap reflects this survey's heavy tech, English-first, and mid-to-senior skew, plus the fact that MMA's sample is older and more Finnish-speaking. MMA is the authoritative reference for Finnish marketing pay. This survey adds detail MMA does not publish: AI skill uptake, remote-versus-office mismatch, job-hunting behaviour by team size, and expertise-area pay gaps. If you are setting a band for a specific role, anchor on MMA, then adjust for company type and seniority using this report.
Method & who answered

How this survey was run, and who actually filled it in.

Transparent limitations are more useful than fake precision. Here is what you are looking at.

113
Marketers with usable salary data
82%
Work in English day-to-day
42%
Work at tech startups or scale-ups
Who answered
Pick a dimension to see how the sample breaks down. Mid-level and senior individual contributors dominate. Juniors are underrepresented.
How we collected
Public survey form. Distributed via the Awesome Marketers newsletter, LinkedIn, and Finnish marketing communities. Open for six weeks in Q1 2026. No incentives offered. One response per email address.
How we cleaned
Annual gross salaries converted to monthly, currency stripped, obvious typos fixed. Respondents without a usable salary figure were kept in mood and sentiment data but excluded from pay calculations. Medians used throughout, because they resist outliers better than means on a small sample.
What we did not do
We did not weight responses to match Finnish marketing demographics. We did not verify employer or title. We did not link responses across years. This is a community snapshot, not a census. Use it as a starting point, not the final word.
Credits
Built by Awesome Marketers. Thanks to every marketer who shared their numbers. If you have feedback, questions, or a suggestion for the 2027 survey, send it along. We read everything.