TL;DR

• We analyzed 3,184 job postings from 820 U.S. digital agencies.
• You can find our full writeups at: Digital Agency Salary Benchmarks & Digital Agency Hiring Trends.
• We're considering doing this regularly for our Delphi group. Join now so you don't miss it.​
• Advertised pay for account managers is now 10% higher than what agencies paid two years ago and 22% higher for Account Directors.
• Today's junior hires will grow into tomorrow's mid-level employees in about three years. Agencies advertise junior roles at a median of $57K and mid-level roles at $78K, a 37% increase.
• Only 3% of postings carry an AI job title. Agencies are adding AI to existing roles rather than creating roles for it, and they ask for it most often at development agencies and in senior roles.
• An agency that requires senior hires to work in an office is an outlier. No Executive-level postings were onsite, and only 5% of Director-level postings were onsite.
• If you'd like help getting your shop ready for 2027, consider our Growth Review. Surface the gaps across sales, marketing, account management, strategy, and alignment, then get a prioritized action plan to fix them. All in a single 2-3 week sprint.

Agency Hiring Trends & Salaries

We analyzed 3,184 job postings from 820 U.S. digital agencies to understand more about the current state of agency hiring in Q4 2026. You can find our full writeups at:

​Digital Agency Salary Benchmarks​

​Digital Agency Hiring Trends​

I'll use this space to elaborate on what I think this means for agency leaders planning for 2027.

Account manager pay

An effective account management practice is critical infrastructure for growing a digital agency, and retaining good AMs is paramount.

In our 2024 salary survey, agencies paid account managers an average of $73K and senior account managers $80K. Now, agencies advertise mid-level account management roles at a median of $80K and senior account manager roles at $88K. Director-level account roles are now advertised at $129K, while the 2024 survey found account directors earning $106K. Advertised pay for account managers is now 10% higher than what agencies paid two years ago and 22% higher for Account Directors. An account manager who hasn’t gotten a raise since 2024 earns about 10% less than open roles at other agencies pay, and 43% of marketing agencies have one open.

There's clearly demand for this critical position, so retention should be prioritized. Make sure your account manager base pay is within the range that others are advertising, and set a clear path from account manager to senior account manager to account director, and tie part of the pay to keeping and growing accounts. There's more on that in our Digital Agency Growth Guide.

Junior hires

Small agencies are hiring beginners with little competition from large ones. Today's junior hires will grow into tomorrow's mid-level employees in about three years. Agencies advertise junior roles at a median of $57K and mid-level roles at $78K, a 37% increase. If your hiring plan includes junior roles, it should account for the salary raise and promotion at the three-year mark, or for the cost of replacing them. This is notoriously difficult for smaller agencies when clear career paths don't really exist, so be sure to factor this in when designing your growth plans.

AI skills

Only 3% of postings carry an AI job title. Agencies are adding AI to existing roles rather than creating roles for it, and they ask for it most often at development agencies and in senior roles. Our growth guide showed that agencies had adopted AI least in sales, project management, and account management. Training is most likely to change how the work gets done in those three functions. The only AI role the market prices separately is in development, where data, AI, and creative technology roles are advertised at a median of $155K, compared with $133K for a generalist developer.

Remote work for senior roles

An agency that requires senior hires to work in an office is an outlier. No Executive-level postings were onsite, and only 5% of Director-level postings were onsite. These employees are the most experienced and best paid in the market who can essentially have their choice of where to work. With more than half the postings offering remote positions, they have plenty of alternatives. If you're running an onsite or hybrid shop, understand that you're competing against a sizable number of agencies that offer fully remote positions.

Senior titles and pay bumps

Postings ask for a median of 4 years of experience for senior roles and 5 for leads or managers, and advertised pay rises from a median of $90K for senior roles to $111K for leads or managers and $140K for directors. Agencies can be proactive about employee retention by tracking their team members' years of experience, understanding where the jumps occur, and planning for compensation increases accordingly.

Planning for 2027

Hopefully this makes it easier to plan for the coming year!

If you'd like help getting your shop ready for 2027, consider our Growth Review. Surface the gaps across sales, marketing, account management, strategy, and alignment, then get a prioritized action plan to fix them. All in a single 2-3 week sprint.

Until next time,