Trends and Insights

Key Findings and Opportunities from AAM’s Compensation Survey

Curious how your compensation and benefits measure up to your peers within the public accounting industry?

Then check out the AAM 2022 Biennial Compensation Survey. The 2022 survey, which was conducted by Ingenuity Marketing Group in Saint Paul, MN in partnership with the Association for Accounting Marketing, included 213 responses from the top accounting marketing leaders in the U.S. and Canada. About 92% of survey participants are members of AAM.

Staffing Challenges

With firms across North America struggling to meet their workforce needs, attracting top talent through competitive compensation and innovative benefits was the top strategy identified in the survey. Other long-term initiatives identified include:

• Keeping young talent within the accounting marketing profession

• Developing professionals and promoting from within firms

• Strengthening the profession through specialists and certifications

• Elevating marketing/business development leaders to executive positions and/or ownership

• Succession planning to sustain institutional knowledge in marketing/business development

Roles, Skill Specialization

Traditional roles of marketing coordinator, marketing manager and director of marketing are the most prevalent roles among firms in North America. About 18% of respondents reported having a chief marketing officer. Other top marketing leaders included chief growth officer, CEO or principal. A growing number of firms are offering their marketing and business development professionals an ownership stake, indicating a new value proposition and leadership track for future marketing talent.

More marketers are pursuing advanced certifications that will help their teams align marketing with firm growth initiatives even more seamlessly. With continuing education, these leaders become more valuable to the firm but also more marketable. Accounting firms are also adding in-house specialists that include graphic design, social media, SEO, public relations and content marketing roles. The evolving specialization of accounting marketing, expanded positions and increasing team size can provide more avenues to attract and develop these professionals inside firms.

However, the survey findings demonstrate marketing teams remain small compared to overall firm size.

Salary, Benefit Opportunities

The survey offered a glimpse of base salaries/wages and variable compensation and benefits reported across a range of accounting marketing and business development roles.

Reported benefits are traditional overall, but outliers with creative perks and benefits could improve their chances of attracting and retaining new talent. For example, some firms indicated benefits such as paid or unpaid sabbaticals, pet insurance or childcare reimbursements.

New to the survey this year was a focus on regional differences among firms, including data specific to Canadian firms. The survey report helps firm leaders overseeing one or more locations to identify salary and benefits distinctions by region or, in the case of Canada, compare their firm against firms in the same country.

Succession Planning Needs

As accounting marketing and business development leaders gain influence and, in some cases, an ownership stake, succession planning is on the horizon. The survey found that 68% of responding marketing and business development leaders have more than 11 years of experience in their profession. Since the majority of survey participants are the top leaders in their firms, they represent a pending wave of transition in the next 10 years or so.

Planning will help firms maintain momentum on marketing initiatives by transferring knowledge to emerging leaders and supporting their retention. With 35% of marketing/BD leaders reporting more than 20 years of experience, the value proposition for succession planning is further emphasized in this report.

Overall, the 2022 Biennial Compensation Survey is a glimpse of the future of accounting marketing and business development that shows a more formal, highly educated and specialized view of the profession within growing firms. As the industry experiences consolidation and firm sizes increase, expect a larger, regional approach to marketing and business development that will expand professional opportunities and attractive compensation and benefits.

Why Buy?

The AAM 2022 Biennial Compensation Survey can help marketing leaders, accounting firm partners and HR professionals identify new strategies for attracting and developing marketing and business development talent.

To obtain a copy of the report, which is $150 for AAM members and $250 for non-members, visit:

https://www.accountingmarketing.org/publications/cpamarketing-compensation.

A downloadable executive summary is also available from AAM at no charge.

Christine Nelson, Ingenuity Marketing Group, LLC. Contact at christine@ingenuitymarketing.com.