Entry-level hiring in digital marketing is on the rise despite layoffs in other sectors, according to a report by Kraftshala.

Agencies are the biggest contributors to this growth, with 60% of the hires made by them. The balance entry level digital marketing jobs are offered by brands.

Among the cities, Bengaluru offers the highest salaries for entry-level roles, followed by Chennai and Delhi-NCR.

Cities

The highest demand for talent in the space is in Delhi-NCR followed by Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. This reflects that major metro cities are big on hiring, but emerging cities are also gaining traction.

The report further revealed that there is an increasing demand for programmatic and e-commerce roles. Hiring for the following roles continued at a ‘steady pace': Performance marketing, social media advertising, search engine marketing, content marketing, and search engine optimisation.

The importance of skills outweighed traditional degrees as employers realised the importance of real-world problem-solving.

With AI tools like ChatGPT gaining prominence, the report added that recruiters are okay with candidates using it in the hiring process, as long as it’s being used to sharpen the solutions. If majority of the solution is straightaway copied from ChatGPT, candidates are not being moved forward, no matter how relevant the profile.

The report was based on data from 765 roles floated in 2024 as part of Kraftshala’s placement process.