Get people to notice, want and buy a product. A diploma or degree, a portfolio, and results you can measure.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $74,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $43,000 at the lower end to about $119,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
$200 to $48,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$74,000
Lower end
$43,000
Upper end
$119,000
Job Bank's national median is $35.58 an hour, about $74,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The lower end ($20.50) and upper end ($57.44) are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group. Job Bank groups marketing with advertising and public relations specialists.
$52.67 an hour
The median in Nunavut, about $110,000 a year
Ontario has the highest provincial median, $37.02, and Manitoba the lowest, $28.85. Specialists who can prove their campaigns made money move up fastest.
Roughly, all in
$200 to $48,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the no-cost certificates from Google, HubSpot and Meta plus real campaigns you run for a small business, a club or your own project, which gives you a portfolio an employer can look at. A domain name and a small advertising budget is most of the cost. The high end is a four year university business degree with a marketing major. The cheap door is harder because you first have to find someone willing to let you run their marketing, and what you show has to be real numbers rather than coursework.
A diploma gets you in the door for most jobs. The degree matters more for large companies and management tracks.
Health and dental
Standard at companies of any size; thinner at small agencies.
Remote and hybrid work
Marketing was one of the first fields to go remote and mostly stayed there.
Bonuses
Common in-house, tied to sales or campaign targets.
Perks
Products, event tickets, conference trips. Small, but real.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A short program, a portfolio of real campaigns, then a first job where you learn the tools.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
English, business, media arts. Start now: run a social account for a club, a team or a family business and track what works.
Diploma or degree
2 to 4 years
A 2-year college marketing diploma or a 4-year business degree with a marketing major. Job Bank says either is usually required. Co-op programs are worth the extra time.
Internships and side projects
During school
Real campaigns with real numbers. Employers hire on the portfolio, not the transcript.
First job
After graduation
Marketing coordinator, social media coordinator, or an agency account or content role.
Specialize
Years 2 to 5
Paid ads, search, email, content, brand, analytics or product marketing.
English and writing
Marketing is words that make people act.
Business and marketing
If your school offers it.
Media arts or communications technology
Video, design and editing tools.
Data management
Modern marketing runs on numbers.
Anyone can call themselves a marketer. Job Bank lists the occupation as unregulated, and no licence exists. The Canadian Marketing Association offers the voluntary CM (Chartered Marketer) designation, which it describes as Canada's only marketing designation. What you do have to know is the law: CASL (Canada's anti-spam legislation) sets strict rules on marketing emails and texts, and privacy law governs what you can do with customer data. Breaking either is expensive for your employer.
In Quebec the college marketing diploma takes 3 years, a degree takes 3 years after CEGEP (public college), and ads have to be in French.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
The college marketing program has no math prerequisite. For the university route, take Secondary V math in the Technical and Scientific or the Science sequence.
Business Administration DEC (410.G0), marketing stream
3 years
A 3 year CEGEP program leading to a DEC (Diploma of College Studies), ending with a 4 week internship. In English at Vanier College. Graduates work as social media, digital marketing or sales coordinators.
Or both diploma and degree in about 4 years
About 4 years
Vanier's accelerated DCS-BBA (college diploma plus Bachelor of Business Administration) with UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal) gives you both in 8 terms.
Or a 2 year DEC, then a bachelor's
5 years in all
A Social Science DEC with math, then a 3 year marketing degree: HEC Montréal's BAA (Bachelor of Business Administration) in French or bilingual, or Concordia's Bachelor of Commerce in English.
First job
After graduation
Marketing coordinator, social media coordinator or an agency role.
The OQLF (Office québécois de la langue française, the French language office) says commercial advertising and public signs must be in French. Other languages are allowed if French clearly dominates. Since June 1, 2025, a brand name in another language on an outdoor sign needs French words beside it. Quebec's privacy law, Law 25, also requires a separate, plainly worded consent for each use of customer data since September 2023.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Paid advertising
Google, Meta and TikTok ads. Managing a real budget is what employers want to see.
SEO (search engine optimization) and analytics
Getting found on Google and proving it with data.
Email and marketing automation
Tools like HubSpot and Klaviyo. Under-supplied skill.
Video and short-form content
Shooting and editing yourself is now expected at many companies.
CM (Chartered Marketer)
The Canadian Marketing Association's designation, for mid-career marketers who want the credential.
A portfolio site
Three campaigns with before-and-after numbers beats any resume.
No-cost certifications
Google Ads, Google Analytics, HubSpot and Meta all offer them at no cost.
Basic design
Canva at minimum; Figma and Adobe tools are a plus.
Writing samples
Blog posts, product descriptions, ad copy. Show you can write tight.
Agencies serve many clients at once: faster learning, more variety, longer hours. In-house teams market one company: deeper knowledge, slower pace. Many marketers start at an agency for 2 or 3 years, then move in-house. Freelancing is a third path once you have a specialty and a client or two.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Check yesterday's numbers: ad spend, clicks, sales, email opens. A planning meeting for a product launch. Write or edit copy for an email, a landing page or a social post. Brief a designer or shoot a quick video. Adjust an ad campaign that is underperforming. Report results to a manager or client. Agency days are split across several clients; in-house days go deep on one brand. Launch weeks and big campaigns bring late nights.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Since June 1, 2025, a business name in another language on a sign seen from outside a Quebec shop must come with French words beside it, and French must clearly dominate the whole display.
Job Bank counted about 233,600 people in marketing, advertising and public relations jobs in Canada in 2023. Only 18% were 50 or older, one of the youngest groups in business.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Marketing and sales first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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