Marketing Specialist salary in Ames, IA

Pay in Ames against Iowa and the US

The middle half of marketing specialists in Ames earns $48,650–$77,630. Pay is tightly grouped: the top tenth starts at $102,140, only 2.5 times the bottom tenth, against 3.6 times across the US, so the going rate is easier to read. The mean ($67,170) is 10% over the median, so a group of high earners pulls the average up; price a typical hire from the median. From the 25th to the 75th percentile, the local range is only $28,980 wide, against $35,670 across Iowa and $49,960 nationally: employers in Ames pay within a narrower band.

What to budget for a marketing specialist here

The step from the 25th percentile to the median is $12,450 a year; from the median to the 75th it is $16,530, or about $21,329 once benefits are added. These percentiles describe what people in the job earn locally, not experience levels, so place your offer by the tasks and seniority you need.

For scale, the US median of $78,760 falls between the 75th and 90th percentiles in Ames, and the Iowa statewide median of $66,390 falls between the median and the 75th percentile. An offer at the national rate would beat what three quarters of local marketing specialists earn.

What a hire really costs in Ames

Pay is only part of it. Benefits and payroll taxes other than paid leave are 22.5% of total compensation in US private industry², which adds about $17,739 to the $61,100 median and brings it to $78,839 a year. Recruiting, equipment and office space come on top. Benefit levels vary by employer, so treat this as an estimate.

We place executive assistants, customer support and e-commerce staff today; for marketing specialists we answer within one business day whether we can help. Enter the monthly pay you have in mind to compare it with a local hire. The fee field shows our standard fee³; Deel's contractor plan is the default payroll tool⁴.

Other roles in Ames

Of the 16 roles we track in Ames, this one ranks #7 by median pay, between executive assistants ($61,990) and payroll specialists ($56,920). Project Coordinator is the highest at $97,290.

Measured against the US median, this job is the lowest paid of the 16 roles we track in Ames (-22.4%); data entry specialists come first (+9.2%). The typical role here is at -6.4%, so, measured against the US, marketing specialists cost less in Ames than the area's general pay level would suggest. Marketing specialists hold 8.2% of the jobs in these 16 roles in Ames, 6.5% across Iowa and 5.7% nationally. The job is a bigger part of the local workforce in these roles than it is nationally.

Other areas in Iowa

Across the 12 areas of Iowa with data for this job, the median runs from $56,230 in Sioux City to $76,580 in Des Moines-West Des Moines, a gap of $20,350 a year. Of the 6 areas in Iowa with more marketing specialists than Ames, 1 pays less: the Northwest Iowa nonmetro area ($56,920).

Ames against other US metro areas

By number of jobs, Ames is #218 of 514 US areas for this job. Both its size and its pay sit in the middle half of US areas. Outside Iowa, Springfield and Montgomery pay just above Ames and Manhattan and State College just below. All four are within $140 a year of the median in Ames. Of the three markets with about as many marketing specialists, all three pay more.

Questions

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.