Sector overview

The UK is home to a wide range of businesses, from a booming start-up scene, to established SMEs, an ever-evolving spectrum of specialist marketing agencies, and large blue-chip corporates. Whilst lots of businesses are choosing to grow their marketing resource in-house, marketing agencies play an essential role to organisations which call upon them for specialist consultancy, and to handle their heavy-lifting.

Many businesses regard Marketing as being fundamental to their success as they evolve and react to changing audience behaviours, especially in a challenging economy. However, it has undoubtedly been another challenging year for the recruitment industry, as illustrated in this graph by REC and annotated by The Savage Academy.

Source: the Savage Recruitment Academy

This is a graph showing recruitment billings over the past few decades and it’s a direct reflection of the job market.

We can see the various crashes and recessions, followed by booms and slumps, but the slumps don’t tend to last more than a few months… until more recently. The “Post-Covid-Boom” peaked beyond any other. It was the busiest time in my career to date – Oh to be back there! But the slump that has followed has lasted two years. Previous trends suggest the job market is due to return to normality. Personally, I cannot wait!

Talent Overview

Performance Marketing & Performance Content:
Demand for digital marketing skills, in particular Performance Marketing has continued to rise, with generalist marketing roles usually requiring good digital expertise too.

 Meta and TikTok are prolific among B2C marketing job specs where social media is a core channel, and we’ve seen more performance content roles coming our way than ever. Job specs for performance content roles vary a fair bit, but trending skills include videography and CapCut.

Chief Growth Officer & Growth Marketer:
In 2024 we saw a rise in “growth” focussed roles both agency side and in-house. Many agencies opted for Chief Growth Officer (CGO) or Chief Client roles with a nuanced mix of business development, strategic client services and marketing/agency proposition development.

Demand for in-house Growth Marketers has increased too. Scale-ups and brands launching new products or growing in new markets have been seeking candidates with both strategy development and the ability to be hands on – usually requiring a test-learn-optimise approach to drive sales or generate leads through performance marketing channels.

Fractional Leadership:
Fractonal roles have become a more frequent consideration as businesses seek strategic guidance at a Board level, on a part-time or flexible basis where a big permanent salary isn’t an option. We’ve seen a rise in strategic, senior appointments as a whole, and many candidates opting to take their many years of c-suite experience to market in a fractional capacity. 

We’ve developed our Fractional Leadership offering and launched our “Fractional Leaders” Content Series so that businesses can find out more.

Remote-first vs Hybrid:
Whilst remote-first jobs have the greatest pick of talent due to the large geographical pools available to them, we have noticed an increasing number of candidates choosing hybrid working over fully remote.

Remote-first is definitely here to stay and many of our clients do it brilliantly, maintaining every part of their culture, whilst enjoying sustainable growth during tough economic conditions. However, we are also hearing from job seekers wanting to spend a bit more time in an office environment, learning and collaborating with peers in-person, with 2-3 days in the office being the most common. Core hours and flexible working patterns make for a more inclusive environment. And it’s still very true that next-to-nobody wants 5 days in the office!

Salaries & Benefits:
Compared to 2023, which saw some of the highest rises in salaries of recent times, salaries over the last year appear to have begun levelling out. However, competition for the best talent still remains fierce and candidates are considering the entire package, financial and non-financial, your brand, your purpose, how inclusive you are.

This year, the ADLIB team has spent a lot of time and effort researching, surveying, and gathering insights around the range of benefits and flexibility that matters most. We’ve developed guides and processes to help clients benchmark themselves, and stand out as an employer of choice.

Purpose, Inclusion & Belonging:
Candidates remain picky with many of them opting only to apply for businesses that are purpose-driven, who walk the walk when it comes to their values. If you’re a B Corp, it’s about your score, your impact report – your commitment to a journey of improvement, not just the badge.

 Inclusivity and belonging are as important as ever if you want to attract the best, diverse talent, and rightfully so. Businesses are having to work harder to demonstrate this in their employer brand.

Over the last two years we’ve developed a suite of resources and can offer consultancy in these areas. We’ve also given our True Diversity initiative a refresh and launched our EDI Directory which has already generated some great referrals for some of the featured organisations.

Passive Candidates vs Actively-looking:
Because of the tough market and perceived risks that it brings, fewer candidates who are in roles are actively looking on job boards and LinkedIn, so the dynamic of talent pools has shifted. Of course, there are many talented people who are actively looking, but we’re also hearing lots of candidates telling us that they’re reluctant to apply for a role on LinkedIn with 200+ applications as they never hear back.

Our ‘Co-branded’ solutions leverage ADLIB’s brand, network and communities, and we’re explicit about the organisation we’re partnering with. It’s a curated approach with lots of add-ons which we can pull together in a bespoke way. There are no additional costs or up-front fees, and with a 100% success rate over the last two years, it’s the perfect solution for clients that want to stand out as an employer of choice.

Conclusion
Despite it being a tough two years for the marketing sector and recruitment in general, we’ve delivered some of our best work, and lots of it. We’ve won more new clients than ever before, whilst continuing to invest in our purpose. We’ve evolved our proposition and service offering for clients, generating case studies we’re very proud of. And we’ve helped more businesses position themselves as an employer of choice, engaging passive talent who aren’t looking in the “usual places”.

I am excited to see what 2025 brings for the Marketing sector! If you’re an employer or a jobseeker, and you’d like to work with us, please get in touch.

About ADLIB

We are a Recruitment Agency with purpose. Proudly B Corp certified and employee-owned. Our mission and impact go far beyond recruitment. We immerse ourselves in the worlds we operate in. A trusted partner, supporting growth and success at pace since 2001.