The average income of freelancers in advertising and marketing increased by 20% in 2025

In the first half of 2025, the average monthly income of freelance advertising and marketing professionals increased by 20.5% compared to the same period in 2024. This is stated in a study by Solar Staff and the Vinci Agency communication group, which Izvestia reviewed on August 5.

Maria Lapuk, founder of the Vinci Agency communication group, said that working with freelancers in advertising, marketing and PR has ceased to be a trend and has become an operational model.

"We regularly hire freelance specialists for various tasks, from copywriters and designers to web developers. The project formats are different: somewhere you need one technical copywriter with expertise in IT, and somewhere you need a full-fledged team for a large-scale project with landing pages, advertising and visual. There is simply no way to cope here without a flexible model," she said.

The largest increase in income was recorded for web developers - 69%, up to 195,489 rubles. Revenues of analysts also increased (+62%, 171,967 rubles), designers (+46%, 108,127 rubles), event managers (+44%, 138,016 rubles), advertising managers (+40%, 90,902 rubles), project managers (+32%, 147,734 rubles) and copywriters (+28%, 76,243 rubles). Programmers received an average of 227,053 rubles (+27%).

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"We see an increase in demand not only for creative and production, but also for back-office freelance models - accountants, lawyers, financiers. This is a way for agencies to scale up without increasing their permanent staff. Thus, operating directors are increasingly considering the freelance model as a working option for closing unstable tasks," commented Valeria Akyeva, PR Lead of the Solar Staff.

Most of the freelancers work from Russia. In the first half of 2025, their share increased by 18%. At the same time, the number of specialists from Belarus (+26%), Georgia (+27%) and Kazakhstan (+10%) increased.

"Businesses often choose performers from Russia — it's faster, easier in coordination and logistics. If tasks can be performed remotely without loss of quality, geography takes a back seat. But when it comes to hiring freelancers who are needed on the site, the priority is always for specialists within the country," Lapuk notes.

The authors of the study also drew attention to differences in income depending on tax status. Individual entrepreneurs earned an average of 181,350 rubles per month, the self—employed - 73,517 rubles, and individuals — 26,550 rubles.

Akyeva explained this by the fact that highly paid programmers and bloggers are more likely to be sole proprietors: it is important for them to maintain tax transparency and report correctly to regulators.

Alexander Avdeev, head of the Console platform development projects, said on August 4 that freelancers should use a variety of order search channels, rather than just exchanges, and pay attention to the quality of their portfolios and the legal formalization of cooperation.

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