New Delhi, January 21, 2026: Kraftshala, India’s leading outcome-focused edtech platform for marketing and sales, has released its Digital Marketing Hiring Trends Report 2025, highlighting continued momentum in entry-level digital marketing hiring and a skill-heavy outlook for 2026. The report analyses over 750 entry-level roles floated during Kraftshala’s placement processes across its flagship programs, offering a data-backed view of how hiring patterns are evolving for early-career marketers in India.
Agencies continued to be the largest hiring engine, accounting for nearly 70% of all entry-level roles. Brands, while hiring fewer candidates, demonstrated a stronger focus on depth of skill and ownership. While agencies drove volumes, brand-side roles were 62% more likely to offer higher CTCs, reflecting expectations around analytical ability, cross-functional collaboration, and direct business impact.
Geographically, hiring remained concentrated in India’s major metros. Delhi-NCR (30%), Bangalore (27%), and Mumbai (18%) together accounted for over three-fourths of all roles, continuing a trend seen over the last few years. At the same time, cities such as Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, and Chandigarh showed growing participation, indicating a gradual broadening of India’s digital marketing hiring footprint.
Workplace preferences remained largely unchanged through the year. 91.5% of roles in 2025 were in-office or hybrid, with employers continuing to emphasise collaboration, faster learning cycles, and on-ground problem-solving for early-career hires.
The report also highlights a clear shift in the types of roles driving entry-level hiring. Growth marketing, e-commerce and D2C roles, programmatic, account management, and brand marketing emerged as some of the most in-demand and better-paying entry-level opportunities. Satish Kadu, CEO and Founder of YOptima added, “As brands push for measurable business outcomes, programmatic talent that can drive performance through data, automation, and cross-channel decisioning has become mission-critical.”
The expectation around entry-level talent being equipped with using AI as a part of their jobs to increase both productivity and quality of output. Shivaprasad Nair, MD at Assembly Global added, “AI is now basic hygiene for entry-level marketers. What sets candidates apart is learning agility- the ability to apply tools thoughtfully, interpret data, and adapt as workflows evolve.”
Speaking about the report, Varun Satia, Founder and CEO of Kraftshala, said, “What 2025 clearly showed us is that entry-level digital marketing hiring in India is not slowing down, it’s maturing. As we move into 2026, there is real opportunity for candidates who are willing to build strong fundamentals and apply them thoughtfully. Recruiters are actively hiring, but they’re being deliberate about the kind of talent they bring in.”
Recruitment processes themselves underwent meaningful changes in 2025. With increasing use of AI tools making resumes and assignments easier to standardise, recruiters shifted away from automated screening methods. Instead, hiring processes placed greater emphasis on live problem-solving and case based discussions, and practical exercises, making the hiring competitive but also more transparent for well-prepared candidates.
