Creative Manager: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a Creative Project Manager?

A Creative Project Manager coordinates resources and tasks associated with creative efforts such as branding, marketing and design. They make sure deliverables are on time and meet client or business expectations by tracking milestones, managing feedback loops and supporting consistency across campaigns. Creative Project Managers often work with Designers, Copywriters, Marketing Strategists and other creative production team members. 

Why hire a Creative Project Manager?

Creative Project Managers help keep marketing and design projects organized, ensuring they stay on schedule and deliver assets that meet client or campaign goals. This coordination supports smoother collaboration and more consistent creative output.

Your business might benefit from hiring a Creative Project Manager if you’re scaling marketing efforts, juggling multiple creative campaigns or experiencing workflow bottlenecks across departments.

Contributions of a great Creative Project Manager:

• Streamlined creative workflows and feedback cycles
• Clear timelines and more organized deliverables across cross-functional teams
• More consistent, high-quality creative output

Defining your hiring needs for a Creative Project Manager

As you plan how to hire a Creative PM, assess the volume and complexity of your relevant projects. A full-time Creative Project Manager might be necessary for agencies or in-house teams managing multiple campaigns, while part-time or contract hires might support short-term or seasonal efforts.

Define whether the role will focus on day-to-day project coordination, client communications or process improvement. Related roles include Product Marketing Manager, Marketing Project Manager and Account Manager.

What are the types of Creative Project Manager?

Creative Project Manager roles vary based on the type of creative work managed or the industry. Common role types include:

• Agency Creative Project Manager: This role oversees client campaigns and may work with projects across various businesses or industries. They often manage agency or freelance teams.
• In-House Creative Project Manager: In-House Creative PMs tend to work within design or marketing departments to coordinate branding or other creative initiatives.
• Digital Creative Content Manager. These professionals focus on managing digital creative projects and assets. They may work on video or social media projects or website development.
• Brand Creative Content Manager. This type of Creative PM focuses on aligning brand identity and messaging across creative outputs.
• Art Project Manager: These professionals work mostly on visual design projects, including graphic design or fine arts.
• Content Project Manager: Content PMs oversee content generation to support marketing or branding.

When writing your Creative Project Manager job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on Quality Assurance Analyst jobs, according to Indeed data.

• Project Manager
• Graphic Design
• Creative
• Marketing
• Creative Project Manager
• Video
• Communications
• Graphic Designer
• Photographer

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Where to find Creative Project Managers

Creative Project Managers can be sourced through design and marketing job boards, creative agencies, portfolio sites and professional networks. Partnering with universities that offer degrees in marketing, design or communications can also help expand your reach.

To find the right Creative Project Manager for your team, consider these strategies:

• Internal promotions: Consider experienced Marketing Coordinators, Account Managers, Design Leads or others on your team who understand your brand vision and creative workflows.
• Creative staffing agencies: When hiring a Creative Project Manager, partner with agencies that focus on placing advertising, marketing, design or creative professionals.
• Networking: Look for candidates via creative professional networks, alumni groups or local design communities.
• Social media: Promote your open role on company and team social media pages, where creative professionals may already engage with your content.
• Post your job online: Try posting your Creative Project Manager job on Indeed to find and attract candidates.

Skills to look for in a Creative Project Manager

A successful Creative Project Manager candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• Ability to coordinate multiphase creative campaigns involving design, copywriting, video production or digital assets
• Proficiency with project management tools commonly used by creative teams, such as Asana, Wrike or Trello
• Understanding of creative workflows, including concept development, client approvals and production timelines
• Ability to manage stakeholder feedback loops and version control across multiple deliverables
• Familiarity with branding and content standards to help support quality of campaigns
• Ability to identify resource needs and adjust schedules based on team availability and campaign deadlines

Writing a Creative Project Manager job description

Now that you know the key skills, salary expectations, popular job seeker search terms and hiring insights for a Creative Project Manager, you’re ready to write a job description.

A Creative Project Manager job description typically includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also want to include information about your company culture, benefits and perks to attract candidates to your open role.

Ready to get started? See our full guide on writing job descriptions.

Interviewing Creative Project Manager candidates

Strong candidates for Creative Project Manager positions will be confident answering questions about:

• Managing creative project timelines, milestones and approvals
• Coordinating tasks across design, content and marketing teams
• Handling version control and stakeholder feedback
• Using creative project management software and workflow tools
• Balancing competing priorities in fast-paced campaign environments

Need help coming up with interview questions? Our Project Manager interview questions are a helpful starting point for hiring a Creative Project Manager.