Top 12 Marketing & Advertising Skills to Put on Your Resume

Hiring managers skim fast. You need signals that hit hard. In marketing and advertising, that means proving you can plan, execute, and iterate across channels without wasting budget. The 12 skills below show range and depth—the kind of toolkit that moves metrics, not just moods.

Marketing & Advertising Skills

1. SEO
2. SEM
3. Google Analytics
4. Facebook Ads
5. Instagram Marketing
6. LinkedIn Advertising
7. Photoshop
8. InDesign
9. Mailchimp
10. Hootsuite
11. Salesforce
12. HubSpot

1. SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) lifts your pages in search results so the right people find you without paying for every click.

Why It's Important

Strong SEO compounds. More qualified traffic, better user experience, higher trust signals. All of which push conversions and lower acquisition costs over time.

How to Improve SEO Skills

Make search engines and users happy, in that order and at the same time:

1. Keyword strategy: Map intent (informational, commercial, transactional). Build topic clusters, not one-off posts.

2. Technical hygiene: Fast pages, clean crawl paths, logical internal links, structured data, and a tidy sitemap. Fix 404s and duplicate content.

3. Mobile-first: Design and test for phones. Core Web Vitals matter.

4. Content quality: Helpful, original, well-researched. Refresh aging pages. Add FAQs to capture long-tail queries.

5. On-page signals: Clear titles, compelling meta descriptions, semantic headings, descriptive alt text, human-readable URLs.

6. Authority: Earn credible backlinks via PR, data pieces, and partnerships. Avoid spammy schemes.

7. Local SEO: Keep business listings consistent. Collect reviews. Use local landing pages where relevant.

8. Analytics + iteration: Track rankings, impressions, CTR, and conversions. Improve what’s close to winning.

SEO is slow at first, then it snowballs. Consistency beats bursts.

How to Display SEO Skills on Your Resume

2. SEM

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) buys visibility on search results, putting targeted offers in front of people already hunting for answers.

Why It's Important

When it’s tuned, SEM delivers fast feedback and faster revenue. You control spend, audiences, and intent—then measure every click.

How to Improve SEM Skills

Cut waste, boost relevance, scale winners:

1. Granular structure: Tight ad groups. Single-keyword themes where it makes sense. Crystal-clear intent alignment.

2. Irresistible copy: Benefit-first headlines, strong CTAs, and extensions that earn more real estate.

3. Landing pages that convert: Message match, fast load, focused forms, social proof, and above-the-fold clarity.

4. Negative keywords: Prune constantly to protect budget.

5. A/B and incrementality tests: Ads, pages, bids, audiences. Keep testing; retire losers swiftly.

6. Smart bidding with guardrails: Use value-based bidding where data supports it. Layer by device, location, time, and audience.

7. Quality Score drivers: Relevance, CTR, and landing page experience. Improve all three in tandem.

8. Attribution and imports: Import offline conversions when possible. Optimize to profit, not just clicks.

How to Display SEM Skills on Your Resume

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics reveals how people arrive, what they do, and where they drop off—fuel for smarter campaigns and cleaner UX.

Why It's Important

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Analytics ties activity to outcomes, so marketing decisions stop being guesses.

How to Improve Google Analytics Skills

Universal Analytics is sunset. Build on GA4:

1. Solid property setup: Configure GA4 with enhanced measurement, data retention, and filters that reflect reality.

2. Event architecture: Plan a clear event and parameter schema. Mark key events as conversions. Standardize names.

3. Cross-domain and user-ID: Stitch journeys across sites and devices for cleaner attribution.

4. Audiences + integrations: Create granular audiences and link with ad platforms to close the loop.

5. UTM discipline: Consistent tagging for source, medium, campaign, content, and term. No typos, no chaos.

6. Consent Mode and privacy: Implement Consent Mode v2 and ensure data collection respects regional laws.

7. Explorations and funnels: Use pathing, segments, and conversion funnels to find friction and fix it.

8. BigQuery export: When volumes grow, analyze raw data for deeper insights and modeling.

How to Display Google Analytics Skills on Your Resume

4. Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads (via Meta Ads Manager) reaches people across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and more, with pinpoint targeting and creative formats built for attention.

Why It's Important

The scale is massive. The targeting is flexible. The feedback loop is quick. When creative resonates, results pop.

How to Improve Facebook Ads Skills

Make the algorithm your ally, not your enemy:

1. Clear objectives: Match campaign objectives to business goals—awareness, leads, sales, or app actions.

2. Audience strategy: Test broad, interest, custom, and lookalike audiences. Exclude existing customers where needed.

3. Creative that stops thumbs: Mobile-first visuals, short captions, upfront value. Test static, video, carousels, and Reels placements.

4. Advantage+ and CAPI: Use Advantage+ shopping where relevant. Implement the Meta Pixel and Conversions API for resilient tracking post-iOS changes.

5. Structured testing: Rotate hooks, offers, and formats. Kill ad fatigue early.

6. Landing page continuity: Promise in the ad, deliver on the page. Speed and clarity win.

7. Measure properly: Use conversion lift tests and holdouts when possible. Optimize to downstream metrics, not vanity ones.

How to Display Facebook Ads Skills on Your Resume

5. Instagram Marketing

Instagram is visual, fast, and culture-driven. Brands that play natively—stories, Reels, collabs—earn attention and trust.

Why It's Important

Engagement rates are strong. Discovery is baked in. Shopping and messaging shrink the gap from scroll to sale.

How to Improve Instagram Marketing Skills

Show up consistently and with intent:

1. Goals and guardrails: Brand lift, community growth, lead gen, or sales—pick targets and define success.

2. Audience insight: Watch when followers are active, what formats they save, and which topics spark replies.

3. Content mix: Reels for reach, carousels for depth, Stories for intimacy, Lives for energy. Use native trends sparingly and on-brand.

4. Profile polish: Clear bio, keywords, contact options, links that route smartly. Highlights that actually help.

5. Hashtag and keyword strategy: Relevant, varied sets. Don’t spam. Optimize captions for search.

6. Creators and UGC: Partner with creators who share your audience. Secure permissions for user content and credit it.

7. Ads that blend in: Native-feel creative with crisp offers. Test post IDs to keep social proof.

8. Review and refine: Track reach, saves, replies, and attributed conversions. Double down on what moves the needle.

How to Display Instagram Marketing Skills on Your Resume

6. LinkedIn Advertising

LinkedIn Advertising targets professionals by role, seniority, industry, skills, and company—perfect for B2B, recruiting, and high-consideration plays.

Why It's Important

You reach decision-makers in a work mindset. Lead quality jumps. Deal cycles shorten when messaging is sharp.

How to Improve LinkedIn Advertising Skills

Precision plus relevance wins here:

1. Audience definition: Mix firmographic and skill-based targeting. Use Matched Audiences and exclusions to hone in.

2. Format fit: Sponsored Content for scale, Lead Gen Forms for friction-free capture, Message/Conversation Ads for dialogue, Dynamic Ads for personalization.

3. Offer clarity: Strong value props—reports, events, calculators, or case studies. No fluff.

4. Lead Gen Form rigor: Keep forms short. Route instantly to sales with alerts and scoring.

5. Test methodically: Creative, audience slices, and bidding (CPC vs. CPM). Monitor CTR and cost per quality lead, not just cost per lead.

6. Website Demographics: Check who visits and adjust targeting to mirror best segments.

How to Display LinkedIn Advertising Skills on Your Resume

7. Photoshop

Photoshop is the workhorse for marketing visuals—retouching, compositing, ad creative, social graphics, and more.

Why It's Important

Great creative lifts performance across channels. Crisp imagery and intentional design drive attention and comprehension.

How to Improve Photoshop Skills

Design faster, design smarter:

1. Layers, masks, and smart objects: Non-destructive edits keep you agile.

2. Color and contrast: Master adjustment layers, blend modes, and color theory to create punch without noise.

3. Type that sells: Hierarchy, kerning, and grid alignment. Legibility first, flair second.

4. Templates and libraries: Build reusable ad and social templates. Share brand libraries across teams.

5. Export discipline: Right formats, right compression. Fast files that still look sharp.

6. Feedback loops: Ship drafts quickly, iterate with comments, and version-control like a pro.

How to Display Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

8. InDesign

InDesign handles complex layouts for brochures, reports, one-pagers, ads, and digital publications—polished and consistent.

Why It's Important

When collateral needs structure and brand fidelity, InDesign keeps everything aligned, styled, and print-ready.

How to Improve InDesign Skills

Make long-form look effortless:

1. Master Pages and styles: Paragraph, character, and object styles enforce consistency and speed.

2. Grids and baselines: Lock in rhythm so complex pages stay readable.

3. Linked graphics: Manage assets with the Links panel and preflight checks to avoid output surprises.

4. Interactive exports: Add hyperlinks, buttons, and forms for digital PDFs and interactive decks.

5. Data Merge: Generate personalized collateral at scale from spreadsheets.

6. Packaging and presets: Package files for printers and use export presets for predictable results.

How to Display InDesign Skills on Your Resume

9. Mailchimp

Mailchimp powers email marketing and simple automation—newsletters, promos, onboarding flows, and win-backs.

Why It's Important

Email still prints money when segmented and relevant. Mailchimp makes testing and iteration accessible.

How to Improve Mailchimp Skills

Send fewer blasts, more relevance:

1. Audience hygiene: Tags, segments, and groups. Keep lists clean; remove chronic non-openers.

2. Personalization: Merge fields, conditional content, and dynamic product blocks. Speak to behavior, not just names.

3. Automation: Welcome series, abandoned cart, browse recovery, replenishment, and reactivation journeys.

4. Mobile-first templates: Single-column designs, scannable copy, tappable buttons.

5. Deliverability: Authenticate domains (SPF, DKIM), warm up new sending domains, and mind send cadence.

6. A/B and send-time optimization: Test subject lines, previews, content, and timing. Keep winners, retire duds.

7. Reporting that matters: Beyond opens—track clicks to revenue, cohort performance, and lifetime value impact.

How to Display Mailchimp Skills on Your Resume

10. Hootsuite

Hootsuite centralizes social scheduling, monitoring, engagement, and reporting—one dashboard to run the week.

Why It's Important

When you manage multiple networks and teams, workflows matter. Hootsuite saves time and surfaces insights you’d otherwise miss.

How to Improve Hootsuite Skills

Turn it into your command center:

1. Streams and listening: Set up keyword, mention, and competitor streams. Catch trends and customer issues early.

2. Content calendar: Plan pillars, batch-create, and schedule with approvals to keep quality high.

3. UTMs and link tracking: Apply consistent UTM templates to every post. Tie social to site outcomes.

4. Tagging and inbox: Tag posts and messages for themes. Route and resolve customer inquiries quickly.

5. Bulk actions: Use bulk scheduling and media library to speed repetitive work.

6. Reports that drive action: Build dashboards by goal—awareness, engagement, traffic, support—and share with stakeholders.

7. Team roles: Permissions, assignments, and SLAs. Collaboration without chaos.

How to Display Hootsuite Skills on Your Resume

11. Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM platform that unifies sales, marketing, service, and data so teams move in step with the customer.

Why It's Important

Accurate data. Automated journeys. Clear attribution. Salesforce turns fragmented activity into orchestrated growth.

How to Improve Salesforce Skills

Build a stack that talks to itself:

1. Marketing Cloud: Use Journey Builder, Email Studio, Mobile Studio, and Advertising integrations for end-to-end orchestration.

2. Account Engagement (Pardot): Score leads, grade fit, and nurture B2B prospects with dynamic content and connected campaigns.

3. Data Cloud: Unify identities across sources and activate clean segments in paid and owned channels.

4. Einstein: Apply predictive scoring, send-time optimization, and recommendations to lift conversion rates.

5. Sales-Marketing handshake: Shared definitions, SLAs, and closed-loop reporting. Push qualified leads fast; feed back outcomes.

6. Dashboards and attribution: Multi-touch models, pipeline views, and executive rollups that spotlight ROI.

7. Integrations and hygiene: Connect forms, ads, and support. Maintain deduplication, validation rules, and regular audits.

How to Display Salesforce Skills on Your Resume

12. HubSpot

HubSpot blends CRM with marketing, sales, service, and content tools—built to attract, engage, and delight in one place.

Why It's Important

One system means less duct tape. Better data, faster workflows, clearer reporting. Teams actually use it.

How to Improve HubSpot Skills

Make HubSpot hum:

1. CRM first: Clean records, lifecycle stages, lead scoring, and properties that match your funnel.

2. Workflows and automation: Nurtures, handoffs, SLAs, and internal alerts. Personalize with behavior and firmographics.

3. Content and SEO: Topic clusters, on-page recommendations, and content audits. Tie blogs and landing pages to campaigns.

4. Campaigns and attribution: Group assets, track influence, and report on multi-touch performance.

5. ABM features: Target accounts, buying roles, and tailored plays. Coordinate with sales on sequences and intent.

6. Operations Hub: Data syncs, quality rules, and custom automations to keep everything tidy.

7. AI assist: Use built-in AI for drafts, outlines, and subject lines—then refine with your brand voice.

How to Display HubSpot Skills on Your Resume