Fractional CMO

Fractional CMO
for Ecommerce Brands

A fractional CMO owns your marketing the way a full‑time one would — the strategy, the budget, the channels and the people doing the work — for a few days a month instead of a salary. I do it for direct‑to‑consumer brands on Shopify, and I have run the job for a company I owned.

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What It Costs

The Definition

What a Fractional CMO
Actually Is

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who takes ownership of your whole marketing function on a part‑time, ongoing basis. Not a project. Not advice. Ownership — of the plan, the budget, the channel mix and the people delivering it.

The word that matters is ownership. A consultant recommends. An agency executes a brief. A freelancer completes tasks. A CMO decides what happens, spends the budget, and is accountable for what it returns.

It is not a consultant

A consultant hands you a strategy and leaves you to run it. A fractional CMO runs it.

It is not an agency

An agency delivers a service you brief them on. A fractional CMO writes the brief and decides whether the agency is worth keeping.

It is not a freelancer

A freelancer owns a task. A fractional CMO owns the number the tasks are meant to move.

The Remit

Six Things
a CMO Owns

A marketing manager runs channels. A CMO decides which channels deserve to exist, and what everything else is costing you by comparison.

Strategy and budget

Where the money goes each quarter, and what each channel has to return to keep its share.

Paid acquisition

Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft. Built and run, not outsourced and hoped for.

Email and retention

Flows, segmentation and the repeat purchase rate that decides what you can afford to pay for a customer.

SEO and content

The channel that costs more up front and less forever, which is why it never gets started.

Site and conversion

The product page and the checkout. The cheapest growth available is usually already on your site.

Vendors and contractors

Sourcing them, briefing them, managing them, and firing them when the work does not land.

Readiness

Signals You Are
Ready for One

Most brands that ask me about this are not ready, and I say so. It has become a fashionable answer to a real problem.

You are ready if

  • You are doing $2M–$20M a year and growth has flattened
  • Ad spend is past $20,000 a month and nobody owns the number
  • You have three or four freelancers and no one coordinating them
  • You, the founder, are still approving ad copy at 11pm
  • You know the channels are underperforming but not which one to fix first

You are not ready if

  • You are under $1M a year — you need an operator, not a strategist
  • You have no product-market fit. Marketing leadership will not manufacture demand
  • You want someone to run one channel. That is cheaper as channel management
  • You want a plan to hand to someone else. That is a consulting engagement

The Cost

What Marketing Leadership
Actually Costs

Three ways to get senior marketing thinking into an ecommerce business. The right one depends almost entirely on your revenue.

Full-time hire

$10,000–13,000

per month, fully loaded

Salary, payroll tax, benefits and equipment for one senior marketing lead — before you count anyone working under them. Two to three months to hire, and the knowledge leaves when they do.

This page

Fractional CMO

From $7,000

per month

The same ownership, a few days a month, starting in days rather than months. No payroll, no notice period, and you can stop when the function is built.

Agency retainer

$8,000+

per month

A full-service retainer covering strategy and execution across channels — the scope this page is actually comparable to. Strong at production volume; nobody there is accountable for your P&L, and below a certain spend you will not get their senior people.

Figures for the full-time and agency columns are typical market ranges, not quotes. My own pricing is published in full below.

The First 90 Days

What Actually
Happens

No 94-slide strategy deck. The deliverable is a marketing function that works when you are not watching it.

Days 1–30

Find out what is true

Every account, the analytics, the email programme, the site. I come back with what is actually wrong and what it is costing you, in writing, ranked. Most of this month is reading, not changing.

Days 31–60

Fix the foundation

Tracking, feed health, account structure, the worst of the site leaks. Unglamorous work that decides whether anything built later can be measured at all.

Days 61–90

Build the engine

Channel mix set against a budget, creative in production, email flows live, and a reporting rhythm you can read in five minutes. By day 90 you should know what each channel returns.

Operator Experience

I Have Held
the Seat

Most fractional CMOs have only ever advised. I co-founded ModernReform, a high‑ticket direct‑to‑consumer fitness equipment brand, and ran its entire marketing function — the site, the branding, the ad accounts, the vendor relationships. We took it to $2.5 million in annual sales in 2021 and sold the business through Flippa in 2024 for a seven-figure sum.

That is the difference between someone who can describe the job and someone who has done it with their own money at stake. More on that here.

The Choice

Fractional, Full‑Time
Or An Agency

Three ways to get senior marketing leadership, and the honest version of when each one is right. I am one of them, and I am not the answer for everyone.

Fractional CMOFull-time CMOAgency
Time to startWeeksA months-long searchWeeks
CostA monthly fee, cancellableSalary, equity and the cost of a bad hireA monthly retainer, often tied to spend
Who does the workThe person you hiredThe person you hired, plus the team they buildUsually not the person who sold it to you
Depth of attentionA few days a month, shared with other clientsAll of it — nobody beats thisVaries by account size
Bench and capacityOne person’s hoursA team they can hireStrongest here — specialists on tap
Best whenDecisions are the bottleneck, not hoursMarketing is the core of the business and needs an ownerYou need volume of execution more than judgement

If you already have a capable head of marketing, you want a specialist, not this. And if marketing is the engine of the whole company, hire someone full time — a few days a month is not enough to own something that important.

Pricing

What It
Costs

Published, so you can rule me in or out without booking a call.

Channel Management

$1,500 /month

You own the plan. I run the channels.

  • Campaign build and management
  • Conversion tracking and reporting
  • Monthly performance call
  • Additional channels +$500 each
  • Minimum ad spend $5,000/month
  • 6 month commitment

How one channel gets run →

Book a Call

Most Popular

Growth Partner

$4,000 /month

I own paid strategy end to end.

  • Everything in Channel Management
  • Every channel included, priced as one
  • Channel mix and budget allocation
  • Creative direction and briefs
  • Quarterly CRO roadmap
  • 25 hours a month included
  • Minimum ad spend $10,000/month
  • 3 months, then month to month

What owning the mix means →

Book a Call

Fractional CMO

From $7,000 /month

I own the whole marketing function.

  • Everything in Growth Partner
  • Email, SEO and site direction
  • Contractor sourcing and management
  • Quarterly planning with you
  • 40 hours a month included
  • Minimum ad spend $20,000/month
  • 6 month commitment

What a Fractional CMO does →

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FAQ

Questions About
Fractional CMOs

If yours is not here, ask it on the call.

What does a fractional CMO cost?
Mine starts at $7,000 a month, which includes 40 hours and a $20,000 monthly ad spend minimum. The wider market runs roughly $5,000 to $15,000 a month depending on company size. Compare it against a full-time marketing lead at $10,000 to $13,000 a month fully loaded, not against a freelancer.
How many hours a month do you actually work?
Forty, and they are logged. Fractional does not mean occasional — it means the seat is filled part-time, not that the attention is casual. Most weeks that is one working day plus the ongoing management of whoever is delivering.
Is a fractional CMO worth it for a company under $1M?
Usually not, and I will tell you so on the call. Below about $1M the constraint is rarely strategy. You need someone executing channels, which is cheaper and more useful at that stage.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
An agency delivers what you brief them on and is accountable for their deliverable. A fractional CMO writes the brief, chooses the agency, and is accountable for the revenue. I often manage agencies rather than replace them.
How long does an engagement last?
Six months minimum, because less than that is not enough to build anything. Many run a year or two. The honest goal is that the function eventually runs without me, or grows large enough to justify a full-time hire — at which point I help you hire them.
Do you work outside ecommerce?
This page is written for direct-to-consumer brands on Shopify, because that is where I am strongest and where the results come from. Lead generation businesses are a real part of the work too.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who runs your marketing on a part-time, ongoing basis instead of being hired full time. You get the strategy, the budget decisions and the accountability of a chief marketing officer for a few days a month rather than a salary, equity and a hiring process.
What does a fractional CMO do?
Owns the marketing decisions a founder is usually making alone: which channels get budget, what the funnel looks like, what gets measured, and which agencies or freelancers stay. For an ecommerce brand that means I set the channel mix and the targets, then run or oversee the execution against them.
When should you hire a fractional CMO?
When marketing decisions have become the bottleneck but the volume of work does not justify a full-time hire. The usual trigger is a founder who is still approving every ad and every email and has become the constraint on their own growth.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Mine is published on this page rather than quoted on a call. Market rates vary widely because the scope does — some engagements are two days a month of strategy, others include running the channels. Ask what is actually being done for the money, not just the day rate.
How does a fractional CMO work in practice?
A fixed monthly commitment, a standing call, and ownership of an agreed set of decisions. The difference from a consultant is accountability: a consultant advises and leaves, a fractional CMO owns the number.
Who should hire a fractional CMO?
Direct-to-consumer brands past the point where the founder can run marketing themselves, but not yet at the scale that justifies a full marketing department. If you already have a capable head of marketing, you probably want a specialist, not this.
How do you hire a fractional CMO?
Look for someone who has run the channels themselves rather than only managed people who do. Ask for the accounts they have personally operated, ask what they would stop doing in your business, and be suspicious of anyone who does not disqualify themselves from anything.
Why hire a fractional CMO instead of a full-time one?
Cost and speed. A full-time CMO is a months-long search, a senior salary and a bet that the hire fits. A fractional engagement starts in weeks and ends when you do not need it. The trade-off is real: you get less of their time and they carry other clients.

Let’s Talk

Book a free 30 minute call. I will tell you what I would do with your accounts, whether or not you hire me.

Book a Discovery Call

30-minute strategy session

Prefer to Reach Out Directly?

Happy to talk it through over email or a quick call. I usually reply within a few hours on weekdays.

Who You Talk To

Me, Every Time

What to Expect

  • 30 minutes with me, not a salesperson
  • What I would change in your account first
  • No pitch deck, no obligation