Most companies between $2M and $20M in revenue have marketing activity and no marketing leader. There is an SEO agency, a paid ads freelancer, someone posting on LinkedIn and a founder who approves everything. A fractional CMO is the senior marketer who takes ownership of all of it for one to three days a week, on a monthly retainer, while working with a few other companies at the same time. You will also see the role sold as a part-time CMO. An interim CMO is different: a full-time stand-in while a company hires a permanent one.
What the role owns
The fractional CMO owns four things at a $1M to $100M company.
Positioning. Who the company sells to, what problem it solves for them and why a buyer should pick it over the alternatives. Most growth problems at this size trace back here, and a fractional CMO usually rewrites it in the first 60 days.
The plan and the budget. Which channels get money, how much, and what each one is expected to return. That includes the cost to acquire a customer by channel and a view on which channels to stop.
The people who execute. Agencies, freelancers and in-house marketers report to the fractional CMO, who briefs them, reviews their work and replaces the ones that do not deliver.
The numbers. Pipeline or revenue sourced by marketing, cost per acquisition, conversion through the funnel and a monthly report the CEO can act on.
A fractional CMO rarely writes the ads or builds the website personally. Some do, especially solo practitioners at smaller clients, so ask how hands-on the person is.
Hours and fees
A fractional CMO typically works 8 to 20 hours a week, more in the first 90 days. Retainers run about $4,000 to $15,000 a month, with $6,000 to $10,000 common for a $2M to $20M company. Ad spend, agency fees and software sit on top of the retainer, so the marketing budget is always larger than the CMO’s fee. The cost guide covers the ranges in detail.
When to hire one
The signs are consistent. Growth has stalled after years of referrals and founder-led sales. You pay two or three agencies and cannot say which one works. You are about to hire a first marketing manager and do not know what to ask them to do. You are entering a new market or launching a new product line. Or a board or investor has asked for a marketing plan and nobody can write it.
Who it is not for
A company under $1M with no product-market fit will waste a fractional CMO. Marketing cannot fix a product that buyers do not want yet, and the founder is better served by talking to customers and selling. A company that only needs more of one channel, such as paid search, needs a good specialist agency. And a company that wants someone to own a large in-house team every day, with weekly meetings across sales and product, has probably outgrown the fractional model.
What to check before you sign
Ask for examples in your business model: B2B with a sales team, ecommerce, local services or SaaS each run differently. Ask what the first 90 days will produce. And ask how the CMO works with agencies, because the answer tells you whether they plan to manage your current vendors or replace them with their own.