The trigger is one of four things
All four are symptoms of the same gap: execution exists, and nobody senior owns the decisions above it.
- Spend without attribution: ads are running and nobody can say what a customer costs through each channel.
- Agency churn: a second or third agency has been hired, each with a different story about why growth stalled.
- A junior marketer with nobody to learn from, doing good work inside no strategy.
- A raise ahead, where investors will ask about go-to-market and the deck answers with a logo wall.
What the seat owns from seed to Series B
- Positioning: the one sentence the company can be explained in, tested with customers rather than in a workshop.
- The channel plan and the budget behind it, reviewed quarterly and cut without sentiment.
- A pipeline or revenue contribution number agreed with whoever runs sales, so marketing reports on the business rather than on itself.
- The agency relationship: a brief, a number, and the decision to end it when it is not working.
- The first marketing hires, specified and interviewed by somebody who has built the team before.
What it does not own
Making the content. A fractional CMO at two days a week who is writing the posts and building the landing pages is a senior day rate doing execution, and the strategy work is not getting done.
Instant pipeline. Positioning and channel work show up in the numbers over two or three quarters, which is why the engagement is judged at ninety days on the decisions made and at six months on the pipeline.
What it costs at this stage
A fractional CMO charges £700 to £1,300 a day, with the upper end for category creation and full funnel rebuilds. A seed stage company typically starts at one day a week; Series A and B companies run two. That is a fraction of a full-time CMO's salary and employer costs, and it arrives without a six month search.
When to hire full-time instead
Once there is a marketing team of four or more to manage daily, once the channel plan is settled and the job is running it, or once marketing needs to be in every leadership conversation five days a week. A good fractional CMO says when that point has come, and usually helps hire their replacement.
What to ask in the interview
- Which channel would you kill first here, and what would you need to see to be wrong?
- Walk me through a positioning you changed. What was the old sentence, what was the new one, and what moved?
- What pipeline number would you sign up to at ninety days, and at six months?
- Tell me about an agency you fired, and one you kept.
Common questions
When should a startup hire a fractional CMO?
When spend is running without attribution, when a second agency has arrived with a different story, or when a junior marketer is working inside no strategy. The stage is usually seed to Series B. Before that the founder is the marketing, and should stay so until there is something to position.
How many days a week does a startup need a fractional CMO?
One day a week at seed, two at Series A and B. Below one day the person cannot own anything. Above three days consistently, the company is ready for a full-time marketing leader.
Is a fractional CMO cheaper than an agency?
A different line, not a cheaper one. An agency is execution and is paid for output. A fractional CMO is the decision layer above it, and most startups keep the agency and finally get value from it. The combined cost is usually below a full-time CMO once employer costs and a search fee are counted.
More of them, on hiring, contracts and what a fractional engagement costs, on the fractional executive FAQ.