Fractional CMO or a marketing agency?
A fractional CMO decides what to say, to whom and through which channel, and owns the pipeline number. A marketing agency executes that at volume. The CMO costs £5,367 to £9,967 a month at two days a week; an agency bills a retainer plus media. Companies that use both usually get more from the agency once somebody senior writes the brief.
Below is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, how each one fails, and when to pick the other one.
| A fractional CMO | A marketing agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the outcome | The positioning, and whether it survives contact with real customers | Execution at a volume no single person can match |
| Commitment | One to three days a week, flexing with the work, no end date assumed | A monthly retainer with a minimum term, plus media spend |
| How it is priced | £700 to £1,300 a day | A monthly retainer plus media spend, often with a minimum term. |
| Typical monthly cost | £5,367 to £9,967 a month at two days a week | No like-for-like monthly figure is published here; see how it is priced |
| How it fails | Being hired with no budget and no hands. A CMO with nobody to execute becomes an expensive strategy document. | Being briefed by somebody who does not know what the strategy is. An agency has no incentive to tell you the brief is wrong, and often no way of knowing. |
| Pick it when | Nobody senior owns the positioning or the pipeline number | The strategy is settled and what you lack is execution capacity |
What a marketing agency actually is
An external team delivering marketing execution: campaigns, content, paid media, design, usually against a brief you write.
What each one owns
| A fractional CMO | A marketing agency |
|---|---|
| The positioning, and whether it survives contact with real customers | Execution at a volume no single person can match |
| Which channels to back and which to stop paying for | Specialist skills across design, media buying and production |
| A pipeline number agreed with sales, and ownership of missing it | Capacity that flexes with the work |
| Deciding what the agency should be briefed to do | Doing the thing, once somebody has decided what the thing is |
What neither of them does
Neither fixes a product nobody wants. Marketing amplifies what is there, and both will spend your money faithfully doing it.
How each one fails
The fractional CMO: Being hired with no budget and no hands. A CMO with nobody to execute becomes an expensive strategy document.
A marketing agency: Being briefed by somebody who does not know what the strategy is. An agency has no incentive to tell you the brief is wrong, and often no way of knowing.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional CMO charges £700 to £1,300 a day, which is £5,367 to £9,967 a month at two days a week. A monthly retainer plus media spend, often with a minimum term. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick a marketing agency when
- The strategy is settled and what you lack is execution capacity
- You need a specialist skill for a defined project rather than ongoing direction
- Somebody senior in-house already owns the positioning and the number
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
The strongest common arrangement is a fractional CMO who writes the brief and holds the agency to it. That is usually where agency spend starts working, because somebody with no stake in the retainer is deciding whether it is earning.
What about a growth agency?
A growth agency sells experiments rather than campaigns: paid acquisition, landing pages, onboarding and lifecycle tests, measured weekly. It suits a company with a product people already buy and a funnel worth improving. It does not replace positioning work, and an agency running tests on a message nobody has settled will produce clean data about the wrong question. A fractional CMO sets the hypothesis; a growth agency runs it.
And a branding agency?
A branding agency builds the identity: name, visual system, tone, sometimes the messaging framework. It is a project with an end, and it is worth buying when the brand genuinely holds the company back. The risk is a rebrand commissioned to fix a positioning problem, which produces a better-looking version of the same confusion. A fractional CMO is often the person who decides whether the brand is the problem, then briefs and manages the agency through the project.
Common questions
Should I hire a fractional CMO or a marketing agency?
A fractional CMO decides what to say, to whom and through which channel, and owns the pipeline number. A marketing agency executes that at volume. The CMO costs £5,367 to £9,967 a month at two days a week; an agency bills a retainer plus media. Companies that use both usually get more from the agency once somebody senior writes the brief.
Is a fractional CMO cheaper than a marketing agency?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional CMO runs £700 to £1,300 a day, most often one to three days a week. A monthly retainer plus media spend, often with a minimum term. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When is a marketing agency the better choice than a fractional CMO?
The strategy is settled and what you lack is execution capacity. You need a specialist skill for a defined project rather than ongoing direction. Somebody senior in-house already owns the positioning and the number.
Can I use a fractional CMO and a marketing agency at the same time?
The strongest common arrangement is a fractional CMO who writes the brief and holds the agency to it. That is usually where agency spend starts working, because somebody with no stake in the retainer is deciding whether it is earning.
Fractional CMO or growth agency?
A fractional CMO if nobody owns the positioning or the pipeline number; a growth agency if the strategy is settled and what is missing is testing and channel execution at pace. A growth agency runs experiments on paid, lifecycle and conversion. It does not decide what the company stands for. Many companies hire the CMO first and brief the agency second.
Can a fractional CMO replace my agency?
Rarely, and it should not try. A fractional CMO works one to three days a week, which is time to set strategy and hold an agency to it, not to produce the campaigns. What a fractional CMO often does replace is a weak agency: they rewrite the brief, measure the work against pipeline, and move the budget if the agency is not earning it.