Fractional CMO or a marketing agency?
The short answer: a fractional CMO brings the judgement for part of a week; a marketing agency brings something different that is often confused with it. Here is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, and when to pick the other one.
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, and most engagements run one to three 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.
Common questions
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 should I pick a marketing agency instead?
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 have 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.