A Fractional CMO Who Ships, Not Just Advises
You don’t need another agency invoice for work nobody can tie back to revenue. You need someone senior enough to know which three things actually matter this quarter — and hands-on enough to make sure they get done.
That’s what a Fractional Growth Lead engagement is. I plug in as your marketing leadership, part-time, for a fraction of what a full-time CMO costs — and unlike most fractional arrangements, I don’t just sit in strategy meetings. I get into the account, the codebase, and the campaign build when that’s what’s needed.
What “Fractional” Actually Means Here
Most businesses that reach for a Fractional CMO are stuck in one of two places: too big for founder-led marketing to keep working, too small to justify a £70k+ full-time hire. A fractional lead fills that gap — but only if the person in the role is actually doing the job, not just showing up to a monthly call with a slide deck.
Every month you get:
- A standing view of what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do about it — reviewed against revenue, not vanity metrics
- Direct oversight of your existing channels (paid, SEO, email, content) so nothing drifts without anyone noticing
- Hands-on execution capacity where it’s needed, not just recommendations for someone else to build
- A single point of accountability — no more chasing three different freelancers or an agency account manager who’s never seen your dashboard
Who This Is For
This works best for e-commerce and music-industry brands doing meaningful revenue already, where marketing has outgrown ad-hoc management but a full-time senior hire isn’t the right next step yet. If you’re pre-revenue or still validating the offer, start with a Growth Audit instead — a Fractional Lead engagement assumes there’s already something worth optimising.
It’s not a fit if you want someone to just “run the ads.” If that’s the need, a specialist freelancer or a media-buying agency will serve you better and cost less.
How This Is Different From an Agency Retainer
Agencies are built to sell hours and channels. The incentive is to keep every channel running, because that’s what the retainer covers — whether or not it’s the highest-leverage use of your budget this month.
A Fractional Growth Lead has the opposite incentive: the job is to tell you the truth about what’s working, including “we should turn this off,” even when that means less billable work. You’re paying for judgment first, execution second — which is the whole reason this model exists.
What It Costs
Fractional Growth Lead engagements start from £2,500/month, scoped to your team size, channel mix, and how much hands-on delivery you need versus in-house capacity you already have.
If you’re not ready to commit to an ongoing retainer, the Growth Audit (from £1,500, fixed price) is the lower-commitment way to see how this way of working plays out before scaling into a monthly arrangement.
How We’d Start
- A short scoping call — what’s actually happening in the business right now, not just the marketing.
- A 30-day priority list — the three things that matter most, in order, before anything else gets touched.
- Monthly cadence begins — reporting against revenue, not impressions, with direct access to me, not an account manager.
FAQs
How is this different from hiring a marketing manager? A marketing manager executes a strategy someone else sets. A Fractional Growth Lead sets the strategy and has the seniority to know when it’s wrong — at a fraction of a full-time senior hire’s cost and without the recruitment risk.
Do you replace my existing team or agencies? Not usually. Most engagements involve directing and improving what’s already in place — your in-house team, existing freelancers, or an agency relationship — rather than replacing it wholesale.
What if it’s not working after a few months? There’s no long-term lock-in. If the engagement isn’t earning its keep, we end it — that’s consistent with the diagnostic-first approach this is built on.
How do you measure success? Against the metrics that actually matter to your business — revenue, contribution margin, customer acquisition cost — agreed upfront, not against channel-level vanity metrics.