Fractional CMO Services
Senior marketing leadership on retainer. Sets the strategy, runs the team, owns the number.
Start a projectMost mid-market brands hit the same wall. Marketing spend is real, but no senior person owns it. The CEO is making channel calls between board meetings, a capable but junior team is guessing at priorities, and two or three agencies report into nobody. A full-time CMO at $250k–$400k feels like too much, too soon — so the seat stays empty and the money keeps leaking.
Fractional CMO services close that gap. You get a senior marketing leader on a retainer who sets the strategy, runs the team and the vendors, owns the budget, and answers for the number — without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. We start from the commercial reality (pipeline, CAC, margin, what the budget has to return), set a 90-day operating plan with named owners, and lead the function against it week by week. The CEO gets marketing off their desk and a single accountable owner in its place.
What makes our version different is that we build and run what we set. Most fractional CMOs hand you a strategy and a hiring list, then leave you to execute. We operate the engine — our team runs paid media, content, lifecycle, and web alongside the strategy, with AI giving the function a cadence and scale your headcount couldn’t match. People keep the judgment and the brand calls; the agentic systems handle the throughput. When the function outgrows fractional leadership, we help you hire a full-time CMO and hand over a documented, running machine. The exit is part of the plan from day one.
Built and run, end to end.
Marketing strategy and the operating plan
We start with the commercial reality: pipeline, CAC, margin, sales cycle, what the budget actually has to return. From that we set positioning, the channel mix, and a 90-day operating plan with named owners and weekly targets. Not a deck that sits in a drawer — a plan the team works against on Monday.
Team leadership and accountability
A fractional CMO who runs the function, not just advises it. We line-manage your marketers and agencies, run the standups and the monthly review, set the priorities, and hold execution to the plan. If a hire is wrong or a vendor is underperforming, we say so and fix it. Judgment and accountability are the job.
Budget ownership and reporting
We own the marketing P&L line. Every dollar maps to a channel, a target, and a reporting cadence the CEO can read in five minutes. We kill what isn't returning and reallocate without drama. You get one source of truth on spend and performance — not three dashboards that disagree.
Build and run, not pitch and leave
Most fractional CMOs hand you a strategy and a list of people to hire. We build the engine and operate it. Our team executes alongside the strategy — paid media, content, lifecycle, web — so the plan and the work share one accountable owner. The differentiator is that we stay to run what we set.
AI-amplified marketing operations
We use agentic systems to give the function cadence and scale your headcount couldn't: faster reporting, content production at volume, lifecycle that runs without a person babysitting it. The judgment, the brand calls, the strategy — those stay with senior people. AI handles the throughput, not the decisions.
Hiring, structure, and the handoff plan
We design the marketing org you actually need, write the scorecards, and sit on the interviews. When the function is big enough to justify a full-time CMO, we help you hire one and hand over a running machine — documented, instrumented, with a team that knows the plan. The exit is built into the engagement.
Questions, answered.
What is a fractional CMO and when do I need one?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing function part-time, on a retainer, instead of as a full-time hire. You need one when marketing has outgrown ad-hoc decisions and a junior team, but the revenue doesn't yet justify a $250k+ full-time CMO. The usual trigger is a mid-market brand spending real money on marketing with no senior person owning strategy, the team, and the number.
How is this different from hiring a marketing consultant or another agency?
A consultant advises and leaves. A typical agency executes a channel and reports up to whoever's in charge — which is often nobody senior. A fractional CMO sits inside your leadership, owns the whole function, manages the team and the vendors, and is accountable for results. Our version goes one step further: we also build and run the execution, so strategy and delivery answer to the same person instead of pointing fingers at each other.
How many hours or days per week does a fractional CMO actually work?
It depends on the stage, but most engagements run one to two days a week of senior leadership time. That covers strategy, the team standups, the monthly review, budget decisions, and the calls that need a senior voice. When execution work runs through our team as well, the total footprint is larger — but the CMO-level commitment is sized to what the function genuinely needs, not padded to fill a retainer.
Will a fractional CMO manage my existing in-house team and agencies?
Yes — that's the point. We line-manage your marketers and coordinate your outside vendors so there's one plan and one set of priorities. If the in-house team is strong, we lead and sharpen it. If a vendor isn't returning, we say so and either fix the brief or replace them. You stop being the bottleneck between three groups that don't talk to each other.
What does a fractional CMO cost compared to a full-time hire?
A full-time CMO in Los Angeles runs roughly $250k to $400k all-in, plus the time and risk of hiring one. A fractional engagement is a monthly retainer sized to the scope — senior leadership for a fraction of that, with no severance exposure and the ability to scale up or down as the business changes. We scope the exact number against your goals before you commit; we don't quote a fractional CMO rate sight unseen.
How long do fractional CMO engagements last, and how do they end?
Most run six to twelve months — long enough to set strategy, fix the team, and prove the model. They end one of two ways: the function stays at a size where fractional leadership is the right permanent answer, or it grows to where a full-time CMO is justified. In the second case we help you hire that person and hand over a documented, running function. The handoff is planned from the start, not improvised at the end.
Do you only work with brands in Los Angeles?
We're a Los Angeles agency and we work closely with mid-market brands across the region, which is where in-person leadership time matters most. We also run fractional CMO engagements remotely for brands elsewhere — the operating cadence, reporting, and team management work the same way over video. If proximity matters to you, we're here; if it doesn't, distance isn't a blocker.