Fractional CMO Services

Overview

• A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your company part time, usually 8 to 15 hours a week, for a monthly fee.
• Foxtown’s fractional CMO engagements run $5,000 to $10,000 a month, start with a three-month commitment and then go month to month.
• It fits companies doing roughly $2M to $20M that spend real money on marketing but can’t trace it to revenue.
• We cap the firm at ten fractional CMO clients so each one gets real attention.

Most growing companies don’t have a marketing problem. They have a leadership problem. There’s an agency running ads, someone posting on social, a website nobody has touched in two years and a monthly report full of clicks. Nobody is deciding what to do, holding each vendor to a number or connecting any of it to revenue.

That’s the job of a Chief Marketing Officer. A full-time one costs $180,000 to $280,000 a year once you add benefits and overhead. A fractional CMO gives you the same senior judgment for the hours your business actually needs.

What a Fractional CMO Does

• Audits what you have. Analytics, ad accounts, tracking, vendors, website and sales handoff. Most companies have at least one broken conversion event, and finding it in week one is a quick win.
• Sets the strategy. Who you sell to, what you say, which two or three channels get the budget and what success looks like in numbers.
• Manages your vendors. Agencies, freelancers and contractors report to one person who knows what good work looks like and can tell a bad agency from a bad strategy.
• Fixes the tracking. Call tracking, conversion tracking and CRM source data so every lead ties back to where it came from. This is usually the first thing we fix. See our marketing analytics and attribution work.
• Leads your team. Directs in-house marketers, sits in leadership meetings and reports to the CEO or COO.
• Reports on what matters. Cost per qualified lead, pipeline by channel, close rate and customer acquisition cost.

Who It’s For

Fractional CMO work fits best when one or more of these is true:

• You’re spending on marketing but can’t trace it to revenue.
• You have agencies, but nobody holds them accountable.
• Sales and marketing don’t agree on who the ideal customer is.
• You just hired a marketing coordinator who has no senior direction.
• Your head of marketing left and you need someone to steady things while you decide what’s next.
• You’re preparing for a raise, a sale or a big growth push, and buyers will look hard at where your leads come from.

It’s probably not a fit if you’re doing under $1M a year (you need execution more than strategy), if you need 40 hours a week of hands-on work, or if you want validation instead of honest feedback. We’ll tell you on the first call.

We work most with B2B companies and professional services firms, plus home service companies that have outgrown a one-agency setup.

What It Costs

Foxtown’s fractional CMO engagements run $5,000 to $10,000 a month, depending on scope and hours. Most clients get 8 to 15 hours a week. The fee covers strategy, vendor management, team oversight and reporting. Ad spend and outside vendors are separate.

Compare that to a full-time CMO at $15,000 to $23,000 a month all in, with no benefits, equity or severance on our side. Our fractional CMO cost guide has a calculator that compares a full-time hire, a fractional CMO and an agency for your revenue and industry.

How an Engagement Works

Before day one

We ask for read access to analytics, Search Console, ad platforms and your CRM, a list of vendors with monthly spend, 12 months of revenue by channel if you have it, and any existing plans or brand guidelines.

Days 1 to 30: audit and plan

A data audit, conversations with your leadership and sales team, a vendor review and a written plan with the numbers we’ll be judged on.

Days 31 to 60: fix and focus

Tracking gets repaired. Wasted spend gets paused. Vendors get restructured where needed. Quick wins show up here: broken conversions, landing pages that leak leads and ad campaigns aimed at the wrong searches.

Days 61 to 90: run the plan

The plan is live and you have a dashboard showing cost per qualified lead, pipeline by channel and close rate. By day 90 you should be able to point to decisions made because of the data.

Months 4 to 8: results

Attribution is working and early pipeline changes show up around months three and four. Revenue impact usually becomes measurable between months five and eight, since campaigns rebuilt in month two produce closed deals a few months later.

The Contract Terms That Matter

Your company should own every ad account, analytics property, CRM and Google Business Profile, with the CMO added as a user. You should own every plan, report and piece of creative made for you, and all customer and lead data. Watch for 12-month lock-ins with no exit. Our structure is three months to start, then month to month with 30 days’ notice. Put the KPIs in writing so both sides know what success looks like.

Fractional CMO vs. the Alternatives

• Full-time CMO: right when you need 40 or more hours a week and have the budget. We cover that choice in fractional CMO vs. a full-time marketing lead.
• Marketing agency: accountable for deliverables. A fractional CMO is accountable for outcomes, and often manages the agency.
• Fractional marketing director: a good fit when you already know what works and the problem is getting it done consistently.
• Interim CMO: a short, full-focus engagement when a leader leaves suddenly or a sale is coming. Often the same person, with a different scope.

Comparing firms? Read our guide to hiring a fractional CMO and our honest ranking of the best fractional CMO companies in 2026.

Where We Work

We’re based in Vero Beach and work with clients across the country, remotely and in person. See our pages on fractional CMO work in Vero Beach and in Chicago.

Fractional CMO FAQ

How many hours does a fractional CMO work?

Most of our engagements run 8 to 15 hours a week, with more in the first month.

How long do engagements last?

Most run 12 to 24 months. Under six months rarely produces measurable results.

Can a fractional CMO replace my agency?

Usually not, and they shouldn’t try. The better outcome is the CMO managing the agency so its work ties to revenue. If two agencies overlap, expect a consolidation.

Do you work with direct competitors?

No. We won’t work with two companies competing for the same customers in the same market.

When should we replace a fractional CMO with a full-time hire?

Usually when you have three or more marketers and a budget that needs daily attention. A good fractional CMO helps write that job description and hands off cleanly.

How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing consultant?

A consultant hands you a plan and leaves. A fractional CMO owns running that plan and is accountable for the results. Consultants get paid to think. Fractional CMOs get paid to think and run.

Should a fractional CMO sit in leadership meetings?

Yes. The strongest predictor of success we see is whether the CMO is in the room when the leadership team makes decisions. Treat them as a vendor and you get vendor-level output.

Talk to Us

Book a free first call or call or text 772-999-4457. We’ll tell you straight if a fractional CMO isn’t what you need. You can also see how we work or start at our homepage.