Fractional CMO / Head of Growth
A fractional CMO or Head of Growth from Adverto gives you a senior growth leader one to three days a week, month to month, without the six-month search or the full-time salary. We own the strategy, the channel mix, the budget and the team, and we stay hands-on in the accounts. You get senior operators who have run six-figure monthly budgets and built marketing teams, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
Who it's for
- Founders between first traction and Series B who need someone to own growth before they can justify a full-time hire
- Marketing teams that lost their leader, or never had one, and need senior cover while they hire
- Companies with an agency that has drifted, and results that show it
What's included
- Growth strategy, channel mix and budget allocation, revisited every quarter
- Hands-on ownership of paid, SEO and AI search, lifecycle and CRO, or leading the people who run them
- Hiring, onboarding and coaching for in-house marketers; management of any agencies
- A live dashboard tied to revenue, CAC and payback
- Monthly review with the founder or the P&L owner
- One to three days a week, agreed monthly, scaled up or down each quarter
How it runs
Audit and roadmap first
The first three weeks run like any project: a full read of your accounts, analytics and funnel, then a 90-day plan with targets and what we'll stop doing.
Own the plan
Then we run it. Weekly sprints in the accounts, the team or the agency pointed at the same numbers, and one dashboard everyone reads.
Make ourselves less necessary
Most engagements start at two days a week and drop to one once the playbook and the team are in place. The goal is a growth function that runs without us, and a full-time hire you make from a position of strength.
Who this is for
The fractional model works when the business needs a growth leader more than it needs another pair of hands. Typical starting points: a founder who is still running marketing personally and has stopped having time for it; a scaleup whose Head of Marketing left and whose pipeline noticed; an enterprise team with three agencies and no one holding them to a number.
What you get
Ownership. One person accountable for the growth number, who is also in the ad accounts, the analytics and the funnel every week. We set the strategy, run or direct the channels, hire and coach the team, and sit in the monthly review with whoever signs off the budget.
Why not just hire full time?
A full-time Head of Growth is the right hire eventually. Until then, the search takes months, salary plus equity is significant, and you’re betting on one interview process. Fractional gets you a proven operator next week on a commitment you can change each quarter. It also tells you exactly what the full-time role should look like when you’re ready to fill it.
Fractional CMO / Head of Growth: the usual questions
How is this different from an agency retainer?
An agency sells you a team and gives you an account manager. Here the strategist and the person in the accounts are the same person, and that person reports to your P&L, not to a client services director.
How many days a week?
One to three, agreed monthly, and it moves with the quarter.
Will you manage our existing team or agency?
Yes. Most fractional roles mean leading an in-house team or managing an agency that has drifted. Often it's both.
What's the commitment?
Month to month after the first 90 days. If the roadmap isn't working you shouldn't be locked in, and neither should we.
Further reading
- Fractional versus full-time at Series A: the real costThe salary is the smallest part of what a full-time growth leader costs in year one. Here's the full sum, and the point where the full-time hire wins.
- When a fractional CMO is the wrong hireFractional growth leadership fixes a specific problem: nobody senior owns the number. If that isn't your problem, it's the wrong purchase, however good the operator.
Need someone to own growth this quarter?
Bring your numbers to a 30-minute call. You'll leave with a read on whether fractional is the right model and what the first 90 days would cover.