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Fractional CMO: hire a fractional chief marketing officer, part time

Most companies that need marketing leadership do not need 40 hours of it a week. They need someone who has run the whole function before to set the strategy, hire the right specialists, and hold the channels to a number, and that work fits in two days a week. That is the entire case for a fractional CMO: the judgment of an executive without the executive payroll line.

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Flat $199 for 30 days · no percentage of salary · marketers only

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The short answer

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing part time, typically 10 to 20 hours a week on a retainer of $5,000 to $15,000 a month, against the $170,000 to $350,000 in total compensation a full-time chief marketing officer commands. Hourly engagements usually run $200 to $400. Companies between roughly $1 million and $50 million in revenue use fractional CMOs to get executive-level strategy years before a full-time CMO pays for itself. You can find one through a fractional CMO agency, a referral, or by posting the role to a marketing job board for $199.

Typical US salary

$5,000 to $15,000 a month

Typical agency fee on that

$42,500 to $105,000 retained CMO search

A 30-day post here

$199

What it costs

Every way to fill this role, priced

Honest ranges for the United States. Agency percentages are the industry-standard bands, and the right answer depends on how hard your role is to fill.

Option Typical cost (USD) Speed Best for
Fractional CMO, hired directly $5,000 to $15,000 per month for 10 to 20 hours a week 1 to 3 weeks to start Companies from about $1M to $50M revenue that need strategy, not another doer
Fractional CMO agency or marketplace $8,000 to $20,000 per month, platform margin included Days to weeks Pre-vetted matches when you have no network to tap and no time to screen
Full-time CMO $170,000 to $350,000 total compensation per year 3 to 6 months to fill Scaled companies where marketing leadership is a full-time seat
Executive search firm (retained) Typically 25% to 35% of first-year compensation, so $42,500 to $105,000 on a CMO 2 to 5 months Confidential or board-driven searches for a full-time CMO
Post on MarketerJob $199 for a 30-day post Live the same day Reaching fractional and full-time marketing leaders directly, no margin

Salary and fee ranges are typical US figures for 2026 and vary by market, seniority and company stage.

Why post here

A board built only for marketing roles

Executive judgment, part-time bill

A fractional CMO who has scaled a function before costs a fifth of a full-time executive and starts in weeks, not the months an executive search takes.

No platform margin

Matchmaking platforms and fractional agencies build their fee into the monthly retainer. Post the role directly for $199 and negotiate the retainer yourself.

The retainer band on the card

List the monthly budget up front. Senior operators self-select when the number is real, and you skip three calls with people whose floor is double yours.

How it works

From posting to a signed offer

01

Scope the two days a week

Write down what the fractional CMO owns: strategy, hiring, channel targets, reporting cadence. If the list is mostly execution, you need a senior manager instead.

02

Post it with the retainer band

Post the role for $199 with the monthly range on the card. It goes live the same day and reaches marketing leaders browsing senior and fractional roles.

03

Screen for operators, not advisors

Ask each candidate what number they would own by month six and how they would staff it. Operators answer with a plan. Advisors answer with a discovery phase.

How to evaluate

What to look for in a fractional cmo

The hard part is finding one, because the best fractional CMOs are operators, not marketers of themselves. Agencies and matchmaking platforms add a margin on top of the retainer. MarketerJob is a board for marketing roles only, so a fractional CMO listing reaches senior marketing people directly: post it for $199 with the monthly retainer band on the card, and screen leaders who chose your role on purpose.

  • A function they built or rebuilt, with the revenue or pipeline number that moved
  • Team-building evidence: specialists they hired who are still good hires a year later
  • A point of view on your channel mix within the first conversation, not a framework pitch
  • Comfort owning a number, not just advising on one: ask what target they would sign up for
  • References from a founder or CEO they worked with at your company stage
  • A calendar with room for you: more than 3 or 4 concurrent clients is a red flag
How posting works
Your listing How the role appears on the board
Remote
YC

Fractional CMO

Your company · Remote (US)

Senior FRACTIONAL CMO
$8k to $12k/mo posted today

Candidates see the salary band before they apply, so the people in your inbox have already accepted the number.

Good questions

Questions employers ask

A fractional CMO is an experienced chief marketing officer who works for your company part time, usually 10 to 20 hours a week, while often serving 2 to 4 clients in parallel. You get executive-level strategy, team building and channel accountability on a monthly retainer, without hiring a full-time executive. The role became common among US startups and mid-market companies that have outgrown tactics but cannot yet justify a $250,000+ marketing executive.
Most US fractional CMOs charge a monthly retainer of $5,000 to $15,000, with a median around $10,000 to $12,000 for 10 to 20 hours a week. Hourly engagements run $200 to $400, and senior operators in specialized fields like B2B SaaS or fintech reach $500. Annualized, that is roughly $60,000 to $180,000, against $170,000 to $350,000 in total compensation for a full-time CMO.
Most engagements run 10 to 20 hours a week, often framed as one to two days. Lighter advisory arrangements of about 5 hours a week exist, and some operators work up to 30 hours for a single client during a launch or a rebuild. The hours matter less than the scope: a good fractional CMO spends them on strategy, hiring and accountability, not on producing the marketing themselves.
A fractional CMO is worth it when you have revenue, a marketing budget, and no one senior deciding where it goes: the typical fit is a company between $1 million and $50 million in revenue. You get the strategy and hiring judgment of an executive for 20% to 40% of the cost. It is not worth it if you mainly need execution; in that case hire a marketing manager or specialists and skip the executive layer.

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