Fractional CMO for Australian founders. Senior marketing leadership, without the $300k hire.

The same job as a full-time chief marketing officer: decide who you are for and why you win, set the plan and the budget, choose the channels, hire and manage the people and agencies who execute, and report on pipeline and revenue to the founder or the board.

The difference is time. A fractional CMO works a set number of days a week or month across a small number of companies, so you pay for the seniority you need now rather than a full executive package. Most of my clients are founder-led businesses where the founder has been doing the marketing and it has stopped scaling.

The labels overlap. A fractional CMO is an ongoing, part-time leadership role. An interim CMO covers a gap, usually full-time for a few months while you recruit. A part-time CMO is the same idea as fractional with a different name. An outsourced CMO or virtual CMO usually means the role sits outside your payroll, often through an agency.

If you need someone closer to the day-to-day channels than the boardroom, an outsourced marketing manager is the better fit. If positioning is settled and the job is moving one number, look at a fractional head of growth.

Most Australian fractional CMOs quote retainers between about $5,000 and $15,000+ a month, depending on days and scope. A full-time CMO costs $300k or more once super, bonus and recruitment are counted, before the months it takes to hire one.

My retainer starts at $1,500 a month because the entry seat, Copilot, is senior judgement on tap for a team that already executes. The Captain seat, where I own the funnel and the roadmap, is priced on scope. Either way the fee is flat, not a percentage of ad spend, and month one is a paid trial.

An agency executes a brief in its own channels. A consultant diagnoses and recommends, then leaves. A fractional CMO writes the brief, owns the result and manages whoever executes it, including agencies. Plenty of businesses need two of the three; few need all three at once.

Hire one after product-market fit, when growth has outrun founder-led marketing, when agencies are running without anyone directing them, or before your first marketing hire so that person has a plan to walk into.

Do not hire one if you are still finding out who buys and why. That is customer discovery, and it is cheaper to do yourself. And do not hire one to post on social media; you will pay senior rates for junior work.

I am based in Sydney and work with businesses across Australia and New Zealand, mostly remote with on-site days for planning, shoots and leadership meetings. Fused Electrical Co in Canberra grew from its first job to $2M+ in revenue with me running marketing remotely. If you are in Sydney, the Sydney fractional CMO page covers how on-site work runs.

When there is no one in-house to execute, Compound Growth builds websites, lead systems and lifecycle, and Content Department shoots the video and photo that feed ads and social.