What a fractional CMO does for an ecommerce brand
Most growing brands have agencies, freelancers and a founder making the calls. What’s missing is one senior person who owns the plan and the numbers. That’s the job:
| Area | What I do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Growth plan | Audit ads, store, offers, margins and team, then a 90-day plan in order of impact | Everyone works on the few things that move revenue |
| Marketing budget | Budget per channel from your contribution margin and break-even MER | Spend that grows profit, not just revenue |
| Paid media | Lead Meta and Google: offers to test, campaign structure, creative briefs | Ad spend judged on profit, not platform ROAS |
| Offers and pricing | Bundles, price points, promotions and which products to push | Higher order value and better margins |
| Analytics | Tracking from impression to purchase, repeat purchase and LTV | One honest view of cost per purchase and lifetime value |
| Conversion rate | A/B tests on product page, cart and checkout, built with AI | More revenue from the traffic you already pay for |
| Team and agencies | What to hire, outsource or automate; briefs, pay and reviews | The right people at the right price |
Fractional paid media lead
I’ve run paid ads since 2009, with official Google Ads and Meta training. On Meta catalog ads, the account I manage reached 27x ROAS in 2020, and a new account still delivered 16.6x after the iOS updates. (The catalog ads strategy.)
As your paid media lead I decide how much to invest, which offers and products go into the ads, how prospecting, catalog and retargeting campaigns hand off to each other, and how results are judged. Cost per purchase is cost per click divided by conversion rate, so a better store makes every ad cheaper: raising conversion from 2% to 2.4% cuts cost per purchase from $50 to about $42 with the same ads. (How CRO lowers Meta cost per purchase.)
Fractional head of growth
As head of growth at Karma and Luck, a nine-figure brand, I grew conversion rate about 50% in one year of continuous A/B testing and average order value about 20%. As your fractional head of growth I run the same programme: research, a ranked list of tests, one roadmap across ads and store, and a weekly review of what moved. More: Shopify A/B testing.
The first 90 days
- Weeks 1–2: audit. Access to your ads, store, analytics and P&L. I find where money leaks and which channel gets the next dollar. (The seven numbers I check first.)
- Week 2: the plan. A 90-day roadmap ranked by revenue impact, with a budget per channel and an owner for every task.
- Weeks 3–4: measurement. Tracking fixed and one weekly dashboard: spend, cost per purchase, MER, conversion rate, AOV and LTV.
- Months 2–3: execution. New offers and campaigns live, the first A/B tests running, agencies briefed on the same numbers.
- Every week: review. What moved, what didn’t, where the budget goes next.
Fractional CMO vs full-time CMO vs agency
| Option | Typical cost (US) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time CMO | $250,000+ a year, plus bonus and equity | One senior person, after months of hiring |
| Agency | $5,000–$15,000 a month per channel | Execution in one channel, no ownership of total growth |
| Typical fractional CMO | about $5,000–$15,000 a month | Senior strategy part-time, often from B2B or SaaS |
| Fractional CMO for ecommerce (me) | from $4,000 a month | Ads, offers, analytics, CRO and team, from someone who runs ecommerce growth |
Pricing details: CRO pricing. Want me to own the store as well as marketing? See fractional head of ecommerce. Prefer a project-based adviser? See Shopify consultant.
Who this is for
A good fit if you: sell online, have agencies or freelancers but no senior marketing leader, and want growth you can see in the P&L. Tell me about your brand; I read and answer every message myself.
