I have done marketing from both seats. At Network Infinity I am Head of Marketing and General Manager, so I own the marketing direction for a business alongside other people. At Core Creations, the agency I founded, we are the team clients hire to do the work. This guide is the plain version of how to choose between paying for leadership and paying for delivery.
What the two terms mean
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing lead who works for you part of the time. They own the marketing plan, decide where the budget goes, brief the people doing the work and report to the owner or the board. "Fractional" just means you get a share of their week instead of hiring them full time.
An agency retainer is a monthly fee for an agreed set of work: managing ads, producing content, running SEO, looking after social media. The agency brings the specialists and the tools. Most agencies also offer strategy, but their core product is delivery.
The two overlap, which is where people get confused. An agency strategist can act like a marketing lead, and a fractional CMO can roll up their sleeves. But a fractional lead's job is to serve your business across every channel and supplier, including telling you to cut one. An agency's job, however well intentioned, is to deliver the services it sells.
Side by side
| Fractional CMO | Agency retainer | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Direction, priorities and budget decisions | Doing the agreed work each month |
| Answers to | You, across every channel and supplier | You, for the services in the retainer |
| Covers | Strategy, hiring, briefing and reporting to the owner | Execution in one or more channels |
| Good at | Saying no, cutting waste and joining channels up | Volume and specialist work |
| Watch out for | Plans with nobody to carry them out | Reports that measure activity, not results |
When the gap is leadership
These are the signs that more hands will not fix the problem:
- You spend on several channels and cannot say which one brings in customers.
- You have two or three suppliers, say an agency, a freelancer and a web developer, and nobody joins their work up.
- The owner makes every marketing call, usually late at night, and it is neither their strength nor the best use of their time.
- You are about to hire a marketing person and are not sure what the role should be or how to judge the candidates.
- You are preparing the business for sale or investment and need the marketing documented and easy to explain to a buyer.
In those cases more delivery will not help. Another agency on top of the current one just adds another report.
When the gap is capacity
These are the signs that an agency retainer is the right call:
- You know what needs doing and roughly why. You just do not have the people to do it.
- The work is specialist and constant, such as running paid ads or producing content every week.
- Someone senior in-house already has a clear view, an owner or a manager, and they need a team to direct.
Here a fractional lead would be a cost on top of the work, and you may not need one. A good agency with a clear brief from a capable owner can do very well on its own.
What getting it wrong looks like
The two mistakes look different, and both are worth naming.
Buying delivery when you needed leadership usually shows up as busy months with little change. The agency does exactly what the retainer says, the reports look full, and nobody asks whether the retainer is aimed at the right thing. Switching agencies feels like the fix, and the same pattern repeats with the next one.
Buying leadership when you needed delivery shows up as good plans that sit in a folder. The strategy is sound, the meetings are useful, and nothing ships because nobody has the hours to do it. The fix there is not a better strategist. It is people to do the work.
Running both without paying twice
When a business needs both, the order matters. Set the direction first, then buy the delivery to match it. Otherwise the agency's scope quietly becomes the strategy.
A few practical rules:
- The marketing lead writes the brief and signs off on results. The agency does not mark its own homework.
- Keep the ad accounts, analytics, domains and website logins in the business's name, not the supplier's.
- Review the retainer scope every quarter. Work that made sense six months ago may not make sense now.
- Agree what gets reported, and keep it to measures that matter to the business: enquiries, sales and what each customer cost to win.
Questions to ask before you hire either
- What would you change in the first month, and what would you leave alone? You want a short list tied to your business, not a standard onboarding pack.
- Who else are you working for? A fractional lead splits their week. Find out how many businesses share it and how quickly they respond between sessions.
- How do you work with my other suppliers? A marketing lead who will not work with your current agency, or an agency that will not take direction from your marketing lead, will cost you time.
- What will you report, and how often? Ask to see an example. If it is all clicks and impressions with no link to enquiries or sales, ask why.
- What happens when we stop? Know the notice period, and make sure everything built during the engagement stays with the business.
How I do it
My fractional CMO work runs as ongoing advisory: regular sessions, availability in between, and progress reporting against goals we agree at the start. It has a minimum of three months. Your team or your existing agency does the work, and I set the direction and check it.
If you need the delivery side as well, Core Creations can do it, but you are not obliged to use it, and I am happy to direct an agency you already trust. For a question about one channel, SEO consulting, Google and Meta ads or digital strategy may be a better starting point than an ongoing arrangement.
Related reading: SEO consultant or SEO agency and how to choose a consultant who has run businesses.