Fractional CMO Services
Fractional CMO services put a senior marketing executive in charge of your strategy and results, part-time, without a full-time salary. JSRG runs five ways to buy that leadership, from a single-project sprint to a fully embedded CMO, priced and published before you ever pick up the phone.
Know Your Options
Before comparing providers, it helps to see the whole field. Here’s how the common ways to get marketing leadership actually differ.
| Model | What You Get | Typical Commitment |
|---|---|---|
| Full-Time Hire | One person, fully dedicated, on your payroll | Indefinite, plus a 3 to 6 month search |
| Contract or Freelance | One person, scoped to a project, no ownership of outcomes | Per project, ends when the deliverable ships |
| Temp or Staffing Placement | A placed employee, sourced and billed through a staffing firm | Weeks to months, built to be temporary |
| Marketing Agency Retainer | A team executing the tactics you assign them | Month-to-month, scoped to a channel or campaign |
| Fractional Executive | A senior leader who owns strategy and results, part-time | Ongoing retainer, scaled to what you need |
Full-Time Hire
Contract or Freelance
Temp or Staffing Placement
Marketing Agency Retainer
Fractional Executive
For scale, Built In puts the average US CMO salary at $225,908 in 2026, before benefits, bonus, or the search to fill the seat. JSRG operates in that last row: a fractional executive working directly for your business, no agency layer and no staffing markup. That same senior-led model runs across every service JSRG offers. Five tiers inside that model let you match commitment to what your business needs right now.
JSRG’s Fractional CMO Tiers
Fractional CMO services usually break down into four working areas: marketing strategy, brand positioning, demand generation, and performance reporting, with team and vendor leadership woven through each as the tiers deepen. The table below shows exactly how much of each you get at every tier.
| Tier | Strategy | Brand | Demand Gen | Reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guide | Quarterly roadmap, advisory only | Not included | Not included | Monthly performance review |
| Grow | Full roadmap + execution oversight | Positioning baseline | Campaign direction, up to 3 initiatives | Weekly check-ins, KPI reporting |
| Scale | Full roadmap + execution oversight | Full brand strategy and positioning | Campaign direction, up to 5 initiatives, cross-functional alignment | Board-ready reporting, in-house leadership presence |
| Lead | Full roadmap, go-to-market for new products and markets | Full brand strategy and positioning | Custom scope, full CMO function ownership | Board and investor reporting |
Guide
Grow
Scale
Lead
Guide runs $3,500 a month with no minimum. Grow runs $7,500 a month with a three-month minimum, Scale runs $9,500 a month with a six-month minimum, and Lead starts at $12,500 a month with an eight-month minimum, priced to scope.
Not ready for a retainer? Three fixed-price Sprints give you a defined deliverable instead: Visibility ($3,500) audits your search and AI-search performance, Roadmap ($6,500) delivers a full audit and 90-day plan, and Positioning ($12,500) builds your brand from the ground up. Sign a retainer agreement for any tier within 14 days after your Sprint’s scheduled end date, and 25% of the Sprint fee credits toward your first month.
Full terms and every tier FAQ live on the Pricing page. Curious how an engagement actually runs once you pick a tier?
Buyer Diligence
Weighing other providers too? See how the cost and structure of a typical agency-model engagement actually compares.
Client Outcomes
Results from JSRG fractional CMO engagements. Not projections.
Fractional CMO | Hiring | Startup | Strategy
Budgeting | Fractional CMO | Hiring
Fractional CMO | Budgeting | Hiring | Strategy
A 30-minute discovery call is enough to find out. No pitch, no pressure, no commitment required to have the conversation.
Book a Discovery CallFractional CMO services put a senior marketing executive in charge of your strategy and results, part-time, without a full-time salary. It’s one of five ways to buy marketing leadership, alongside a full-time hire, a contract freelancer, a staffing placement, and an agency retainer. JSRG operates in the fractional-executive model specifically. If you’ve seen the same role described with different terms, we cover how those labels differ in practice.
Guide advisory support starts at $3,500 a month with no minimum. Grow runs $7,500 a month, Scale runs $9,500 a month, and Lead starts at $12,500 a month, each with its own minimum term. Fixed-price Sprints run $3,500 to $12,500 for a defined deliverable.
Guide is advisory only: a quarterly roadmap with no execution. Grow, Scale, and Lead add execution oversight across brand positioning, demand generation, team and vendor leadership, and reporting, with scope expanding at each level. The table above shows exactly what’s included where.
An agency executes the tactics you assign it. A fractional CMO sets the strategy, directs your agencies and vendors, and owns whether the results show up. Most JSRG clients keep the agency they already have; the fractional CMO becomes the person telling that agency what to do.
Minimums scale with depth: three months for Grow, six months for Scale, eight months for Lead, because brand work and cross-functional alignment take real time to compound. Guide has no minimum, and fixed-price Sprints run two to six weeks.
Yes. Many clients start with a Sprint or with Guide and move into Grow or Scale as the relationship proves out. Sign a retainer agreement for any tier within 14 days after your Sprint’s scheduled end date, and 25% of the Sprint fee credits toward your first month.
Published pricing before a sales call, a named senior practitioner instead of a rotating account team, and a scope that explicitly covers AI-powered search alongside traditional SEO. A provider who can’t answer those three plainly is worth a harder look.
