Fractional CMOs, fractional marketers, and full-time hires, priced from named sources, plus the setup most small teams end up with.
Hire fractional for senior judgment a few hours a week. GoFractional puts fractional CMO retainers at $4,000 to $20,000 a month. Hire full-time when the work fills 40 hours a week. You may need both: a fractional leader for strategy and a full-time marketer to execute it. GrowthPair places the full-time marketer for about $4,000 a month, all-in.
Most comparisons treat this as one choice. It’s two: do you need a leader or an executor, and does the work fill a full week?
| Fills under about 20 hours a week | Fills 40 hours a week | |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership (strategy, budget, positioning, hiring) | Fractional CMO or head of marketing | Full-time CMO or marketing leader |
| Execution (running channels, shipping content, reporting) | Fractional or freelance marketer | Full-time marketer |
GoFractional, a fractional talent marketplace, draws the same line between a fractional CMO and a fractional marketing director. The CMO decides what marketing should do. The director runs a plan someone else set. Know which gap you have before you price anything.
Fractional rates come from marketplaces that sell fractional talent. They’re the best published numbers, so read them as asking prices.
| Role | Rate | Hours | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO | $4,000 to $20,000 a month, or $150 to $500 an hour | Typically 5 to 20 hours a week | GoFractional, updated October 7, 2026 |
| Fractional CMO, marketplace average | $177 an hour | About 9 hours a week, or about $6,900 a month | GoFractional, live engagements on its marketplace |
| Fractional CMO | $8,000 to $15,000 a month | 15 to 20 hours a week | MarketerHire, June 17, 2026 |
| Fractional CMO | $200 to $350 an hour, $12,000 to $25,000 a month | 20 to 30 hours a week | MarketerHire rates guide, June 17, 2026 |
| Senior fractional specialist | $7,000 to $10,000 a month | 15 to 20 hours a week | MarketerHire, June 17, 2026 |
| Entry-level fractional specialist | $3,000 to $5,000 a month | 10 hours a week | MarketerHire, June 17, 2026 |
The $6,900 is our math: $177 × 9 hours × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months. Note that MarketerHire published different fractional CMO ranges on the same day, and its fractional vs full-time guide gives both $8,000 to $12,000 and $8,000 to $15,000. Get a written quote before you budget.
A full-time hire costs salary plus benefits. Benefits were 30.0% of total compensation for private-industry workers in June 2026, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So we divide base pay by 0.70, then by 12. For a market research analyst or marketing specialist, $78,760 ÷ 0.70 ÷ 12 is about $9,400 a month.
| Full-time role | Base salary | With benefits, per month | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief marketing officer | $192,996 average | About $23,000 | Payscale, 927 profiles, updated October 9, 2026 |
| Marketing manager | $166,790 median | About $19,900 | Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 |
| Marketing specialist | $78,760 median | About $9,400 | Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 |
| Full-time marketer through GrowthPair | All-in | About $4,000 | GrowthPair |
Add a recruiter if you use one. Dover puts contingency fees at 15% to 25% of first-year base salary. On a $192,996 CMO, that’s about $29,000 to $48,000.
Our take: for a team without a marketing leader, this is usually the best-value setup. MarketerHire says 40% of its customers run mixed teams, and fractional leadership with full-time execution is one of the models it describes. Here’s what it costs next to the alternatives.
| Setup | Per month | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time U.S. CMO | About $23,000 | One leader, 40 hours. Still no one executing. |
| Fractional CMO alone | About $6,900 | About 9 hours a week of strategy. No one executing. |
| Fractional CMO + U.S. marketing specialist | About $16,300 | Strategy plus a full-time executor |
| Fractional CMO + GrowthPair marketer | About $10,900 | Strategy plus a full-time executor |
Fractional figures use GoFractional’s marketplace average. A full-time CMO who has no team ends up doing the execution, at a CMO’s price. A fractional CMO with no team writes a plan nobody runs. Pair them, and the leader’s hours go to decisions.
| Your situation | Hire |
|---|---|
| Growth stalled and nobody can say why | Fractional CMO to diagnose, then an executor |
| You have a plan and no one to run it | Full-time marketer |
| You need one channel tested for a quarter | Fractional or freelance specialist |
| A founder is setting strategy and drowning in execution | Full-time marketer |
| Marketing runs daily across two or three channels | Full-time marketer |
| You’re past $50M in revenue with a team of marketers to lead | Full-time CMO |
| You want a leader eventually, but not yet | Fractional CMO who helps hire their successor |
GoFractional puts the full-time CMO case at companies around $50M+ in revenue or with heavily marketing-led motions. MarketerHire’s rule of thumb is to go fractional when the execution work is under about 25 hours a week.
When we’re the wrong call: GrowthPair places full-time execution hires only. We don’t place CMOs, heads of marketing, or part-time talent. If you need someone to set strategy, hire a fractional leader or a full-time one, in-house. If the work is 10 hours a week, a fractional specialist fits better. Where we fit is the full-time seat under that leader.
A GrowthPair Growth Marketer is the full-time executor in that setup: running two or three channels, shipping weekly, and reporting what worked to whoever sets strategy, a fractional CMO or you. Every one has at least three years in their function and passed five steps: a resume screen, a phone interview, a proctored skills assessment, a live interview with a marketer, and your interview. About 1.5% of applicants are accepted. It’s about $4,000 a month, month-to-month with 30 days’ notice.
Egg Health’s founder had a team stretched thin by execution, with little time left for strategy. The founder hired a full-time Growth Marketer through us to run content, email, and LinkedIn ads, and Egg grew 158% in 120 days.
Pricing fractional marketplaces? See what MarketerHire costs. For a whole team’s budget, see what a marketing team costs, and for every hiring model side by side, see in-house vs agency vs freelancer vs staffing.
A fractional marketer works part-time for several clients, usually 10 to 20 hours a week for you. A full-time marketer works 40 hours a week for your team only. Fractional buys senior judgment in small doses; full-time buys daily execution.
GoFractional puts fractional CMO retainers at $4,000 to $20,000 a month, or $150 to $500 an hour, with a marketplace average of $177 an hour (October 2026). MarketerHire quotes $8,000 to $15,000 a month for 15 to 20 hours a week.
Per month, yes. A full-time CMO costs about $23,000 a month with benefits, from Payscale’s $192,996 average base. A fractional CMO at GoFractional’s average rate costs about $6,900 a month for about 9 hours a week.
Yes, and it’s often the best setup for a small team. The fractional CMO sets strategy and budget, and the full-time marketer runs the channels. With a GrowthPair marketer, that pair costs about $10,900 a month.
No. We place full-time marketers only, each working for one client in execution roles like Growth Marketer, Paid Social, and Email Marketer.
