How is fractional leadership different from an agency?

An agency sells you execution capacity. Fractional leadership gives you the judgment layer above it — someone who owns the plan, sets priorities, and can tell you which work not to do. In practice a fractional lead often manages your agencies rather than replacing them.

How many hours do we get?

It's scoped by cadence and ownership, not an hourly clock — a defined level of involvement and a defined set of things owned. Hourly billing rewards slow work; this doesn't.

What's the commitment?

Three-month minimum, then month-to-month. Three months is the shortest honest window to diagnose, build and see a cycle through — after that you can stop any month.

What happens when we're ready to hire full-time?

That's the intended outcome. We help write the role, screen candidates, and hand over documented systems so your new hire starts with a plan rather than a blank page.

Who actually does the work?

Saroj Jha — a senior marketing strategist with a PhD and MBA and 10+ years across product marketing, product management and engineering. No junior account team, no handoff after the sales call.

Can we start smaller?

Yes. The 7-day Growth Audit at $1,200 is the lowest-risk starting point and is credited in full toward a larger engagement started within 30 days.

Fractional Marketing Leadership

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Fractional Marketing Leadership

Retainer · Monthly · Three-month minimum

Senior marketing judgment on a monthly cadence, without the fully loaded cost of a full-time CMO. For teams that have people who can execute and need someone who can decide.

Request scope Not ready? Score your marketing maturity free → 01 Advisory: strategic direction 02 Fractional Lite: direction and a hand in the work 03 Embedded: a senior lead inside your team 04 Three-month minimum, then month-to-month 4 deliverables Scroll

Who it's for

Teams that need someone who can decide, not just execute.

01 You have one or two marketers doing good work in the wrong order.
02 You're a founder still owning marketing decisions you don't have time to make well.
03 You want senior judgment without the fully loaded cost of a full-time CMO hire: salary, benefits, equity and a recruiting fee.
04 Three-month minimum, because nothing meaningful is visible in less.

Three levels

Pick the level of involvement that matches the moment.

Tier 1

Advisory

See the fee on the pricing page Best for Founders and small teams who need a strategic sounding board Cadence Two monthly strategy calls + async support between them Involvement Review of plans, campaigns and creative before they ship; execution stays with your team Recommended starting point

Fractional Lite

See the fee on the pricing page Best for Teams where decisions keep slipping between calls Cadence Everything in Advisory + a weekly working session Involvement The standing hour where decisions actually get made, priorities get re-cut, and blockers get cleared Tier 3

Embedded Growth Partner

See the fee on the pricing page Best for Teams that need someone to own marketing outright Cadence A senior growth lead inside the team, deep weekly involvement Involvement Campaign planning, vendor and agency coordination, hands-on optimisation, and monthly performance reviews against pipeline

All levels run a three-month minimum, then month-to-month. Embedded costs well below a full-time CMO hire on AAJ's read of typical fully loaded cost, with no equity and no recruiting cycle.

How the cadence works

Diagnose first. Then a rhythm you can rely on.

Every engagement starts with a Diagnose window — funnel, positioning, channel mix and measurement — so the first month produces a shared view rather than opinions. After that the rhythm is monthly: priorities set, work reviewed, numbers read together.

What you get

Six things that stay with you.

Marketing plan with quarterly priorities What you're doing, what you're deliberately not doing, and why.

Metric ownership CAC, pipeline, payback and retention reported consistently in a format your board understands.

Regular working sessions A real cadence, so decisions get made on schedule instead of accumulating.

Team and vendor guidance Briefs, hiring input, and oversight of agencies or contractors so their work ties to the plan.

Full framework library, applied Every AAJ template, tool and playbook, used on your business rather than handed over as a link.

Documented systems you keep SOPs, dashboards and playbooks that stay with you if the engagement ends.

3 Involvement tiers from advisory to embedded Far less Than a typical full-time CMO hire 3 mo Minimum, then month-to-month

Illustrative of the method — case studies on this site are labeled as such.

How we keep it honest

Three rules the retainer never breaks.

This is judgment, not execution volume — if what you need is production hours, an agency is cheaper and better at it.
Every recommendation maps to pipeline, CAC, payback or retention.
You keep the dashboards, SOPs and decision frameworks; the work compounds after the engagement ends.

AAJ is currently onboarding Founding Clients at launch rates. Case studies on this site are labeled as illustrative of the method.

Use the frameworks first

Take them free — or have us run them with you.

These are the same frameworks we use inside the retainer.

FAQs

Fractional Marketing Leadership — FAQ

How is this different from hiring a full-time CMO?

Cost and commitment. A full-time CMO carries salary, benefits, equity and a recruiting fee, and takes months to hire. This is senior judgment from month one, cancellable after the minimum, and it suits companies whose marketing problem is decisions rather than throughput.

How is it different from a marketing agency?

An agency sells execution hours. This sells decisions — what to do, in what order, and what to stop. Many clients run both, with this layer deciding what the agency executes.

Which tier should we start with?

Advisory if you have a capable marketer who needs a sounding board. Fractional Lite if decisions keep slipping between calls. Embedded if there's nobody senior owning the work day to day.

What's the minimum commitment?

Three months. Marketing changes take a cycle to show, and anything shorter measures noise.

Judgment above execution.

Senior marketing leadership on a monthly cadence, without a full-time CMO commitment. Three-month minimum, then month-to-month.

Request scope Or take the free Maturity Scorecard →