A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works with your company on a part-time or contract basis. You get the same strategic thinking, leadership, and accountability you'd expect from a full-time CMO, without the $250,000–$400,000 fully loaded cost, the long hiring process, or the organizational weight of a permanent executive hire. For companies at the Series A and B stage, it's often exactly the right model.

An agency executes. A fractional CMO leads. Agencies are built to run campaigns, manage media spend, and produce deliverables. What they typically don't do is set strategy, align sales and marketing around a shared model, coach your internal team, or own accountability for pipeline. A fractional CMO sits inside the leadership layer, not the vendor layer.

At Yarb, fractional CMO retainers run $8,500–$15,000 per month depending on scope, engagement model, and team size. That's typically 50–75% less than a full-time CMO when you factor in salary, benefits, equity, and recruiting costs. Project-based and advisory engagements are also available for companies that need focused work rather than ongoing leadership.

A few situations come up repeatedly. You've closed a Series A or B and need to build a real marketing function. Pipeline is inconsistent and neither you nor your team can explain why with confidence. Your first marketing hire didn't move the needle and you're reassessing the model. Sales and marketing are misaligned and the friction is visible. You're considering a full-time CMO hire but aren't sure you're ready. Any of these is a reasonable entry point.

B2B companies, primarily SaaS, tech-enabled services, professional services firms, and AI-native companies with a defined sales motion. The sweet spot is Series A and B companies with $3M–$20M in ARR that have a small marketing team but no senior marketing leadership. If you have a strong internal CMO already, Yarb probably isn't the right fit. If you have a generalist or a demand gen coordinator and no one setting strategy, it likely is.

It varies by engagement, but in a retainer model you can expect regular strategic sessions with leadership, active involvement in prioritization and planning, oversight of campaigns and programs, alignment work between sales and marketing, and reporting that gives your leadership team genuine confidence in what marketing is doing and why. The goal is for it to feel like a senior leader is actually inside the business, not a consultant dropping in from the outside.

The fastest way to find out is a Pipeline Clarity Call. It's 30 minutes, no obligation, and you'll walk away with a clear read on your top growth constraints and whether fractional CMO leadership is actually the right answer, or whether something else would serve you better.