Service
Outsourced CMO
Marketing leadership bought as a service: one senior operator owns the plan, the budget and the number.
In short
An outsourced CMO is a senior marketing chief you engage as a service rather than as an employee. They own positioning, budget allocation, the team and the revenue contribution, typically two to three days a week, for a fixed monthly fee and with no employment cost, equity or notice period.
What outsourcing the CMO role actually buys you
You are not buying execution hours. You are buying the judgement that decides where the budget goes, which channels get killed, what the positioning says and who should be in the team. That is the scarce part, and it is the part agencies cannot sell you because they are paid to run channels, not to own the number.
As CMO of LeoVegas we ran a EUR 120M marketing budget and a team of 100+, delivered around EUR 50M of incremental revenue and lifted EBITA by 18 points, work that fed an exit to MGM north of EUR 607M. As managing director of the Italian market we took revenue from EUR 3M to EUR 18M in under a year.
Where an outsourced model wins
- You need a chief marketer's decisions, not another executor on the payroll.
- The full-time salary, bonus and equity package cannot be justified by current revenue.
- Marketing spend is rising while the marketing-to-revenue ratio is going the wrong way.
- You have good specialists and agencies but nobody joining them into one plan.
- A permanent search is running and the function cannot drift for six months.
How the engagement runs
Week one is diagnosis: numbers, funnel, spend, team and the honest read on what is broken. Week two we agree the plan and the metrics we will be judged on. From there we run it, in your tools and your meetings, with the team you have. We build the operating rhythm so the function keeps working after we hand over.
Pricing is a fixed monthly retainer tied to the days committed, with a results component where the goal is measurable. No lock-in beyond the notice we agree upfront.
Related services
Frequently asked questions
Is an outsourced CMO the same as a fractional CMO?
In practice yes. Outsourced describes the commercial model (you buy the role as a service), fractional describes the time model (part of a week). We deliver the same thing: a chief marketer accountable for the number.
How is this different from hiring a marketing agency?
An agency executes channels it is contracted to run. An outsourced CMO sits on your side of the table, sets the strategy, decides the budget split and manages the agencies. We frequently fire or renegotiate agencies in the first month.
What does an outsourced CMO cost?
Typically a fixed monthly retainer in the EUR 5K to EUR 15K range depending on days committed and scope, far below the loaded cost of a full-time chief. See our fractional CMO pricing breakdown for the full detail.
How fast can you start?
Within days. There is no search, no notice period and no onboarding programme. We are in the numbers in the first week.
Tell us the goal. We make it happen.
We deploy senior operator firepower and produce massive results. No excuses, just results.
Book a callStart the conversation
Tell us where you are and where you want to be. We reply within a day.