A fractional CMO, plus the team that does the work.
A fractional CMO gives you direction for a few hours a week. Someone still has to build the pages, publish the posts, run the ads, and book the meetings. AdamX gives you both: senior marketing leadership, and AI agents that do the work end to end.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works for your company part-time, usually on a monthly retainer. They set the strategy and the plan. They usually do not do the marketing work itself.
A fractional CMO gives you the plan. The work is still yours.
What a fractional CMO covers
- Positioning: who you sell to and why they pick you
- The marketing plan, the priorities, and the budget
- Which channels to use and which to leave
- Hiring, agencies, and tools
- Reporting to the CEO and the board
What still needs someone to do it
- Building and changing the website
- Pages that rank on Google and get named in AI answers
- LinkedIn posts for your executives, every week
- Case studies, videos, and sales proof
- Ad campaigns
- Outreach to target accounts and follow-up on inbound interest
For a company with a marketing team, that split works. For a founder with no team, it means a second search: for the people, agencies, and tools that will carry out the plan.
Four ways to get marketing leadership.
| Full-time CMO | Fractional CMO | Marketing agency | AdamX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who sets the strategy | The CMO | The fractional CMO | Usually you | A senior AdamX team, with you |
| Who does the work | A team the CMO hires | Your team, freelancers, or agencies | The agency, in the channels you buy | AI agents, across every channel |
| What you manage | One executive | The CMO, plus everyone who executes | The agency, and the plan it works from | One team and one plan |
| Time to first work | After an executive search and a team build | Soon for the plan, later for the execution | After onboarding, in the channels you buy | First drafts in the first two weeks |
| Fits when | You are ready to build a large in-house team | You have people to execute and need direction | You have a plan and need help in one channel | You want leadership and execution together |
For what each option costs, see what a fractional CMO costs.
How AdamX does both.
1
A senior team sets the plan with you
People who have run marketing work out the positioning, the priorities, and the plan with you. This is the part a fractional CMO would do.
2
Agents do the work
Nine AI agents run the website, SEO and AEO, social, content, video, ads, and pipeline. They share one memory of your business, so every channel tells the same story.
3
You see five numbers
Search visibility, website traffic, meetings, opportunities, and revenue. Reported every month against where you started.
Start with one piece of work, or have us run the whole marketing function. The full program page shows what that looks like.
Every search gap closed in eight weeks
A $100M B2B AI company had happy customers and great stories, but buyers could not find them on Google or in ChatGPT. We found every gap and closed it in eight weeks.
Read the storyQuestions buyers ask.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works for your company part-time, usually on a monthly retainer. They set the strategy, the priorities, and the plan. They usually do not do the day-to-day marketing work.
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO decides who you sell to and what you say, builds the marketing plan and budget, picks channels, hires or manages the people and agencies who execute, and reports results to the CEO. The execution itself (pages, posts, campaigns, outreach) is done by others.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Published ranges put most fractional CMO retainers between $3,000 and $15,000 a month, or $150 to $350 an hour (MarketerHire, April 2026). That price covers strategy. The people, agencies, and tools that do the work are a separate budget. See our cost guide for the full breakdown.
When should a B2B startup hire a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO fits when you have a product that sells and people who can execute, but nobody senior to set the direction. If you have no one to execute, a fractional CMO gives you a plan and no way to carry it out. In that case you need leadership and execution together.
Is AdamX a fractional CMO?
AdamX covers what a fractional CMO does and also does the work. A senior team sets the plan with you, and AI agents run the website, search, social, content, video, ads, and pipeline end to end. You can start with one piece of work or have us run the whole marketing function.
Should I hire a fractional CMO or an agency?
A fractional CMO gives you direction without execution. An agency gives you execution in one or two channels, usually without owning the whole plan. Many companies end up paying for both and managing the gap between them. Our comparison guide walks through each option.
What does AdamX cost?
Pricing depends on which pieces of work we run and how much each one takes on. Book a call and we will put together a plan for your company.
Fractional CMO guides.
- What a fractional CMO costs
Published retainers and hourly rates, what a full-time CMO costs, and the execution budget most comparisons leave out.
- CMO, fractional CMO, agency, or first hire
What each option gives you, what it leaves for you to do, and which one fits your situation.
Get the plan and the work.
Book a 30-minute call. We'll talk through where your marketing stands and what the first 90 days would look like.
Book a call