Top 10 Fractional CMO Agencies for DTC and Ecommerce Brands (2026)
Key takeaways
- Published fees for an ecommerce fractional CMO run $5,000 to $30,000 a month by revenue stage, or $200 to $400 an hour.
- The usual window to hire one is $2M to $30M in revenue.
- Judge candidates on contribution margin and new-customer MER, not platform ROAS.
- Keep the ad accounts, pixels and customer data in your brand's name, whoever you hire.
We analyzed who we believe are the top fractional CMOs for DTC and ecommerce brands. Below is each firm's focus, what it offers and what it costs, with Fractional CMOZ first. A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive you hire part time to own the plan, the budget and the people doing the work.
What we found
- Four of the ten are consumer specialists. JC+CO and 2 Visions work mostly with DTC brands, Hacker House with beauty and wellness, and átomos with CPG and food and beverage. Fractional CMOZ works in four industries, DTC among them, and Shashank Shalabh runs a dedicated ecommerce offer. Chief Outsiders, Hawke Media, MarketerHire and Chameleon Collective serve many industries.
- Four of the ten publish prices. Fractional CMOZ, MarketerHire, Hacker House and Shashank Shalabh list fractional CMO fees from $5,000 to $20,000 a month.
- Seven supply execution as well as strategy, through their own team, agency or network: Fractional CMOZ, JC+CO, Chief Outsiders, Hawke Media, MarketerHire, Hacker House and Chameleon Collective. 2 Visions, Shashank Shalabh and átomos lead the team and agencies you already have.
- Four write about margin on their own sites, not only revenue and ROAS: Fractional CMOZ, 2 Visions, Hacker House and Shashank Shalabh.
- The firms worth hiring run an operating system for your business: one set of numbers, a weekly meeting that ends in decisions, and an owner and a date on every fix. A fractional CMO without one is not the right fit.
The top 10 at a glance
| Firm | Best for | Model | Price from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMOZ | Own-store DTC | CMO, execution, team | $5,000/mo |
| JC+CO | Omnichannel | CMO plus implementation | Not published |
| 2 Visions | Agency oversight | Senior solo operator | Not published |
| Chief Outsiders | CPG, retail | CMO network | Not published |
| Hawke Media | All-in-one | CMO and agency | Not published |
| MarketerHire | Fast matching | Marketplace | $7,000/mo |
| Hacker House | Beauty | Solo CMO | $8,500/mo |
| Shashank Shalabh | $5M to $30M | Solo CMO | $15,000/mo |
| átomos | Food, beverage | CMO team | Not published |
| Chameleon | Large brands | Interim leaders | Not published |
How we picked
Each firm has a stated DTC or consumer focus or named consumer brands, and each is compared on who leads the work, what it offers, published prices and whether it manages to margin. Facts come from each firm's own website as of October 2026.
The top 10 fractional CMOs for DTC and ecommerce brands
1. Fractional CMOZ
Fractional CMOZ installs the Marketing Impact OS for DTC brands: Inspect, Ideate, Implement and Iterate across seven dimensions (strategy, data, funnel friction and CRO, process, people, technology, communication), run on contribution margin. When a brand needs hands, a deep network of specialists builds out a fractional marketing team for paid social, search, email and SMS, CRO, design and ops, and we lead it. Services scale up or down month to month. We work in four industries only: law firms, home service companies, healthcare practices and DTC brands.
We have taken four DTC brands, in coffee, cosmetics, jewelry and apparel, from 4 to 6 figures in revenue to 7 to 9 figures, with lower COGS and higher AOV. Founder Zachary Ellison is the #1 lifetime-ranked fractional CMO on Upwork, Expert-Vetted, with 15+ years in marketing and $500M+ in marketing spend managed.
What we offer
- Marketing Impact Academy: run it yourself, from $1,000 a month.
- Fractional CMO Advisory: $300 an hour or from $2,500 a month.
- Marketing Impact Roadmap: from $10,000, about four weeks. Roadmap + Installation: from $35,000, 90 days.
- Fractional CMO Retainer: from $5,000 a month. Starts with the Roadmap; Advisory and Academy included.
- Fractional Marketing Manager, priced on scope, or a full Fractional Marketing Team from $6,500 a month.
Model: Fractional CMO, execution and team.
Leader: Zachary Ellison, founder.
HQ: Remote team, working with clients across the US, Japan and abroad.
Pricing: Retainer from $5,000 a month. Everything ongoing is month to month with no setup fees. Every engagement starts with a 15-minute call or the free assessment.
Website: Fractional CMO for DTC brands, with sections on coffee, cosmetics, jewelry and apparel. The method is in the DTC brand book, the 2027 DTC brand report and our guide to DTC reporting on MER and contribution margin.
2. JC+CO
JC+CO describes itself as a "Fractional CMO and implementation team for DTC and omnichannel brands." Since 2018 it has built, launched and scaled more than 70 consumer brands, including Sheertex, Flow Hydration, Benji and Soak. It is a Shopify Plus Partner and a Klaviyo Silver Partner, so the store and email work sit with the team that sets strategy.
What they offer
- Build: Shopify Plus storefronts, from brand workshop and UX architecture to theme development, conversion optimization and platform migration.
- Launch: go-to-market from positioning and planning to channel execution, plus creative and brand awareness campaigns.
- Scale: Klaviyo lifecycle programs for acquisition and retention, plus Google Ads, Meta Ads, CRO and Amazon.
- AI Discovery: a free AI visibility report for your Shopify store.
Model: Fractional CMO plus an implementation team.
Leader: Muneera Qureshi. Twenty years in digital strategy, product and ecommerce, and more than 75 founders advised.
HQ: Canada. No city listed on its site.
Pricing: Not published.
Website: JC+CO brand portfolio
3. 2 Visions
Yates Jarvis led a Shopify Platinum agency before starting 2 Visions. He leads every engagement himself, weekly, with no junior staff, and directs your in-house people and agencies instead of replacing them. The site says most of its brands "sell direct to consumers through their own site." Past roles include fractional Head of Ecommerce at Lifeway, a publisher and retailer doing $200M to $400M a year.
What they offer
- One plan across ads, search, email, SMS, site and retention, with agencies and budgets answering to it.
- An assessment of where spend works, where it's wasted and what agencies may not be reporting.
- Weekly KPIs: CAC, contribution margin after ad spend, repeat purchase rate, lifetime value and site conversion rate.
- Direction of your in-house team and partners, with leadership coaching.
- You keep the plans, processes and team, and it supports a later full-time CMO hire.
Model: Fractional CMO who directs your team and partners.
Leader: Yates Jarvis.
HQ: Mt Pleasant, South Carolina.
Pricing: Not published. It scales with your financials, terms run from part of a year to several years, and you own everything it builds.
Website: 2 Visions fractional CMO
4. Chief Outsiders
Chief Outsiders is a network of fractional CMOs and CSOs with a dedicated consumer bench. It says hundreds of consumer businesses grow with its executives, and its CPG page lists 30+ fractional CPG CMOs on staff and 60+ CPG clients served. Engagements can start for 60 days, or for 6 months or more.
What they offer
- Fractional CMOs, interim CMOs and fractional CSOs, matched from its bench.
- Business assessments and growth action plans.
- Digital marketing: paid search, conversion rate optimization, and social media and media strategy.
- Retail and ecommerce guidance, package labeling and regulatory guidance.
- Team Outsiders, its on-demand teams.
Model: Network of fractional CMOs and CSOs.
Leader: A CMO matched to you from its bench.
HQ: Houston, Texas.
Pricing: Not published. It offers a free marketing assessment.
Website: Chief Outsiders for CPG
5. Hawke Media
Hawke Media sells "Your Outsourced CMO®" with a full-service agency behind it, so strategy and channel work come from one place and services are picked à la carte. It says it has grown over 6,000 brands, and its site lists 45 awards, including five Inc. 5000 listings. Case studies include K-Swiss, Crocs and Lorna Jane.
What they offer
- Strategy, led as an outsourced CMO.
- Paid social, paid search, media buying, connected TV and programmatic retail.
- SEO, GEO and AEO for AI search, content and social media.
- Lifecycle marketing, affiliate marketing and Amazon services.
- Branding and design, web design, photo and video, and public relations.
Model: Outsourced CMO plus full agency execution.
Leader: Hawke's team, under CEO Erik Huberman.
HQ: Offices in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Pricing: Not published.
Website: Hawke Media
6. MarketerHire
MarketerHire is a talent marketplace that matches you with a vetted fractional CMO within 48 hours and lets you test the fit with a two-week paid trial. Its own ecommerce guide calls ecommerce "one of the platform's deepest verticals." It publishes its price range and terms.
What they offer
- Fractional CMOs, matched within 48 hours.
- Acquisition specialists: growth, paid social, paid search, SEO, programmatic and Amazon.
- Retention and content roles: email, social and content.
- Ops and data roles: marketing automation, design and analytics.
Model: Marketplace that matches you with a fractional CMO.
Leader: The CMO you choose from its network.
HQ: Not listed on the pages we checked.
Pricing: $7,000 to $15,000 a month for a typical ecommerce engagement. Month to month, with a two-week paid trial.
Website: MarketerHire ecommerce guide
7. Monica Hacker (Hacker House)
Monica Hacker's fractional CMO offer is built for beauty and wellness brands, and her pitch starts with retention: "Most beauty brands don't have an acquisition problem." She has ten years in growth marketing, eight of them agency side, including NoGood. Her direct work includes Summer Fridays and Luce Divina.
What they offer
- Fractional CMO: owns the growth number across paid, email and SMS, influencer and the site, and leads your current team.
- Paid Acquisition and Funnel, from $4,500 a month.
- AI Growth Systems, from $4,000 per workflow.
- Growth Audit in 5 days: CAC by channel, margin after discounts, shipping and returns, repeat rate and subscription churn.
- A weekly update on what changed and why.
Model: Solo fractional CMO.
Leader: Monica Hacker.
HQ: New York and Miami.
Pricing: From $8,500 a month with a 4-month minimum and a review at month 3. A Growth Audit is $1,500.
Website: Hacker House for beauty and wellness
8. Shashank Shalabh
Shashank Shalabh is a solo fractional CMO with 22 years in strategic marketing leadership. He works 2 to 3 days a week, takes four active clients at most and moves brands off ROAS and onto contribution margin and MER. His stated sweet spot is $5M to $30M in revenue. An anonymized luxury home goods client grew from $12M to $19M in revenue in 12 months.
What they offer
- Acquisition strategy across channels, to cut reliance on Meta and Google.
- Retention and lifecycle systems, including email and SMS, subscriptions and loyalty.
- Profitability frameworks built on contribution margin and MER.
- Agency management, with accountability tied to business outcomes.
- Brand equity work that supports premium pricing.
Model: Solo fractional CMO.
Leader: Shashank Shalabh.
HQ: Not listed on the pages we checked.
Pricing: $15,000 to $20,000 a month. $30,000 to $60,000 a month in total once specialist agencies are added.
9. átomos
átomos is a minority-owned fractional CMO team for CPG and food and beverage brands, with senior experience from companies like PepsiCo, Unilever and General Mills. Clients include Chifles, Blue Monkey and Emma's Chips. Its site focuses on CPG and retail and doesn't describe a DTC-specific offer.
What they offer
- Strategy Sprint: a time-bound engagement on one pressing strategic question.
- Advisor: ongoing senior guidance without operational ownership.
- Fractional CMO: embedded leadership with shared accountability, its deepest engagement.
- Leadership across brand, insights, marketing and go-to-market.
Model: Fractional CMO and strategic marketing team.
Leader: A team that includes Tania Peck and Rich Rodriguez-Mahe.
HQ: Fully virtual. US clients are served from Miami and New York.
Pricing: Not published.
Website: átomos
10. Chameleon Collective
Chameleon Collective places "interim or fractional leaders" and backs them with a bench it puts at 280+ specialists and 2,000+ transformations delivered. Client logos include Vera Bradley, Nixon, Polaroid and NEST Fragrances. It suits larger consumer brands that need an interim leader plus specialists.
What they offer
- Interim or fractional leaders.
- Specialists across brand, marketing, experience, commerce, sales and technology.
- Recruiting and international expansion.
- CLEAR, a CxO-led assessment with recommendations.
- Work for private equity and venture capital firms and their portfolio companies.
Model: Interim or fractional leaders plus specialists.
Leader: A leader placed from the collective.
HQ: Not listed on the pages we checked. Regional sites for the US, Canada, the UK and the EU.
Pricing: Not published.
Website: Chameleon Collective
What a fractional CMO does for a DTC brand
For a DTC brand, the work covers first-order profit, MER, retention, COGS and AOV, attribution, Amazon and who owns the accounts.
First-order profit
The first number is what a new customer earns on the first order against what it cost to find them, the customer acquisition cost (CAC). Contribution margin is revenue minus product, shipping, fees, returns and ads. When first-order contribution margin is negative, the second order has to pay it back.
Example: an $80 average order keeps $40 after product, shipping, fees and returns. At a $50 CAC, each first order loses $10, or $250,000 across 25,000 new customers.
MER over ROAS
Meta and Google each report ROAS from their own view. Both can claim the same order, and neither sees your margin or whether the buyer was new. MER, the marketing efficiency ratio, is store revenue divided by total ad spend. New-customer MER uses new-customer revenue only, and its break-even point is 1 divided by the share of each dollar you keep.
Example: $2M of new-customer revenue on $1.25M of ad spend is a new-customer MER of 1.6. Keeping 50 cents of each dollar, break-even is 2.0.
Retention and the second order
The work is post-purchase email and SMS flows, the second-order offer and its timing, and subscriptions where the product allows. Second-order rate is tracked by cohort every week.
Example: if 30% of 25,000 new customers reorder within 90 days at $40 of margin each, that is $300,000, which covers a $250,000 first-order loss. At 20%, it doesn't.
COGS and AOV
Lower product cost and a higher average order raise first-order profit without more ad spend.
Example: product cost from 32% to 28% of revenue and AOV from $80 to $90 with bundles moves first-order margin from $40 to $48.60, against a $50 CAC.
Attribution after iOS 14.5
Since Apple's iOS 14.5 update in 2021, iPhone users can opt out of app tracking. Ad platforms see fewer conversions and model the rest.
A fractional CMO sets up one source of truth: revenue, new versus returning customers and margin from your store and your books. Platform numbers steer spend inside each channel. Holdout tests, a post-purchase "how did you hear about us" survey and a tool like Triple Whale or Northbeam settle disputes between channels.
Shopify and Amazon
If you sell on Shopify and Amazon, your ads drive shoppers to both. Some Meta spend shows up as Amazon sales, and some Amazon sales would have happened on your own store at a better margin. A fractional CMO measures the two together and decides what each is for: Amazon for reach, your store for the customer's email, the margin and the second order.
Who owns the accounts and data
Your Meta Business Manager, Google Ads, GA4, Klaviyo and Shopify accounts should be in your brand's name, with partner access for agencies and CMOs. If anyone leaves, you keep the history, the pixels and the audiences. If an agency owns the ad account, you start from zero.
What an ecommerce fractional CMO costs
Most published prices for an ecommerce fractional CMO fall between $5,000 and $30,000 a month, rising with revenue stage.
| Annual revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Under $2M | $5,000 to $8,000 |
| $2M to $10M | $7,000 to $15,000 |
| $10M to $30M | $12,000 to $22,000 |
| $30M and up | $18,000 to $30,000+ |
Monthly fees by stage come from MarketerHire's ecommerce guide. Other published ranges:
- RankedCMO: $7,500 to $18,000 a month, or $200 to $400 an hour.
- GTM 8020: $6,000 to $20,000 a month.
- Fractionus: $8,000 to $22,000 a month in the US.
- inBeat: $5,000 to $10,000 a month, or $200 to $350 an hour.
Example: on a $5M store, a $10,000 a month CMO costs $120,000 a year, or 2.4% of revenue. Lifting new-customer MER from 1.6 to 2.0 on $1.25M of spend adds $500,000 of new-customer revenue, or $250,000 of contribution margin at 50%.
Under $1M in revenue, a full fractional CMO is usually too early. RankedCMO suggests advisory-only work at $4,000 to $8,000 a month, or an execution hire first. Our Academy starts at $1,000 a month, and Advisory is $300 an hour or from $2,500 a month.
Fractional CMO vs agency vs full-time CMO
| Option | Owns the plan | Does the work | How you pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO | Yes | Directs it | Monthly fee |
| Agency | Its channels | Yes | Fee or % spend |
| Full-time CMO | Yes | Directs it | Salary, equity |
An agency sets strategy for the channels it runs and is paid to run them, so cutting its own budget is a hard call for it to make. A full-time CMO owns the whole plan and sits in every meeting. GTM 8020 puts a fractional CMO at about 50% to 75% less than a full-time consumer CMO once salary, benefits and equity are counted.
A fractional CMO owns the plan, sets the budget and holds the agencies to contribution margin, a few days a week. Fractionus puts the usual window at $2M to $30M in revenue: too big for the founder to run marketing alone, too early for a full-time executive.
Questions to ask before you sign
- How would you work out what a new customer costs us? A good answer starts with store data split into new and returning customers, then takes out product, shipping and returns.
- Which DTC brands have you run, and what happened to margin? Revenue growth alone hides brands that grew into a loss.
- Do you report MER and contribution margin, or platform ROAS? You want the first two, from your store.
- Who does the work week to week? The person on the call, a junior account manager or your agencies.
- How are you paid? A monthly fee keeps the advice independent. A cut of ad spend pays them to spend more.
- Whose name are the accounts in? Yours, with partner access for them.
- What is the minimum term, and what does it take to leave? Get it in writing before the first invoice.
- What will be different in 90 days? A good answer names a number, an owner and a date.
Red flags
- A ROAS promise before they have seen your margins.
- No named DTC brands, or no past founder willing to take your call.
- A long lock-in before any result.
- A strategy deck with no weekly meeting, and no owner or date on each fix.
- Pay tied to a percentage of ad spend, or ad accounts held in their name.
The first 90 days
- Days 1 to 30: one set of numbers. Access to Shopify, the ad accounts, GA4, Klaviyo and your books. Build contribution margin, new-customer MER, CAC against first-order margin and second-order rate. Audit tracking and walk the checkout as a customer.
- Days 31 to 60: rank the fixes. Price each fix in contribution margin, then give it an owner and a date. Move budget, test offers that raise AOV, build the second-order flows and brief the agencies.
- Days 61 to 90: run the weekly meeting. 30 minutes, with a threshold and a decision for each number. Score every agency on the margin it returned. Read the first results.
Our Marketing Impact Roadmap takes about four weeks and ends with the ranked fixes. Roadmap + Installation runs the full 90 days. How we run it for brands is on our fractional CMO for DTC brands page.
Frequently asked questions.
What does a fractional CMO do for an ecommerce brand?
A fractional CMO owns the marketing plan, the budget and the team part time, usually on a monthly retainer. For an ecommerce brand, that means setting the numbers the brand runs on, deciding where the next dollar goes and directing the agencies that do the work.
How much does a fractional CMO cost for an ecommerce brand?
Published prices run from about $5,000 a month for brands under $2M in revenue to $18,000 to $30,000 or more for brands above $30M, according to MarketerHire's ecommerce guide. Most brands between $2M and $10M pay $7,000 to $15,000 a month. Our Fractional CMO Retainer starts at $5,000 a month.
What is a fractional CMO's hourly rate?
RankedCMO puts published hourly rates at $200 to $400, and inBeat says most charge $200 to $350. Hourly billing suits advisory work, while ongoing leadership is usually a monthly retainer. Our Advisory is $300 an hour or from $2,500 a month.
When should a DTC brand hire a fractional CMO?
Usually between about $2M and $30M in revenue, when the founder can no longer run marketing alone and a full-time CMO is still too early. The clearest signal is ad spend rising every quarter while contribution margin and repeat orders stay flat. Under $1M, start with advisory or training.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?
An agency runs channels such as Meta, search or email and is paid for that work. A fractional CMO owns the plan and the budget across every channel and holds the agencies to results. Many brands use both.
Does a fractional CMO run the ad accounts?
Usually not hands-on. A fractional CMO sets the budget, targets and tests, and agencies or specialists run the accounts. Some firms, including ours, build and lead that team, and either way the accounts should stay in your brand's name.
Should a fractional CMO handle Amazon as well as Shopify?
Yes, if you sell on both, because your ads drive sales to both and they compete for the same buyer. A good CMO measures them together and decides what each channel is for. Marketplace-only sellers usually get more from training like our Marketing Impact Academy.
Who is the best fractional CMO for ecommerce brands?
For DTC brands that sell from their own store, we rank Fractional CMOZ first, followed by JC+CO and 2 Visions. The right pick depends on stage, category and how much execution you need: Hacker House for beauty, átomos for food and beverage, MarketerHire to pick an individual fast.