Senior marketing leadership, embedded in your team. A sharper plan, a steadier rhythm, and a real answer to what AI is doing to how buyers find you.
The role
A fractional CMO is not a consultant with a slide deck or an agency with a senior brand. The seat carries executive accountability for the marketing plan and sits inside the leadership team's weekly cadence. Pipeline quality, CAC efficiency, positioning, hiring decisions, agency direction, and board-grade reporting all sit with the same named operator.
The work is judgment first, output second. A senior fractional CMO compresses the time between “we have a marketing problem” and “we know what we are doing next.” That is the value buyers are paying for. Not hours, not deliverables, not a campaign calendar.
For a working definition, see the fractional CMO glossary entry. For pricing bands by engagement shape, see how much a fractional CMO costs. For when the seat is the right hire, see when to hire a fractional CMO.
Why this firm
The AI-readiness work runs on the AI Visibility Optimizer, built by the founding principal. The audit is scored by software, not by opinion.
Run the free auditLars is the named operator on most engagements, with a small bench where stage or specialism makes another seat the better fit. The operator you meet is the operator who runs the work.
Meet the principalAudit results come with percentiles from 660+ audited B2B sites, refreshed weekly. You know where you stand, not just what to fix.
See the live benchmarkIs it the right hire
Not sure which side you are on? The detailed version lives in when to hire a fractional CMO.
Engagement models
Embedded operator
A senior operator inside your team who owns the plan and helps run it, week to week. The seat does the work with you, it is not a deck handed over at the end.
The outcome
Cleaner unit economics, with someone accountable for the result.
One-time diagnosis
Four weeks to find what is actually holding growth back, with a ranked plan your team executes. You keep the playbook, there is no ongoing seat.
The outcome
A clear, sequenced plan you own and implement yourself.
New discipline
A scored read on how visible and citable you are inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
The outcome
A scored read plus a fix-list you can start in days.
The operating model
A fractional CMO engagement is not a project with a deliverable at the end. It is a senior operator joining your rhythm, installing a plan, and staying accountable as it runs.
A working diagnostic of pipeline, positioning, channel signal, handoffs, and AI visibility. The outcome is a ranked list of what is actually holding growth back.
The 90-day plan is written with named owners, and the weekly leadership cadence is installed. The team leaves the month with clear priorities and a rhythm it can keep.
The operator runs the plan with the team, not from the sidelines: positioning, demand, hiring and agency direction, and the few moves that actually move the number.
Board-grade reporting on pipeline quality, CAC efficiency, and AI visibility, with the plan recalibrated against evidence rather than vibes.
How the options compare
| Fractional CMO | Full-time CMO | Agency | Consultant | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accountability | Owns the marketing plan and the number, inside your leadership team | Owns the plan and the number, full time | Owns a channel or a set of deliverables | Owns recommendations, not the outcome |
| Time commitment | Two to three days a week, ongoing | Full time and permanent | Per scope, project or retainer | A fixed engagement, then done |
| Cost shape | Monthly retainer at a senior rate, without a full-time package | Salary, equity, and benefits | Monthly fees plus media | A project fee |
| Best for | Senior direction and execution without a permanent hire | A large, stable team that needs a permanent leader | Scaling output in a channel you already understand | A one-time answer to a specific question |
Side-by-side detail: vs a full-time CMO, vs a marketing agency, and vs a consultant.
The pricing model
Pricing is a monthly retainer, not an hourly rate. You are paying for senior judgment and accountability on a flexible cadence, usually two to three days a week, without the cost of a full-time executive package.
Most engagements sit between $10K and $25K per month, depending on stage, scope, and time commitment. Lighter advisory sits at the lower end; a hands-on operator carrying the plan across several workstreams sits at the higher end.
What sets the rate: stage and complexity, days per week, and how many workstreams the seat owns. It replaces a full-time CMO package or a string of disconnected agencies; it is not an hourly consultant or a per-deliverable retainer.
The full breakdown by engagement shape lives in how much a fractional CMO costs.
Selected feedback from founders, operators, and growth leaders
“I had the pleasure of working with Lars at Cudo Compute, and he is one of the most talented and dedicated professionals I have collaborated with. He combines deep technical expertise with a strategic mindset, and tackles complex challenges head-on, especially in cloud computing and infrastructure. Whether designing scalable solutions or streamlining workflows, Lars consistently delivered, and he is a fantastic team player, always ready to support colleagues and share knowledge. Any organisation would be lucky to have him.”
Technical depth and strategic leadership
Mark Richman
Partner Manager, CUDO Compute
“Lars is a rare kind of marketing scientist who deeply understands both the high-level performance factors (marketing strategy, branding, and models) and the nuts and bolts of making it happen (campaign structure, ad systems, and optimization). Highly recommended to get his advice before starting anything important.”
Strategy and execution in one
Alexander Frakking
Worked with Lars
“Lars is a phenomenal partner and strategist who grew the paid social media program at Herman Miller Group from a tiny annual spend to several million dollars per year, all while continually delivering a high return. Most strategists in this position oversell you on results and tell you the only way to improve is to spend more. Not Lars. He is aggressive about constantly improving strategy and tactics, but mindful of budgets and clear-eyed about attributed returns. He did a great job growing and transforming our business, and he is friendly, smart, and easy to work with.”
Paid social: tiny spend to millions
Chessia McBride
Was Lars's client, Herman Miller Group
“Lars has been a speaker in our tech-entrepreneurship program. He has a deep understanding of digital marketing strategy and execution, especially direct response marketing. He always showed a strong commitment and rolled up his sleeves to impart his valuable knowledge to our IT startups.”
Tech-entrepreneurship program speaker
Manuel Effenberg, Ph.D.
Venture Capital & Finance, HPI Ventures
“Lars has been a mentor for the Berlin Techstars program and is consistently rated as one of the most thoughtful and helpful mentors we have. His knowledge of internet marketing is vast and deep.”
Techstars Berlin mentor
Robert Johnson
Former Managing Director, Techstars
“Lars is an expert in paid media campaign management and conversion optimization. We worked together to improve our in-house processes, and he did an excellent job.”
Paid media and conversion optimization
Tamas Kadar
Co-Founder & CEO, SEON
“I have been a client of Lars for several years and have always been impressed with his fierce dedication to optimization. From the very first week he took over our paid media from our in-house team, we saw an immediate improvement in ROI, and it has continued ever since. He is extremely detailed, with a deep understanding of how to grow small, strong-performing audiences into larger ones. He is easy to work with, thorough, and comes to every call with ways to do things better.”
Paid media takeover, week-one ROI
Nicole Fisch
DWR.com
“Lars totally changed our cost per acquisition, and his expertise in PPC changed our revenue and profitability. I have already highly recommended him to some of my clients, and I think he is of the utmost character.”
CAC reset, revenue and profitability up
Michael R. Costigan
Long-time client
Start here
We'll walk your current plan, name the two or three bottlenecks most likely to be holding you back, and agree what a useful engagement would look like.
