The pros, cons & pitfalls of going fractional with your marketing (and how to make it work)

One of the most common questions early-stage founders wrestle with is how to resource marketing. Do you hire someone permanent and embed them in the business? Do you outsource to an agency that specialises in a specific channel? Or do you take the increasingly popular path of going fractional?

Fractional marketing is gaining traction for a reason. It provides founders with senior-level expertise at a manageable cost, flexibility to scale up or down, and the objectivity that comes from someone working across multiple businesses. But it’s not without challenges. Bandwidth is limited, cultural integration can suffer, and at some point, you will still need to transition to a permanent hire.

In a recent session with our Funding Mastermind community, Funding Accelerator mentor Ed Davidson, a fractional Head of Marketing, shared his insights into when fractional makes sense, how to make it work, and the pitfalls to avoid. This blog expands on his framework and offers founders a practical guide to choosing the right path.

What fractional marketing really means

At its simplest, fractional marketing means hiring a senior marketer, a Head of Marketing, VP, or CMO, part-time. They typically work one to three days a week with your team, set direction, mentor junior staff, and pull in specialist freelancers or micro-agencies as needed. The model sits neatly between the extremes of hiring a full-time senior marketer (with all the cost and risk that entails) and outsourcing to an agency that may only cover one channel in isolation. A fractional leader is strategic but also operational, they can design the plan, but they’ll also roll up their sleeves to execute.

This is particularly valuable at seed and pre-seed stages, where startups often have a junior generalist or sales-heavy founding team, but lack the senior marketing input needed to position the business, define messaging, and generate traction.

The big advantages of going fractional

1. Cost-effective access to senior talent

A full-time senior marketer can easily cost upwards of £100,000 plus benefits. Add in training, bonuses, and the risk of a mis-hire, and the bill rises steeply. A fractional Head of Marketing gives you access to the same calibre of experience for a fraction of the cost, often £3–10k per month depending on time commitment. Crucially, they bring expertise honed across multiple businesses, not just one.

2. Reduced hiring risk

Hiring mistakes are expensive and slow. It can take months to recruit a permanent Head of Marketing, months more to ramp them up, and if it doesn’t work, months again to unwind the decision. Fractional roles offer a lower-risk option. Contracts can be ended more quickly, and you can “try before you buy” by testing how well someone integrates into your business before committing to a permanent hire.

3. Speed to impact

Because fractional marketers often have battle-tested playbooks and trusted networks of freelancers, they can hit the ground running. Ed Davidson notes that clients expect visible progress within two weeks whether that’s a sharper value proposition, a campaign in market, or a clearer funnel. That’s much faster than the typical ramp-up of a permanent hire.

4. Flexibility and scalability

Fractional support can scale up or down. You might bring someone in for three days a week during a funding round or product launch, then taper down to one day for ongoing mentoring. You can also slot in specialist expertise — such as paid acquisition or lifecycle marketing — without locking yourself into permanent salaries.

5. A fresh, objective perspective

Startups can easily fall into groupthink or get lost in their own hype. A fractional marketer who works across multiple businesses can offer outside-in perspective and call out assumptions that need challenging. They’re also less entangled in office politics, so they can give founders candid feedback.

The pitfalls and how to avoid them

Of course, fractional marketing isn’t a silver bullet. There are drawbacks, and if you don’t manage them well, the impact will be blunted.

1. Limited bandwidth
One to three days a week isn’t much. If that time is eaten up in meetings or reporting, there’s little left for actual execution. The fix is structure: agree a tight weekly rhythm that prioritises key deliverables, not endless updates.

2. Short-termism
Fractional marketers can drive quick wins, but there’s a risk of neglecting longer-term plays like SEO or brand building. Mitigation is simple: agree balanced targets that include both pipeline this quarter and demand creation for the future.

3. Cultural distance
Part-time presence means slower integration into culture and customer understanding. Solve this by giving them company email, Slack access, and joining team away days. Share customer interviews and support transcripts early so they can absorb insight.

4. Brand knowledge gaps
It takes time to deeply understand your product and audience. Fractional marketers need a structured immersion: interviews, customer calls, competitor analysis, and a messaging workshop in the first month. Without this, strategy will be shallow.

5. Inevitability of transition
Fractional is not forever. At some point, you’ll need a permanent marketing leader. Without a succession plan, knowledge can walk out the door overnight. Prevent this by maintaining a central “marketing hub” with dashboards, process docs, and tool access from day one.

When to go fractional vs. permanent

Pre-seed and Seed: fractional is often the best option. At this stage, the priority is nailing positioning, testing GTM channels, and proving early traction. A fractional Head of Marketing can mentor a junior hire and plug gaps with freelancers.

Seed-plus to Series A: fractional can still work, but you’ll start layering in permanent “T-shaped” marketers who own channels like content, lifecycle, or paid. The fractional leader sets strategy and oversees execution.

Series A+: with proven traction and a larger team, the balance tips. You’ll want a permanent senior marketer to build and lead the team, while fractional experts may still be useful for specialist projects.

A 90-day plan that works

Ed Davidson recommends approaching fractional marketing in 90-day cycles.

Days 1–30: Audit and alignment
Deep dive into customer insights, competitor positioning, and funnel health. Interview customers, review sales calls, and map messaging.

Days 31–60: Test and build
Launch two to three high-confidence experiments, refresh website messaging, and set up lifecycle flows. Weekly learning loops ensure progress.

Days 61–90: Prove and scale
Double down on what’s working, expand content output, and prepare for the next funding or growth milestone.

This rhythm ensures you see results quickly but also build towards sustainable growth.

Budgeting and KPIs

Budget: at scale, marketing typically runs at 10–15% of revenue. At seed, you may spend less, but you should still fund tests properly. A small, underfunded marketing budget rarely delivers insights worth scaling.

KPIs: measure what drives revenue. In B2B, that means pipeline value and velocity, not just marketing-qualified leads (MQLs). In B2C, it might be customer acquisition cost (CAC) relative to lifetime value (LTV). Always tie metrics to growth levers that matter to investors.

Investor perspective

Investors like fractional marketing because it shows financial discipline. Instead of hiring prematurely, you’re testing with lean, senior guidance. It’s also easier to swap out a fractional leader who isn’t working than to unwind a full-time hire. As Ed put it, “If you don’t get results, you can change course in weeks, not quarters.”

Key takeaways

Fractional marketing isn’t right for every stage, but for early and growth-phase businesses, it can provide the senior expertise you need without the financial risk of a full-time hire. The key is to use it intentionally:

• Go fractional when you need positioning, messaging, and channel tests.
• Plan for permanent hires once you have repeatable growth channels.
• Build succession and documentation from day one.

Handled well, fractional can be the bridge that helps you scale faster, spend wisely, and show investors you’re building a marketing engine fit for growth.

What next?

If you are preparing your business for investment, do join a free, online Funding Strategy Workshop where you will hear three insights that increase your chances of successfully raising investment and ask any questions you may have. Book your place.

FAQ: Fractional marketing for startups