Most conversations about a fractional CMO start with the fee. It is a fair place to start, and this guide sets out the numbers in New Zealand dollars. The fee is only half the calculation, though. In a start-up or a business trying to scale, the scarcest resource is founder time, and marketing quietly consumes a great deal of it.
So this guide counts the cost in two currencies, money and time. It also sets out the questions every founder, owner or leadership team should ask about their marketing strategy, their go-to-market and the performance of what they spend today.
A fractional CMO in New Zealand costs NZD 6,000 to 22,000 a month.
Fractional engagements are sized in days per week, usually one to three. BabylonSixty's indicative range is NZD 6,000 to 22,000 a month depending on days and scope, with day rates from NZD 1,000. Most engagements start at two days a week, which works out at roughly NZD 8,700 to 10,400 a month.
The fee covers the whole role: strategy, execution, team leadership, agency and contractor management, and board reporting. Media spend, agency fees and software sit outside it and are paid at cost.
The minimum initial term is three months. After that the engagement can run month to month, or you can contract for a further three, six or up to twelve months.
A permanent CMO costs a great deal more than the salary.
A senior marketing executive in Auckland commands a base salary of NZD 200,000 or more. The salary is where the cost starts. Using published New Zealand employer-cost guidance, the first year looks like this:
- Base salary, NZD 200,000
- Employer KiwiSaver at 3.5 percent, NZD 7,000
- ACC work levy, around NZD 1,340
- Recruitment at 15 percent of salary, NZD 30,000
- Overheads such as equipment, software, training and management time, NZD 20,000
- Health insurance, NZD 2,500
That is NZD 260,840 in year one, or 1.3 times the salary, before any equity. Two days a week of fractional leadership for the same twelve months comes to roughly NZD 104,000 to 125,000, well under half.
There is a second cost inside that number. A new executive usually needs three to six months to reach full contribution. At a fully loaded NZD 260,840 a year, those months cost roughly NZD 65,000 to 130,000 before the role is working at full strength. A fractional CMO has done the job before and starts contributing in the first week.
The costs page has a calculator that runs this comparison for your own days and timeframe.
Time is the cost most founders never count.
In most small and scaling businesses, marketing starts with the founder. It works for a while. Then the business grows, and the founder is still writing briefs, managing the agency, approving content, reviewing reports and trying to work out why the leads are not converting.
Put a number on it. A simple way is:
Hours a week on marketing × 4.33 weeks × the value of one founder hour = the monthly cost of founder time.
The value of a founder hour is whatever that hour would earn elsewhere: closing a deal, meeting an investor, fixing the product or hiring the next key person. Take a founder who spends ten hours a week on marketing and values an hour at NZD 250. That is NZD 10,825 a month, at or above the monthly fee for a two-day fractional CMO. Over a year it comes to about NZD 130,000, half the fully loaded cost of a permanent CMO, spent on the founder's time alone. Most founders who run this sum find their own time is already the most expensive marketing resource in the business.
The leadership team pays a time cost too. Coordinating agencies, debating priorities without a plan and redoing campaigns that missed the mark all take hours from people who have other jobs.
Hand marketing to a senior leader who owns it and those hours come back. The founder gets time for customers, sales, investors and product, the work only a founder can do.
Delay has a price as well.
Time also shows up as speed. The permanent route means months of recruiting, then months of ramp, before the plan changes. Every month without a working marketing function is a month of pipeline that never gets built, and in a scaling business that gap compounds.
A fractional CMO is diagnosing and correcting from week one. By day thirty there should be a diagnosis you trust, first fixes shipped and a ninety-day plan with names against it.
Ask these questions before you decide what marketing help you need.
The right answer depends on where the gaps are. Work through these honestly, ideally with your leadership team in the room.
Marketing strategy
- Can you describe your ideal customer in one sentence, and would your sales team describe them the same way?
- Do you know why customers choose you, in their words?
- Is there a written marketing plan tied to a revenue target, with one person accountable for it?
Go-to-market
- Do product, marketing and sales work from the same plan?
- Is your positioning and pricing built for the market you are entering next, including Australia or the US?
- Do you know which channel brings your best customers, the ones who stay and grow?
Performance marketing
- Do you judge campaigns by pipeline and revenue?
- What did it cost to win your last ten customers, and how long did each one take to close?
- If you cut your spend in half tomorrow, would you know which half to keep?
Customer engagement
- When did you last talk to a customer, or to a prospect who chose a competitor?
- Do you have a named list of target accounts, and is anyone actively working it?
- Do marketing and sales agree on which accounts matter most?
Lead generation
- What share of last quarter's leads became qualified opportunities?
- Would your sales team say the leads are the right ones?
- Is anyone rewarded for lead volume on its own?
If several of those answers were "I'm not sure", the business has a marketing leadership gap. More activity will not close it.
The right leads are worth more than a large number of leads.
Lead volume is easy to buy. Paid campaigns and gated content will fill a CRM quickly, and a dashboard full of leads looks like progress. When most of those leads never become opportunities, the business has paid twice, once for the leads and again in the sales time spent chasing them.
The right leads come from accounts that fit your ideal customer profile and have a reason to buy now. Finding them takes a clear view of who you serve, messaging that speaks to their problem and, for many B2B companies, account-based marketing (ABM): a deliberate, named list of target accounts that marketing and sales work together, with activity built around each one.
ABM depends on staying close to customers. The businesses that do it well talk to customers constantly, know what triggers a buying decision and put their effort where the revenue is. That discipline is a leadership job, and it is one of the first things a fractional CMO puts in place.
A fractional CMO is the right answer in some situations and not others.
A fractional CMO fits when the business needs senior marketing leadership and ownership of the outcome, and cannot yet justify a full-time executive. That usually means growth has stalled, the founder is still running marketing, the team is busy with little effect, or the company is entering a new market.
Other options suit other problems. If you have a clear plan and need more hands to execute it, an agency or contractor may be enough. If marketing genuinely needs a leader five days a week, hire permanently. A good fractional CMO will tell you when you have reached that point, and help you hire the right person.
The fractional CMO page compares all the options side by side.
Founders ask these questions about fractional CMO costs.
Does the fee include media spend and agency costs?
No. The fee covers the leadership role. Media, agency and contractor fees and software are paid at cost or directly by you, and a fractional CMO is often the person who makes that spend work harder.
Can we start with one day a week?
Yes. Engagements run from one to three days a week. Most start at two and step up during an intense period such as a launch, then step down as capability builds in your team.
How quickly will we see a return?
Work starts in the first week. The first thirty days combine diagnosis with early fixes, and by the end of the first month there is an agreed ninety-day plan with owners and reporting in place.
What happens after the first three months?
The engagement can run month to month, or you can contract for a further three, six or up to twelve months. The days per week can change as the business grows.
Work out your own numbers.
Use the costs page calculator to compare a fractional engagement with a full-time hire, then add the hours you and your team spend on marketing each week. If the total surprises you, book a 30-minute call and we can talk it through.