Short answer. A fractional CMO in Australia costs roughly $2,000 to $18,000 a month, depending on days per week, scope and seniority. At rambert.co, advisory work starts from $2,450 a month and hands-on engagements run $6,500 to $14,500 a month. Every engagement starts with a three-week Strategy Sprint at a fixed fee from $4,997. All figures in AUD.
What rambert.co charges.
We publish our prices because you shouldn't need a sales call to find out whether a conversation is worth having.
| Engagement | What it covers | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy Sprint | Three weeks of workshops and diagnosis, ending in a marketing strategy and playbook your business owns outright. | Fixed fee from $4,997 |
| Advisory fractional CMO | We set the direction and review the work. Your team implements. | From $2,450/month |
| Hands-on fractional CMO | We lead the plan, manage delivery across your team, agencies and campaigns, and answer for the numbers. | $6,500 to $14,500/month |
Where a hands-on engagement lands in that range depends on days per week and how much of the marketing function we're running. If you already have a strong senior marketer who needs backing rather than replacing, our advisory and coaching engagement is built for that, from the same $2,450 a month.
What the Australian market charges.
Australian fractional CMO pricing sits in broad bands. They come from current market conditions and our own work with Australian mid-market and scaling companies, and individual practitioners sit above and below them.
Advisory: $2,000 to $4,000/month
Usually one to two days a week, often less. You get strategy and direction, coaching for your team, go-to-market positioning, and quarterly planning and reviews. Your team does the work.
Strategic: $5,000 to $8,000/month
Two to three days a week. On top of strategy, the CMO leads your team and manages your suppliers: channel strategy, monthly performance reviews, and someone senior holding agencies to account.
Embedded: $8,000 to $18,000/month
Three to five days a week. An acting CMO who owns the marketing function, reports to the board and manages the team day to day.
What moves the price up or down.
Where an engagement lands inside those bands depends on the following.
1. Seniority and track record
Someone who has led marketing through growth, raised the standard of a team and can show the results costs more than someone a few years out of an agency. You're paying for judgement that has already been tested.
2. Scope of work
Strategy alone costs less than strategy plus day-to-day delivery. Leading a team adds to the price, and so does building a marketing function from scratch rather than tuning one that already works.
3. Industry complexity
Regulated and technical markets such as finance, energy and health take longer to learn and carry more compliance risk, so they usually cost more.
4. Team size and maturity
Managing and developing a team of ten is different work from setting up the first marketing hire. The price reflects the people as well as the plan.
5. Commitment
Longer commitments generally earn better monthly rates than month-to-month arrangements, because they let the work compound instead of restarting every few weeks.
Fractional CMO vs full-time CMO: the numbers.
A hands-on rambert.co engagement costs roughly a quarter to a half of a full-time CMO's cash cost. You also get a senior operator for the days you need, with no hire to unwind if your needs change.
| Cost component | Full-time CMO | rambert.co fractional CMO |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary or fee | $300,000 typical (range $280,000 to $400,000) | Advisory from $29,400/year; hands-on $78,000 to $174,000/year |
| Superannuation (12%) | $36,000 on the typical salary | Not applicable (contractor) |
| Bonus | Often on top | None |
| Recruitment and onboarding | Recruiter fee plus months of ramp-up | A three-week Strategy Sprint |
| Annual cash cost | About $336,000 before bonus and recruitment | $29,400 to $174,000 |
Full-time figures: Hays Salary Guide FY26/27, national base salary for a chief marketing officer, excluding superannuation. Superannuation at the 12% guarantee rate.
If you run a founder-led business doing $2-8M, the realistic full-time alternative is often a marketing director rather than a CMO. Hays puts that role in Melbourne at around $205,000 base. Even then, the work rarely fills five days a week, and the people good enough to set the strategy are often more senior than the role you can afford to hire. Our guide to when to hire a CMO covers the decision in full.
Want the true cost of a full-time marketing hire for your budget? Salary, super, ramp time, tools and management, calculated in 60 seconds.
Full-time makes sense when you have years of consistent, complex marketing work and the budget to hire someone senior enough to lead it. Fractional makes sense when you're growing, changing direction or still working out what the function needs to be.
Fractional CMO vs marketing agency.
A fractional CMO decides what the marketing should do and is accountable for the whole function. An agency runs specific channels and takes direction. They solve different problems, and the cost comparison only makes sense once you know which problem you have.
Agencies are built to deliver content, ads, design and technical work, and many do it well. They're paid to deliver within their scope, so nobody in the arrangement is paid to say a channel should get less money, and a fractional CMO is. Many businesses use both: a fractional CMO for direction and an agency for specialised execution. The full comparison is in fractional CMO vs marketing agency.
Why every engagement starts with a Strategy Sprint.
Signing a monthly retainer before anyone has diagnosed the problem is how businesses end up paying for random acts of marketing. The Strategy Sprint is three weeks at a fixed fee from $4,997, and it ends with a marketing strategy and playbook your business owns, whether or not you work with us again.
By the end of it you'll know what shape of ongoing leadership you need, if any: run the playbook yourselves, have us steer through advisory, or have us lead it hands-on. You see how we think and what we're like to work with before you commit to a monthly fee. How the Strategy Sprint works.
What to look for when hiring a fractional CMO.
Price is one input. These matter more.
1. Experience in markets like yours
Look for experience in your vertical or one with a similar buying process. Knowing how a trust-heavy, referral-driven market buys shortens the ramp-up.
2. Strategy and delivery
Ask for case studies and ask what changed in the business as well as what was produced. You want evidence of both the thinking and the follow-through.
3. Communication and fit
You'll work closely together even at two days a month. They need to communicate clearly and tell you things you'd rather not hear.
4. A clear engagement model
Agree in writing what the days cover, how you reach them in between and how scope changes are handled. Published prices are a good sign.
5. Measurable outcomes
They should propose specific measures, such as pipeline, cost to acquire a customer and revenue from marketing, and report against them on a fixed rhythm.
Frequently asked questions.
How many hours does a fractional CMO typically work?
Anywhere from a day a fortnight to three days a week or more. Advisory sits at the lighter end, and hands-on and embedded roles run two to five days a week. Agree the commitment upfront, including whether calls between scheduled days are covered.
Can a fractional CMO work alongside our existing marketing team?
Yes, and it's the most common arrangement. A fractional CMO sets the direction, develops the people already there and holds the standard. It works best when there's internal talent to build on.
What's the minimum engagement period?
With rambert.co, the first commitment is the three-week Strategy Sprint. Ongoing fractional engagements run month to month after that, with no lock-in contract.
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing consultant?
A consultant typically delivers a report or a strategy and leaves. A fractional CMO stays to lead the work and is accountable for results over time. The Strategy Sprint is the consulting step; the fractional engagement is what follows if you want leadership as well.
How do fractional CMOs charge?
Australian fractional CMOs usually charge in one of three ways: a day rate for ad-hoc work, a monthly retainer for ongoing leadership, or a fixed fee for a defined project. rambert.co uses the last two, with a fixed fee for the three-week Strategy Sprint and a monthly fee for advisory or hands-on work, priced by days per week and scope.
How quickly will we see results?
The Strategy Sprint takes three weeks and ends with a plan your team can act on straight away. On a hands-on engagement, the highest-value fixes ship in weeks four to eight, and marketing settles into a weekly operating rhythm by around week thirteen.
How do we get started?
Start with the free marketing diagnostic. It shows which layer your marketing problem starts at and what to fix first. The first paid step is a Strategy Sprint: in three weeks we audit your current marketing, find the biggest opportunities and build a plan, and you'll know whether a fractional arrangement makes sense for your business.