Full Time CMO
Senior, expensive, slow to land
- Monthly commitment£10k to £18k
- Time to onboard3 to 6 months
- Strategic and hands onStrategic only
- Board level voiceYes
- Hires and manages your teamYes
- Notice or exit cost3 to 6 months
Fractional CMO forRecruitment and Search Firms
Senior marketing leadership embedded inside your firm, without the full time hire. Strategy, team, budget and board reporting, owned by one person.
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Trusted by Recruitment Agencies Across the UK
The Trade Off
Fractional CMO vs the Full Time Hire
Most firms know they need senior marketing leadership but cannot justify the cost of a six figure hire. Here is the honest comparison, with the numbers we see across the firms we work with.
Fractional CMO
Senior, embedded fast, exit on your terms
- Monthly commitmentFrom £4k
- Time to onboard2 weeks
- Strategic and hands onBoth
- Board level voiceYes
- Hires and manages your teamYes
- Notice or exit cost30 days
Marketing Manager
Hands on, but no board voice
- Monthly commitment£5k to £8k
- Time to onboard1 to 3 months
- Strategic and hands onHands on only
- Board level voiceRarely
- Hires and manages your teamSometimes
- Notice or exit cost1 to 3 months
Who This Is For
Built for Founder Led Firms
We are picky about who we take on, and we tell people honestly when they are too small or too senior for the work. Here is the shape of the firms the service is built around.
Annual Fee Income
£2m
to £20m
Below this and your marketing problem is usually a sales problem. Above it and you should be hiring permanent.
Marketing Headcount
1
to 3 in house
Enough that the work is happening, not so much that the next hire is a senior one. We line manage the people you have.
Marketing Ownership
Founder
still in the room
The CEO is still making the calls on marketing. Our job is to take the function off your desk, not bypass you.
Not the right fit
- Solo operators without a marketing function
- Firms over £20m with a permanent CMO already in seat
- Founders looking for a project agency to brief and forget
The Role, Honestly
Drawing the Lines Around the Job
Owns
What the Fractional CMO owns
The desk the marketing function actually sits on.
- The written marketing strategy
- Your in house marketers, line managed
- The monthly board pack and read out
- Campaign sign off, briefs and creative
- Agency and vendor accountability
- Marketing budget and forecasting
Does Not
What the Fractional CMO does not
The lines we will not cross, and the work we will not pretend to do.
- Run your sales meetings or carry quota
- Replace specialist agencies you already trust
- Touch your product roadmap or pricing
- Cold call or close prospects for you
- Manage your finance or HR function
- Stay forever, we exit the moment a full hire makes sense
Where We Sit
One Owner, Five Relationships
The Fractional CMO is not a side desk advisor. We sit in the middle of the marketing function, with a direct line to the board, your sales lead, your team and the partners you already trust.
Fractional
CMO
Your Board
Monthly read out, written board pack, P&L defence in the room.
Sales Lead
Pipeline review weekly, joint forecasting, shared targets.
Your Marketers
Line management, briefs, objectives and one to ones.
Agencies and Vendors
Brief, hold to scope, replace when standards slip.
Founder / CEO
Weekly leadership meeting, honest disagreement, one owner.
A Typical Month
Inside a Working Month
Strategic leadership is meaningless without cadence. Here is what an average month actually looks like inside a Limivex engagement, with the work split between weekly rhythm and the week specific moves that carry the function forward.
Every week
Recurring rhythm that never moves
Strategy stand up with the founder
30 minutes, weekly
Marketing team one to ones
45 minutes per person, weekly
Async inbox, Slack, Loom check ins
Throughout the week
Week 1
01
Land and look forward
Last month read out finalised
Numbers, narrative and the honest take
Board pack draft circulated
Marketing slide and supporting commentary
Week 2
02
Briefs and vendors
Campaign briefs signed off
Scope, success metric and budget locked
Agency and vendor reviews
Held to scope, replaced when standards slip
Week 3
03
Pipeline and content
Pipeline review with sales
Joint forecast, attribution, blockers surfaced
Content calendar locked
Long form, social and editorial agreed
Week 4
04
Board and plan
Board meeting attended
Marketing voice in the room, not on paper
Next month plan agreed
Priorities, owners and trade offs written down
The First Year
Twelve Months of Fractional CMO
The work that compounds, plotted across the first year. Boring audit fundamentals in month one, the awkward team conversations in three, measurable pipeline by six, and a clean hand over by twelve.
Month 01
Embedded
Marketing function audited, twelve month plan written, board pack template agreed, weekly cadence in place.
Month 03
Shipping
First campaigns live, in house team aligned to the plan, agency briefs running through the Fractional CMO, monthly read outs flowing.
Month 06
Compounding
Pipeline contribution measurable, content calendar pulling its weight, the awkward conversations with vendors handled cleanly.
Month 12
Hand Over
Full year board review delivered, succession plan written, role spec ready for the permanent CMO hire when the moment arrives.
Month 01
Embedded
Marketing function audited, twelve month plan written, board pack template agreed, weekly cadence in place.
Month 03
Shipping
First campaigns live, in house team aligned to the plan, agency briefs running through the Fractional CMO, monthly read outs flowing.
Month 06
Compounding
Pipeline contribution measurable, content calendar pulling its weight, the awkward conversations with vendors handled cleanly.
Month 12
Hand Over
Full year board review delivered, succession plan written, role spec ready for the permanent CMO hire when the moment arrives.
Engagement Levels
Three Levels of Involvement
The Fractional CMO service runs at three depths. Pick by the size of the function we are stepping into, not by the budget. We will tell you honestly if you are sitting at the wrong level.
Tier 01
Advisory
0.5
days per week
For firms with a marketing lead already in place who needs senior sparring at strategy level.
Includes
- Weekly strategy session with the founder or marketing lead
- Written critique of work in flight
- Board prep guidance and read out review
- Vendor selection and brief sign off
Investment
From £3,000
per month
Tier 02
Operator
2
days per month
For firms with a small in house team but no senior layer above them.
Includes
- Twelve month strategy and ninety day plan
- Line management of your in house marketers
- Agency and vendor briefing, accountability and replacement
- Monthly board read out written and presented
Investment
From £6,000
per month
Tier 03
Embedded
1
day per week
For firms ready to put a senior marketing voice inside the leadership team.
Includes
- Everything in Operator, plus full leadership team participation
- Hiring panel and onboarding for new marketing roles
- Multi channel programme oversight with the Limivex team
- Quarterly off site planning and board strategy session
Investment
From £10,000
per month
All tiers run on a thirty day rolling notice. Onboarding fortnight is unbilled. We exit cleanly the moment a permanent hire makes sense.
Who You Are Hiring
The Person Behind The Service
Daniel Hill
Founder and CEO, Limivex
Every Fractional CMO engagement at Limivex is owned by Daniel personally. You are not handed to an account manager. The person in the discovery call is the person in your board meeting.
15
Years in B2B marketing leadership
10+
Marketing teams built and led
2
Advisory board seats held today
Track record
01
Fifteen years leading B2B marketing functions
Built and run in house marketing teams from a single hire up to teams of ten plus, across recruitment, technology and professional services.
02
Senior roles inside firms, not just advising them
Held marketing leadership posts as an employee before founding Limivex. Knows the difference between a slide and a shipped programme.
03
Board level reporting and budget ownership
Has presented marketing into the boardroom for over a decade. Carries the P&L for marketing wherever the engagement asks for it.
04
Sits on advisory boards for two growing businesses
Outside Limivex, advises early stage founders on positioning, GTM and the first three marketing hires.
A Note from the Founder
Manchester, May 2026
Why I built the Fractional CMO service
When we started Limivex, the same pattern kept showing up across founder led firms. The founder knew what marketing should be doing. The team did not. And there was nobody senior enough in the room to bridge the gap.
We built the Fractional CMO service to be that bridge. You get a marketing leader who has done the work, sitting inside your weekly leadership meeting, taking the function off your desk, and reporting to your board as one of your own.
If it sounds expensive, the maths tells a different story. We typically run a third of what a full time CMO costs you, and the engagement ends cleanly the moment you have grown enough to justify the permanent hire.
I would rather spend thirty minutes working out whether this is the right fit, than send you a template proposal. There is a slot in my diary at the bottom of this page.
Daniel Hill
Founder and CEO, Limivex
Fractional CMO FAQ
The Questions Founders Ask Us
Have more questions? Book a free discovery call
Book a Discovery Call
Or, email us at info@limivex.com
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