The First 90 Days With a Fractional CMO: A Startup Marketing Playbook

You hired a fractional CMO. Now what? Or maybe you're about to, and you want to know what you should actually get for the money.

Here's what a good first 90 days looks like. If your fractional CMO can't show you something close to this, ask why. (New here? Start with What Is a Fractional CMO?)

Days 1–30: Find the leaks

The first month is about the truth. No new campaigns yet. Just a hard look at what's there.

• Audit every dollar. Ad accounts, agencies, software, freelancers. What's it costing, and what's it bringing back?
• Check the tracking. Can you follow a customer from first click to first payment? Most startups can't. Fix that first.
• Talk to customers. Why did they buy? What almost stopped them? The best messaging comes straight out of these calls.
• Size up the team. Who's great, who's stretched, and where are the gaps?

What you should have by day 30: a short audit with your real cost per customer, your top three money leaks and quick wins you can do right now.

Days 31–60: Build the plan

Now you've got the facts. Time to make the calls.

• Pick the customer. One clear ideal customer. Startups that try to sell to everyone sell to no one.
• Lock the message. What you do, who it's for, why you're different. One sentence each.
• Split the budget. Which channels get money, how much, and what number each one has to hit.
• Set the scoreboard. Three to five numbers the whole company watches every week. Leads, cost per lead, cost per customer, pipeline, revenue.
• Cut what's dead. Every startup has a channel or vendor that's just burning cash. Turn it off.

What you should have by day 60: a written 90-day plan with a budget, goals and owners, plus a weekly dashboard.

Days 61–90: Launch, test, double down

This is where it starts to feel like progress.

• Launch the first tests. Lots of options, small budgets. New ads, new offers, new landing pages. Let the data pick the winners.
• Scale what works. When something beats the target, move money into it fast.
• Weekly check-ins. Short meetings. Here's the number, here's what changed, here's what's next.
• Fill the gaps. Hire or contract the help the plan needs: an ads specialist, a content creator, a designer.

What you should have by day 90: your first results against the scoreboard, a clear list of winners and losers, and the plan for the next quarter.

Red flags in the first 90 days

• Lots of meetings, no written plan.
• New campaigns launched before the tracking works.
• Reports full of likes and impressions, but nothing about customers or revenue.
• No hard calls. A real CMO will tell you to stop doing something you like.

What it takes from you

A fractional CMO can't do it alone. Plan on an hour a week with them, access to every account and real numbers, even the ugly ones. The faster you share the truth, the faster it gets fixed.

The bottom line

The first 90 days aren't about going viral. They're about knowing your numbers, cutting the waste and finding the one or two things that actually grow the business. Then you pour fuel on those.

Still deciding? Read 7 Signs Your Business Needs a Fractional CMO, check what it costs, or book a strategy call with Cyprian Francis.