What a marketing team should cost

Founders ask this a lot, and the honest answer is “it depends.” But you can get much closer than that by looking at what you're actually paying for.

The three buckets

Almost every marketing budget splits into three parts:

• Media: the money you spend to reach people (ads, sponsorships, events).
• Doing the work: the people, freelancers and agencies who make campaigns, content and creative.
• Direction: the person deciding what's worth doing and checking that it works.

Most growing companies overspend on the first two and underspend on the third. That's how you end up with a busy team and flat results.

Rough ranges by stage

These vary a lot by market and city, so treat them as a starting point, not a quote.

Early (founder plus one or two people). One generalist marketer or a couple of freelancers, plus whatever you spend on ads. The founder sets direction.

Growing (a small team plus agencies). Two to five people, one or two agencies, and a real ad budget. This is where direction usually breaks, because the founder no longer has time to steer it all.

Scaling (a department). A full team with managers, and a full-time marketing leader. A senior full-time hire often costs well into six figures once you count salary, bonus and equity.

Where a fractional CMO fits

In the growing stage, a fractional CMO typically costs a fraction of a full-time executive and gives you the direction piece without the long hiring process. Advising with me is $3,500 a month, month to month.

A better question than “how much?”

Ask what each dollar is supposed to do. If you can't connect a line in the budget to a goal, that line is the first place to look. The five numbers founders should watch help with that.

Want a second pair of eyes on your budget? Get a free second opinion.