How much does a Fractional Marketing Director cost?

Short answer. A Fractional Marketing Director is usually paid a monthly fee, not by the hour and not as a percentage of the advertising budget. At Marketing35100 the service starts from €1,290 per month, plus VAT where applicable. The final fee depends on the agreed scope: how many channels and suppliers to coordinate, which tasks we carry out directly and where your marketing stands today. Advertising budget, software licences and other suppliers’ fees are always separate.

There is no standard rate card for this role: fees vary widely from one professional to another, depending on experience, time commitment and what is included. That is why the price alone tells you little. Before comparing two proposals, it is worth understanding what you are buying, what is left out, and which alternative you are comparing it with.

What the monthly fee pays for

A Fractional Marketing Director does, for part of the time, the job that an in-house marketing director would do in a larger company. The fee pays for four things.

• Direction. Objectives, priorities and budget agreed with the owner or management team, and turned into a plan with tasks, owners and deadlines.
• Supplier coordination. Agencies, freelancers and consultants receive clear instructions on what is expected from them, and someone checks that it gets done.
• Control. Reading the numbers from campaigns, website and sales enquiries, with clear recommendations on where to invest and what to stop.
• Hands-on work, when agreed. For example on campaigns, tracking, CRM and automation.

This is the difference from buying a single service: the fee pays for the responsibility of keeping your marketing together, not for a number of posts, campaigns or hours.

At Marketing35100 the starting price, from €1,290 per month, covers direction, supplier coordination and monitoring of results for the scope written in the proposal: the channels and suppliers we follow, how often we meet and report, and the activities we carry out directly. Hands-on work is included only if the proposal says so; anything not written in the proposal is excluded.

What the price depends on

Two companies of the same size can require very different levels of commitment. These are the variables that weigh most.

• Active channels. Coordinating a website and one Google campaign is different from managing Google Ads, Meta Ads, social media, newsletters and CRM together.
• Suppliers to coordinate. Every agency or external professional adds meetings, checks and decisions to align.
• Hands-on activities. If, besides direction, you need work on campaigns, tracking or automation, the scope grows.
• Starting point. If data is not tracked or sales enquiries are not recorded, the first months take more work to put things in order.
• Markets and languages. Following activities in several countries and languages, for example your home market and Italy, requires more time.

This is why a serious proposal comes after an analysis, not before. At Marketing35100 the scope included in the fee is written into the proposal, so you know in advance what will be done and what it will cost.

What the fee does not include

The director’s fee does not include the costs your company pays anyway to do marketing:

• the advertising budget paid to Google, Meta, LinkedIn or other platforms;
• creative production: copy, graphics, photos and video;
• software licences and tools, such as CRM, email platforms and management software;
• fees for agencies, photographers, developers and other suppliers;
• full, ongoing campaign management, which is a separate service;
• dedicated projects, such as a new website or an AI project.

When you compare two offers, check that they leave out the same items. A lower fee that excludes supplier coordination, or a higher one that includes campaign management, cannot be compared line by line.

Fractional director, full-time hire or agency

The comparison only makes sense between options that answer the same need: someone who leads your company’s marketing.

	Full-time marketing manager	Marketing agency	Fractional Marketing Director
How you pay	Annual gross salary, plus social contributions and other employer costs	Fees for the activities assigned	Monthly fee for the agreed scope
Who sets priorities	The manager, with the management team	Usually the client, or the agency within its own remit	The director, with the owner or management team
Who executes	The manager and the suppliers they coordinate	The agency	The coordinated suppliers and, if agreed, the director
Availability	Full time, in the company	As per contract	Part of the time, as set out in the proposal
Makes sense when	Marketing needs a dedicated person every day	You mainly need execution on specific channels	You need direction, but a full-time hire is not yet sustainable

Salaries differ a lot from country to country, so use your own market as the reference. To give an order of magnitude for Italy, where we are based: according to the salary benchmark published by EgoValeo, an Italian executive search firm, the median gross annual salary of a senior Marketing Manager is €52,500 (111 data points, updated on 22 October 2026). Gross salary is not the cost to the company: Italian employers also pay social security contributions, a mandatory severance accrual (TFR) and other charges, plus any bonuses and benefits. The total cost of a hire is therefore higher than the salary.

The comparison with an external fee should still be made with care. A fee starting from €1,290 per month does not buy the availability of a full-time manager: an employee is in the company every day, while an external director dedicates part of their time to your company, with meetings and response times set out in the proposal. The advantage is access to senior marketing leadership with a different financial commitment from a permanent hire.

The three options are not mutually exclusive. It can make sense to keep an agency that already works well and add someone on your side who sets the priorities and checks its work. A Fractional Marketing Director should not replace your suppliers: the job is to make them work in the same direction.

When it is worth it, and when it is not

It is a justified expense when:

• you already invest in several channels or work with several suppliers, and coordination falls on the owner;
• you spend on advertising, a website and social media but cannot tell what actually brings enquiries and customers;
• marketing decisions are made by suppliers, or by nobody;
• you need a marketing leader, but a full-time hire is not sustainable today.

It is probably not the right choice when:

• your marketing investment is minimal and limited to one channel that is already well managed;
• you only need execution on a specific activity: an agency or a specialist will cost less;
• you are looking for someone to guarantee a number of leads or customers: nobody can honestly do that before seeing the numbers.

How to tell whether the cost is justified

After a few months of working together, you should be able to answer four questions precisely:

1. What are the company’s marketing priorities, who owns them and which indicator measures them?
2. How much does each channel cost, and how many sales enquiries, meetings and customers does it bring?
3. What has been stopped or scaled back because it was not working?
4. Does every supplier know what is expected of them, and does someone check?

If the answers are still vague, the problem is not the price of the service but the way it is delivered. The second question requires connecting campaigns, enquiries and sales, and it is usually the best place to start. We cover it on our Lead Generation page.

Frequently asked questions

Does the fee include managing advertising campaigns?

It depends on the agreed scope. A Fractional Marketing Director can work directly on campaigns, but if you need full, ongoing management it is better to assign it to a dedicated service, such as Lead Generation, and leave direction and control to the director.

Do we have to change agency to work with a fractional director?

No. The suppliers who already work with your company can stay: the director coordinates them and becomes their point of contact. If something is not working, you will know clearly and can decide how to act.

How long does the engagement last?

It is an ongoing engagement, not a fixed-term package. Duration and terms are agreed in the proposal, based on your needs.

Can you work with companies outside Italy?

Yes. Most of the work happens through online meetings and shared tools, in English or Italian. Marketing35100 is based in Padova, Italy; meetings are scheduled on Central European Time at a time that also works for your time zone. For companies that sell, or plan to sell, in Italy, the director can also follow the Italian side of your marketing.

Next step

If you want to understand whether this role is right for your company, and with which scope, we start with a free introductory video call of about 25 minutes. You tell us how your marketing is organised today, and we will tell you frankly whether and how we can help. The service is described in detail on our Fractional Marketing Director page.

Find out whether a Fractional Marketing Director fits your company →

Salary source: EgoValeo, salary benchmark “Marketing Manager”, Senior level, median of 111 data points, updated on 22 October 2026 (Italian market). Marketing35100 price as published on our Italian service page at the date of the article.