Click Track Data & Marketing
San Diego skyline — Click Track Marketing fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership · Flat fee · Working in week one

Fractional CMO in San Diego

Quick Answer

A fractional CMO is a part-time Chief Marketing Officer — senior marketing leadership for a fraction of the cost and commitment of a full-time hire. Instead of paying $250,000 to $450,000+ all-in for a full-time CMO, you get an experienced leader who sets your strategy, directs your channels and team, connects marketing to revenue, and reports to you like an in-house exec — for a flat monthly fee, working in week one. Click Track Marketing is a San Diego agency that leads with AI search and revenue attribution, the two areas most marketing leaders neglect, and can both set the strategy and execute it.

Most established businesses don't need a $300K CMO. They need someone senior to own the strategy, hold it accountable to revenue, and make the marketing actually happen. That's this.

Led by David Esau, founder of Click Track Marketing and a former Google Partnerships & Technical Account Manager. Last updated .

~$1M

Monthly ad spend we lead

Across the full client portfolio

$105K

Revenue from $14K ad spend

A single client campaign

Ex-Google

Who leads your marketing

David Esau, former Google Partnerships & Technical Account Manager

What a Fractional CMO Actually Does

Not another vendor executing tasks — one accountable marketing leader who owns the outcome and reports to you like an in-house exec.

Marketing Strategy & Positioning

The plan an owner usually doesn't have time to build: who you're for, what you say, which channels to fund, and what success actually looks like in dollars.

Revenue Attribution & Reporting

We connect marketing to money — which campaign, keyword, or channel produced which customer — and report it to you like an in-house exec, not a dashboard dump.

AI Search & SEO Leadership

The forward-looking edge most fractional CMOs miss: getting you found and recommended across Google, ChatGPT, and AI Overviews, not just running last year's playbook.

Channel Direction & Execution

Paid search, local SEO, content, email, automation — prioritized, budgeted, and actually executed by our team, so strategy doesn't die in a slide deck.

Team & Vendor Oversight

We direct your existing marketing hires, freelancers, and vendors — or run it end-to-end — so you have one accountable point of leadership instead of five disconnected contractors.

Budget & Priority Discipline

A flat fee means our advice is neutral: we can tell you to cut spend, pause a channel, or wait — decisions a percentage-of-spend vendor is quietly incentivized against.

Fractional CMO vs a Full-Time CMO

The reason fractional leadership exists: you get the seniority without the six-figure salary, the equity, the benefits, the overhead, or the long, risky hire.

Full-Time CMOFractional CMO
Base salary$180,000 – $320,000+None
Bonus & equityOften 20–50% of baseNone
Benefits, taxes & overheadAdds ~25–35% on topNone
Ramp time to impact3–6 months hiring + onboardingWorking in week one
Typical all-in annual cost$250,000 – $450,000+$24,000 – $78,000 (our plans)
CommitmentFull-time hire, hard to unwindFlat monthly, month-to-month

Full-time total-compensation figures are widely-reported ranges, shown for comparison. Our engagement tiers are below.

Engagement, Priced Openly

A flat monthly fee, month-to-month. The right tier depends on how much strategy versus hands-on execution you need — the strategy call sorts that out.

Signal

$2,000/mo

Foundational

Strategy, tracking, and one core channel executed — for owners who need direction and a first engine running.

Momentum

$3,500/mo

Growth

Multi-channel strategy and execution: SEO/AEO, paid search, and revenue attribution, reviewed on a regular strategy cadence.

Command

$6,500/mo

Full leadership

Fractional CMO leadership across the full stack — strategy, channels, team direction, and reporting to you like an in-house exec.

Ad spend, when applicable, is paid directly from your own accounts to the platforms and never marked up. See our full pricing.

When You Need a Fractional CMO

If a few of these sound familiar, it's probably time.

You're the owner still acting as the de-facto head of marketing — and it's capping your growth.

You have marketing people or vendors but no one setting strategy or holding it accountable to revenue.

You're spending real money on ads or agencies and can't clearly say what it's producing.

You know AI search is changing how customers find you and no one on your team owns it.

You need senior marketing leadership but a $300K full-time CMO isn't the right move yet.

The Edge Most Marketing Leaders Miss

How customers find businesses is changing fast, and most marketing leaders are still running last year's playbook. BrightLocal's 2026 research found 45% of consumers now use AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. A CMO who isn't building your presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews is leaving your fastest-growing discovery channel unowned.

We lead with it. It's where Click Track Marketing earns its own AI citations, and we build it for the businesses we lead — alongside paid search and local SEO, all held accountable to revenue.

Advice You Can Actually Trust

Most agencies charge a percentage of your ad spend, which quietly means they earn more when you spend more — so their advice to raise budget is never fully neutral. We charge a flat fee.

That means a fractional CMO who can honestly tell you to cut a channel, pause spend, fire an underperforming vendor, or wait — the decisions a leader is supposed to make, and the ones a percentage-of-spend model is structurally incentivized against.

Who This Is For — And Who It Isn't

Fractional leadership is a real commitment on both sides. We'd rather be honest up front.

You're a good fit if

  • You're an established business, past startup survival mode, ready to grow deliberately.
  • You want senior strategy and accountability, not just another vendor executing tasks.
  • You value knowing your numbers — cost per customer, channel ROI — over vanity metrics.
  • You're open to being told the honest thing, including 'don't spend that money yet.'
  • You can commit at least a few thousand a month to marketing leadership and execution.

This isn't for you if

  • You want a full-time executive in the building every day — that's a hire, not a fractional engagement.
  • You're looking for the cheapest possible task-doer. Fractional CMO is leadership, and it's priced as such.
  • You want someone to rubber-stamp a plan you've already decided on. We're paid to tell you the truth.
  • You're pre-revenue and still finding product-market fit — you likely need a scrappy generalist, not a CMO.

Fractional CMO FAQs

A fractional CMO is a part-time or on-demand Chief Marketing Officer — senior marketing leadership for a fraction of the cost and commitment of a full-time hire. Instead of paying $250,000 to $450,000+ all-in for a full-time CMO, you get an experienced marketing leader who sets your strategy, directs your channels and team, connects marketing to revenue, and reports to you like an in-house exec, on a flat monthly fee. It's the right fit for established businesses that need senior direction but aren't ready for, or don't need, a full-time executive.
Far less than a full-time CMO. A full-time CMO typically costs $250,000 to $450,000+ per year all-in once you add base, bonus, equity, benefits, and overhead — plus three to six months to hire and onboard. Click Track Marketing's fractional CMO engagements run $2,000, $3,500, or $6,500 per month depending on scope — roughly $24,000 to $78,000 a year — with someone working in week one, on a month-to-month basis. The exact fit depends on how much strategy versus execution you need, which the free strategy call determines.
Six things: sets your marketing strategy and positioning; connects marketing to revenue with real attribution so you know what's producing customers; leads your SEO and AI-search presence; directs and executes your channels (paid search, local SEO, content, email, automation); oversees your existing marketing hires and vendors; and brings budget and priority discipline — including the willingness to tell you to cut spend or wait. You get one accountable marketing leader instead of a pile of disconnected contractors.
An agency executes a service; a fractional CMO owns your marketing outcome. A good fractional CMO sets the strategy, decides which agencies or channels to use (including saying no), holds everything accountable to revenue, and directs your team and vendors. Click Track Marketing is unusual in that we do both — we provide the leadership and we can execute the core channels (AI search, SEO, paid) ourselves — so strategy doesn't die in a slide deck waiting on a separate vendor.
When you need senior marketing leadership but a $300K full-time executive isn't the right move yet — which is most established small and mid-sized businesses. If you're the owner still acting as head of marketing, if you have marketing people but no one setting strategy, if you're spending on ads without knowing the return, or if AI search is changing your market and no one owns it, a fractional CMO gives you the leadership without the full-time cost or the long, risky hire.
Because how customers find businesses is changing fast, and most marketing leaders are still running the old playbook. BrightLocal's 2026 research found 45% of consumers now use AI for local business recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier. A fractional CMO who isn't building your presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews is leaving your fastest-growing discovery channel unowned. Answer Engine Optimization is core to how we lead marketing — it's where Click Track Marketing earns its own citations, and we build it for the businesses we lead.
Yes. We're a San Diego agency and San Diego is our home market, but fractional CMO leadership is largely remote and we work with established businesses across the United States. The strategy, attribution, and channel work are the same regardless of location; only the local-SEO elements are city-specific.
Three things. We charge a flat monthly fee, so our advice on where to spend is genuinely neutral — we're not paid more when your ad budget goes up. We lead with AI search and attribution, the two areas most marketing leaders neglect, so you're built for how customers actually find businesses now and you always know what's producing revenue. And we can both lead and execute, so the strategy actually ships. Our founder, David Esau, is a former Google Partnerships and Technical Account Manager.
Free Audit · No Obligation

Free Marketing Leadership Audit

Before you commit to anything, get an honest read on your marketing. A specialist reviews where your spend goes and what it produces, your biggest untapped channel, and your AI-search visibility — then sends a detailed report with a prioritized 90-day plan and a clear picture of what leadership would cost. Yours to keep, whether or not you ever work with us.

What you'll get

  • An honest read on whether you actually need a fractional CMO right now — or just one channel fixed
  • Where your marketing spend is going and what it's really producing, in dollars
  • Your biggest untapped channel — usually AI search or attribution — and what owning it is worth
  • How your online presence and AI visibility compare to the competitors taking your customers
  • A prioritized 90-day plan — ranked by impact, so you know exactly what a fractional CMO would do first
  • A clear picture of what leadership would cost vs a full-time hire

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Get Senior Marketing Leadership — Without the $300K Hire

Book a free strategy call. We'll tell you honestly whether you need a fractional CMO, what we'd do in the first 90 days, and what it would cost — whether or not you hire us.

“They set up automation for every pipeline stage, so nothing falls through the cracks. David and his team are genuinely invested in our success.”

— Christopher Whitney · Google Review