The fractional CMO’s ticking clock

I had a chat with a fractional CMO this week who asked for my help with their clients’ Google Ads accounts. The reason surprised me.

I had thought the value of my help would be to give their clients the top-notch Google Ads lead gen help they didn’t have the expertise to deliver themselves.

They told me, sure that’s good, but they really wanted me to buy them some time with their clients.

Here’s the pattern, let me know if it sounds familiar:

1. Client hires fCMO
2. fCMO proposes marketing strategy
3. Client says how long will this take to gain traction?
4. fCMO says 3 to 6 months
5. Client starts pacing impatiently

So the fractional CMO’s pitch was to bring me in to take care of the lead gen advertising so the client starts seeing some progress while we wait the 3 or 6 months (or longer) for the content & SEO strategies to start gaining traction.

If you’re an fCMO is this a challenge you’re facing? How do you deal with it?