Fractional CMO in Sydney: senior marketing leadership, on site when it counts.
Z10 gives Sydney businesses a senior marketing leader who owns the strategy, the budget and the number, from A$3,500 a month. We work from 11 York Street in the CBD, so the planning sessions, board meetings and team workshops that need a room happen in yours.
The cost you are comparing against.
A full-time marketing leader in Sydney is a large fixed cost before they make a single decision. Robert Walters' 2026 figures for New South Wales put a Head of Marketing at A$170,000 to A$220,000 base salary and a Chief Marketing Officer at A$220,000 to A$300,000, before super, bonuses and benefits.
Super adds 12% on top of salary. If your business already pays NSW payroll tax, the new salary and its super attract a further 5.45%. A CMO on A$220,000 therefore costs about A$246,000 a year in salary and super alone, and about A$260,000 once payroll tax applies.
Then there is the wait. A formal executive search in Sydney runs 8 to 16 weeks from brief to final selection, according to Robert Half, and the new hire still needs time to learn the business after they start.
Z10 starts at A$3,500 a month for 20 hours of senior leadership, which is A$42,000 a year. Twenty hours a month buys senior judgement and ownership, which is the missing piece for most businesses between A$2 million and A$50 million in revenue. A full week of executive work usually comes later, and when it does, we help you hire for it.
What Sydney businesses ask a fractional CMO to do.
One Sydney business advertised for a fractional CMO in 2026 and set out its requirements plainly: two to three days a week, on site preferred, run the strategy across several brands, mentor the marketing team it already had, and get the business ready for a permanent CMO. That brief matches most of the conversations we have in Sydney.
Sydney buyers usually fall into one of three groups. SMEs want senior direction without adding permanent executive headcount, because every fixed cost is under scrutiny. Funded startups and scaleups need someone to own go-to-market through a growth phase, such as a raise, a US launch or a first sales team. B2B and professional services firms want marketing tied to business development, pipeline and revenue, so that the partners and the sales team stop arguing about lead quality.
Sydney has plenty of all three. New South Wales has 893,000 small businesses, 97% of all businesses in the state, and professional, scientific and technical services make up 14.1% of them. Startup Genome ranked Sydney 26th in the world and first in Oceania in 2026, with a startup sector valued at US$59.7 billion.
How we work with Sydney clients.
A Sydney engagement runs on the same fixed rhythm as every Z10 engagement, with the advantage of being a short walk or train ride away.
Each week there is a leadership meeting with the founder or CEO and a standing session with your marketing team. Campaigns, briefs and reporting get reviewed through the week. Each quarter there is a strategy session to reset priorities and budget against results.
In Sydney, the sessions that work better face to face happen in person: the first strategy session, quarterly planning, board presentations and team workshops. How often we are on site beyond that is agreed for each engagement, based on what your team and the work need.
We lead the people and partners you already pay. The plan gets written down, the briefs get tighter, and your marketers and agencies work to numbers they have agreed to. You keep the relationships. What changes is that one senior person owns the priorities and makes the calls on budget across them. The numbers we hold the function to are set out in what KPIs a fractional CMO should own.
Across New South Wales.
We work with businesses across NSW, from the Central Coast to the Illawarra, on the same terms as Sydney clients.
Wollongong is a serious business market in its own right. The city recorded 102,957 local jobs in 2023–24 and makes up almost 60% of the A$29.6 billion Illawarra-Shoalhaven economy, with strong growth in professional services, health and construction. Wollongong is about 90 minutes from our office by train or car, so in-person sessions there follow the same rhythm as in Sydney.
For clients further out, the weekly rhythm runs on video, and we travel for quarterly planning.
The first 90 days.
The first quarter has four stages: access and audit, a baseline the board can trust, a strategy and budget reset, and a live operating rhythm by day 90. In Sydney we run the first strategy session in person. The stage-by-stage detail is in what happens in the first 90 days.
When you are ready for a permanent CMO.
Some clients keep a fractional leader for years. Others outgrow the model, and that is a good result. When the team, the budget and the workload need a leader every day, we write the role, help you recruit for it and hand over a function that already runs on a plan and a reporting rhythm. The person you hire inherits a system and does not have to build one first.
Numbers from named engagements.
The figures on this page come from documented client work. We grew ezyCollect, a B2B SaaS business, from A$3.5M to A$9.2M ARR while cutting cost per acquisition by 84% and lifting sales-qualified leads by 148%. We led marketing for Cohen Handler, a property buyer's agency, from A$3M to A$12M in revenue, building the marketing and inbound sales function from zero. Both engagements are written up in full in our case studies, including the Cohen Handler deep dive.
Still weighing the model itself? Compare it with a marketing agency, or read the full fractional CMO service overview.
Sydney fractional CMO questions, answered.
How much does a fractional CMO cost in Sydney?
Z10 engagements start at A$3,500 a month for 20 hours of senior marketing leadership, the same fee we charge anywhere in Australia. Published Australian fractional CMO pricing runs from about A$3,000 to A$18,000 a month, depending on days per week and scope. The full breakdown is in our guide to what a fractional CMO costs in Australia.
Do you work on site in Sydney?
Yes. Our office is at 11 York Street, and we run first strategy sessions, quarterly planning, board presentations and team workshops in person at your office. We agree the regular on-site cadence for each engagement, and the weekly rhythm mixes in-person and video sessions to suit your team.
Do you work with businesses outside Sydney, such as Wollongong or Newcastle?
Yes. We work across NSW on the same fee and rhythm as Sydney clients. Wollongong and the Central Coast are close enough for regular in-person sessions. For Newcastle and regional NSW, weekly sessions run on video and we travel for quarterly planning.
How is a fractional CMO different from a Sydney marketing agency?
A fractional CMO owns your marketing strategy, budget and results from inside the business, while an agency runs specific channels for you. The two work well together: we write the briefs and set the targets, and the agency delivers the work. The detail is in fractional CMO vs agency.
How fast can you start?
Most engagements start within a week of signing. The exact start depends on how quickly we get access to your data, ad accounts and systems. The first month covers access, stakeholder interviews and an audit, so you see a written baseline and priorities within the first 30 days.
A CMO at the table in Sydney, without the CMO salary.
A short consultation is enough to know whether the fit is right. If a fractional CMO is not the answer for where the business is now, we will say so.