Ecommerce CMO and Performance Marketing Consultant
Senior ecommerce and performance marketing leadership: a CMO who owns acquisition, conversion, retention, and contribution margin, not just a media budget. Fractional and interim leadership for ecommerce, DTC, and digital-first businesses.
When to hire an ecommerce CMO
Ecommerce and direct-to-consumer businesses often have a performance marketing team that can run channels but no senior leader who owns the full economics. The result is rising acquisition costs, a media budget treated as the whole of marketing, and growth that stops being profitable. An ecommerce CMO owns the entire commercial picture: acquisition, conversion, retention, and contribution margin, and makes the trade-offs that keep growth efficient rather than just large.
What an ecommerce CMO owns
- Customer acquisition across paid, organic, and lifecycle channels
- Conversion rate and the on-site experience that drives it
- Retention, repeat rate, and customer lifetime value
- Contribution margin and the unit economics of growth
- The marketing budget and where every euro is allocated
- The performance marketing team, its structure, and its targets
Performance marketing as a commercial discipline
Performance marketing is too often measured on clicks, impressions, and last-click attribution. A performance marketing consultant who has owned a profit-and-loss treats it as a commercial discipline: blended customer acquisition cost against lifetime value, payback periods, incrementality rather than vanity attribution, and the creative and offer testing that actually moves the number. The goal is profitable, durable growth, not a bigger media spend.
Where this works best
- Ecommerce and DTC brands scaling past founder-led marketing
- Digital-first businesses where acquisition costs are rising
- Companies with a performance team but no senior marketing leader
- Brands that need retention and lifetime value to catch up with acquisition
- Businesses preparing for a raise or sale that need clean commercial metrics
Engagement model
- Fractional cadence or full-time interim, defined upfront
- A first ninety days focused on economics, channels, and the team
- Targets agreed with the founder or board
- Compensation linked to outcomes
- A clean handover to a permanent CMO when the company is ready
How to start
Share the business, the current marketing economics, and the growth goal. The first response is a direct read on fit and where the margin is leaking. Contact is by email or LinkedIn.
https://niklaslindahl.com/services/ecommerce-cmo