00 The decision library
How to hire a marketer.
Every marketer you interview will interview well. This library covers the decision underneath: which shape of help your business needs, what each one costs, and how to vet whoever you pick. I sell one of the three shapes and I will still tell you when you need a different one.
Want the full solo-versus-agency comparison first? Read the honest version
Last updated August 2026 · 7 answers
01 Start here
Where you are,
and where to start.
Start from the question you already have. Still deciding what shape of help to buy: should I hire a freelancer, an agency, or a fractional marketer? Leaving an agency: what is the best alternative to a marketing agency? Budgeting the hire: how much does it cost to hire a fractional marketer? Holding a shortlist: what questions should I ask before hiring a marketer?
Each question below is answered in full, no gate. The honest answer to several of them is "not me": the agency rows I lose are documented at /vs/agency, and the freelancer cases are named in the answers themselves. If you want the role itself defined before comparing anything, read what a fractional marketing lead is.
02 The six traps
Six ways marketing hires
go wrong.
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TRAP 01
Hiring channels instead of an owner
A Google Ads freelancer, an email freelancer, and a web developer are three vendors, not a marketing function. Every handoff between them drops information, and the number the founder cares about belongs to nobody. The most common founder setup is also the leakiest one.
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TRAP 02
Paying senior prices for junior hands
The person on the pitch call is rarely the person in the account. Agency retainers fund the layers between them: account management, coordination, review meetings. Before signing anything, ask for the name of the person who will personally build your campaigns, and how senior they are.
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TRAP 03
Vetting the deck instead of the work
Portfolios are curated and case studies can be borrowed. Two live accounts with numbers, and an explanation of how each number was measured, beat any presentation. A marketer who cannot produce that within a day of being asked does not have it.
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TRAP 04
Leaving tracking unowned
Ad platforms optimize against conversion data, and when measurement is nobody’s job, the account learns from wrong numbers for months. Whoever runs your marketing should own the pixel-to-purchase pipeline personally or name exactly who does. "Your developer handles that" is how budgets burn quietly.
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TRAP 05
Hiring a generalist for a specialist category
A $2,000 average order, a ninety-day consideration cycle, or a 400-SKU catalog each break the standard playbook. If your category has economics like these, demand category proof: a real case with numbers from a business shaped like yours, not a certificate and confidence.
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TRAP 06
Contracts that hold your accounts hostage
Ad accounts inside the vendor’s manager account, analytics under their login, tracking in containers you cannot access. The exit terms are part of the hire. If you part ways, every account, every audience, and all the history should stay with you, immediately and without negotiation.
03 The references
Three pages,
no sales call.
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Solo vs agency, honestly
Including the rows the agency wins.
The comparison founders come looking for: cost per senior hour, who touches the account, where each model breaks, written by someone with a side in the fight who names the bias.
Read the comparison -
The role, defined
What a fractional marketing lead is.
The definition page: how the role differs from a fractional CMO, a freelancer, and an agency, and which businesses the shape fits.
Read the definition -
The proof standard
How I measure results.
The standard every number on this site has to clear before it gets published. Hold any marketer you interview to something like it, including me.
Read the standard
04 The questions
Every question,
answered in full.
Grouped by the decision they belong to. Each question links to a self-contained answer. No gate, no email.
01
One person or a team
3 questions
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Can one person run Google Ads, email, and a Shopify store's marketing?
Whether one senior marketer can own Google Ads, email, and a Shopify storefront, what the model requires, and where it stops working.
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Should I hire a freelancer, an agency, or a fractional marketer?
The three shapes of hired marketing help, which one fits which business, and the cost math founders usually run wrong when comparing them.
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What is the best alternative to a marketing agency?
The four real alternatives to an agency retainer for a founder-led business, ranked by fit, with the switching costs nobody mentions until you leave.
02
Finding a specialist
3 questions
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How do I find a marketing consultant for a home or furniture brand?
Where to find a marketing consultant who understands home, furniture, and decor brands, and the category proof to demand before hiring one.
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How do I hire a marketer for my Shopify store?
What Shopify-specific competence looks like in a marketer, where to find candidates, and the platform gaps that quietly burn ad budgets.
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What questions should I ask before hiring a marketer?
Seven questions that separate real operators from proposal factories, the answers that should end the interview, and how to check them afterward.
05 Where I sit in this
I am one of
the three shapes.
I am Conner Crowe, a fractional marketing lead. One senior operator holding Google Ads, Meta, email and lifecycle, conversion tracking, and the Shopify storefront for ecommerce and service businesses, with a deep specialty in home and furniture brands. Ten years in, $15M+ in managed ad spend, and the same person on the Monday call as in the account on Tuesday.
That means this library has a bias, so it is built to be checkable. Every result I claim is documented with numbers at /results, the measurement standard behind those numbers is published at /how-i-measure-results, and the pricing is public at /pricing. Where an agency or a freelancer is the better buy, the answers above say so in plain words.
If the questions get you to a confident hire, that is the point, whoever you hire. If the shape you need is this one, the seven vetting questions apply to me too. Bring them.
Interviewing candidates?
Bring the shortlist.
Leave with a decision.
Thirty minutes on the phone. I look at your accounts and your store before the call, tell you which shape of help the business needs, and answer the seven vetting questions about myself without flinching.