One of the most common moves I see ecommerce founders make once they hit £1M–£5M in revenue is hiring a CMO.
It usually happens after a rough quarter. Ads are flat, email revenue has dipped, the agency relationship is fraying, and the founder is exhausted from being in the weeds.
So the answer seems obvious: bring in a CMO to “own growth.”
It makes sense in theory. In practice, it rarely works out.
And the reason isn’t the CMO.
It’s the lack of clarity they’re walking into.
Most CMOs in ecommerce are hired to fix symptoms
Founders bring them in to “take marketing off their plate” but don’t actually have a clear view of:
What’s working and what isn’t
What role marketing should be playing in the business
How margin, ops, and positioning shape marketing effectiveness
What the brand’s real growth levers even are
So the CMO inherits a system of chaos of unclear targets, messy attribution, bloated tech stacks, and no real strategic filter.
You don’t need a CMO to make sense of that.
You need to make sense of that before you hire.
CMOs are amplifiers, not magicians
A good CMO will double down on what works and cut what doesn’t. But they’re not there to diagnose your business model, align margin with LTV, or rewrite the customer story you’ve never actually defined.
That’s founder work.
That’s clarity work.
A strategic operator needs a clear system to operate within. Without that, even the best hire will underdeliver (or burn out trying to figure out what you actually want from them).
What most founders actually need is a Clarity System
Before hiring a CMO, you need a system that gives you:
A clear, measurable view of CAC, LTV, margin and return rates
A defined brand story and value prop that aligns with your real customer
A roadmap that links marketing to business goals, not just channels
A decision filter to prioritise what matters (and what doesn’t)
When you have that, hiring becomes strategic.
You’re not asking someone to “own growth”, you’re inviting them into a well-structured system where they can perform.
What I Tell My Clients
I’ve worked with founders at every stage of ecommerce growth from bootstrapped £500k brands to PE-backed £20M ones.
The successful ones don’t throw headcount at fog.
They build clarity first. Then hire with purpose.
Inside my Growth Audits and Growth Advisories, we often uncover that the founder isn’t actually stuck in marketing… they’re stuck in decision loops.
They don’t need a CMO.
They need a filter.
A strategic lens.
A plan they trust enough to hand over.
That’s where growth begins to scale without the founder at the centre of every decision.
Thinking of hiring a CMO?
Pause for a week.
Ask yourself:
What would that person walk into?
Do we have a clear view of the problem we’re solving?
Are we building a growth engine — or outsourcing confusion?
If your answers are fuzzy, don’t hire yet.
Build the system.
Then bring in the talent to run it.