A channel plan you can defend
They decide which channels earn attention this quarter and which are paused, write the reasoning down, and take that plan to your leadership so the choices survive questioning in the room.
Fractional Teammates · Marketing
Marketing leadership for a defined part of your week
A senior marketer from our Vancouver studio, working a defined part of each week inside your team. They hold the channel plan, the budget split, the calendar and the suppliers, so marketing has one decision-maker again.
A senior specialist, not a junior placement You own the work and the accounts Reply within one business day
Attribution · this quarter
GA4 · server-sideDirect
Paid
Social
Organic
Email
312
Booked calls
3.1x
ROAS
−31%
CPL
What a digital marketing manager is
OlDevs places a fractional digital marketing manager, a senior marketer from our Vancouver studio, inside your organisation for a defined part of each week.They run the marketing function rather than one channel: setting the channel plan, allocating budget across search, paid social, email and content, owning the calendar, and directing the agencies and in-house staff who produce the work. They join your tools, your standups and your reporting, and write one monthly report on what moved, what did not, and what changes next. When a campaign needs a second discipline, or your teammate is away, the rest of the studio is behind them.
Key facts
- 01Role
- Fractional digital marketing manager, Marketing group
- 02Studio
- OlDevs, Vancouver, British Columbia, working since 2014
- 03Commitment
- A defined slice of a senior marketer's week, ongoing
- 04Works in
- Your tools, your standups, your reporting
- 05Typical commitment
- 1–2 days a week
- 06Judged on
- Cost per qualified lead · Channel mix · Plan versus actual spend
Marketing
What this marketing lead takes on
What this teammate takes off your plate
Budget allocation and reallocation
They split the marketing budget across channels, suppliers and tools, then move it when the numbers say to. Every change is written down with the reason before it happens, not explained afterwards.
One calendar everyone works from
Campaigns, launches, email sends, content and events sit on a single dated calendar in your tools. Anyone in the organisation can see what ships next week and who owns it.
Briefing the suppliers you already have
They brief the agencies and freelancers you chose, review the work against the brief, chase what is late, and tell you plainly when a supplier is not worth renewing next year.
One honest report each month
A short written report on what was spent, what it produced, what failed and what changes next month. No dashboard screenshots standing in for an opinion, and no metric chosen because it flatters.
Knowing when to hire, and for what
As the function grows they define which roles should become permanent, draft the job description, sit in on interviews and brief whoever arrives. We will say when a hire beats another quarter of this.
Benefits
What changes when marketing has one owner
01
Sales and marketing stop trading blame
What marketing hands over, what sales does with it and how fast, is settled in writing before the next campaign runs, so the monthly review stops being an argument about whose fault the pipeline is.
02
One voice across every channel
The promise in an ad, the landing page behind it and the email that follows say the same thing, because one senior person is accountable for everything the market hears from you.
03
Launch dates stop slipping on assets
A landing page needing a new template, a form field sales asked for, a banner nobody can edit — these stop deciding your launch dates, because the studio's developers sit behind the seat and can take the work.
04
Someone senior decides what to drop
The choice not to run the trade show, to stop a channel that is not returning, to refuse a rebrand mid-quarter — made by someone who has made it before, at a seniority most marketing teams cannot keep occupied full-time.
05
Your marketers grow instead of guessing
The executive who has been running the channels alone gets their work checked and their questions answered: how to brief creative, read a media report, and push back on an agency's recommendation.
06
The whole estate has one register
Every channel, login, agency contract and renewal date sits in one register your team holds, with who has access to what. When the seat changes hands, nobody spends weeks working out what you are even running.
How it works
How the engagement works
A call about the need, not the role
We start with what is actually stuck: nobody owns the plan, spend is drifting, or the agencies are unmanaged. If a hire or a project fits better, we say so.
A written proposal and quote
You get the days, the named responsibilities, the reporting cadence and the review points in writing. Every engagement is quoted; nothing is sold as a standard package.
First fortnight: an inventory
They list every channel, account, contract, tool and supplier, check what each one produces, and hand you a written picture of the function before changing anything.
Authority agreed in writing
Before they direct any work we agree what they can decide alone, what comes back to you, and who they can task. A lead without that authority is decoration.
Weekly demos, one monthly report
Each week you see live work rather than a status colour. Each month you get one written report: what was spent, what it produced, what missed and what changes.
Who it's for
Who it suits, and who it does not
Marketing leadership is the gap we are asked to fill most often. These are the shapes it takes, including the one where we tell you to hire instead.
Marketing staff, no marketing lead
You have a coordinator, a designer and two agencies, and nobody senior deciding what they all work on. The teammate gives that group a plan and a decision-maker.
Between marketing leaders
Your director has left and the search will take months. Someone senior has to hold the plan, the suppliers and the calendar so the function does not quietly stall.
A supplier roster nobody briefs
Three agencies, a freelancer and four tools, each running on its own logic. The teammate reads every contract, briefs the ones worth keeping and winds down the rest.
When fractional is the wrong answer
If marketing needs someone in the building daily, or the work is one fixed-scope launch, hire or scope a project instead. We will say so on the first call.
12+
Years of studio experience since 2014
1–2
Typical commitment — 1–2 days a week
EN/FR
Languages this engagement can be delivered in
Other fractional roles
Often paired with
01
SEO & AI Search Specialist
A defined slice of a senior specialist's week, spent in your ticket tracker, your repository and your Search Console.
Explore02Google Ads Specialist
A set part of each week inside your own Google Ads account: structure, weekly search term work, Performance Max, the Shopping feed, and conversion tracking that reconciles with your CRM.
Explore03Conversion & Analytics Specialist
One senior specialist owns your GA4 and server-side tracking, the event design underneath it, and the experiment programme that tests pages, forms and funnels.
ExploreFAQ
Questions before you commit
They decide what the channels are for. A specialist goes deep on search, email or paid social; the manager sets the plan those specialists work to, splits the budget between them, keeps the calendar honest and answers to your leadership for the result. They produce less of the work themselves and take more of the decisions. If you already know what to do and simply need hands, hire a specialist instead.
Only what you give them, and we ask for it in writing before the first week. Usually the teammate can brief suppliers, approve work against a brief, set the calendar and move budget within agreed limits, while contracts, headcount and anything unbudgeted stay with you. Your staff keep their own line manager. Without written authority the role turns into advice nobody has to take.
You set the total; the teammate proposes the split and defends it. Each quarter you get a written allocation across channels, suppliers and tools with the reasoning attached, and any move mid-quarter is logged before it happens rather than explained after the fact. Anything outside the agreed limits comes back to you for a decision. Nothing moves quietly.
When the job is genuinely full-time: daily internal meetings, a team that needs managing hour to hour, or a business where marketing is the main engine of revenue. Also when the need is one launch with an end date, which is a project and we would quote it as one. And when nobody at your end can approve spend or sign off work, a lead cannot lead.
A hire gives you someone full-time inside your culture, in every meeting, with all their hours on your business. Fractional gives you more seniority for part of a week, with the studio behind it for cover and for disciplines one person cannot hold. We will not argue it on cost, because that depends on your alternative and your situation rather than on anything we can see. If the workload is genuinely full-time, hire, and we will help you do it.
Everything, because none of it was ever held here. The plan, the calendar, the supplier contracts, the ad and analytics accounts, creative files and campaign history sit in your name throughout. In the final weeks the teammate writes a handover covering the current plan, every supplier relationship and who to call, returns credentials to your named owner, and lists the open decisions. Notice periods are in the agreement.
Let’s connect
Let’s talk about the digital marketing manager gap.
Tell us what is not getting done and roughly how much of a week it needs. We’ll reply within one business day with who would cover it and a tailored quote — no obligation.