A fractional Head of UA costs less than the executive it replaces and more than an agency retainer at the bottom of the market. What decides the number, in the order it gets decided.
This page is for someone who has already decided they want senior help and now needs to know what it will cost and why. It does not publish a step fee or a retainer figure, and it says why. It does publish the ad production prices, because those are fixed. The accounts behind the numbers are Videa’s D0 ROAS from 20% to a 43% record week and the Horse Racing Solitaire account that doubled its D0 ROAS, and the clients who paid are quoted on the reviews page. The three steps, the line and the retainer past it are laid out on the work together page.
What has a price, and what gets scoped
| What you book | Price | What you get | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro call | Free | Thirty minutes that cover fit and scope | The call is where the scope, and therefore the number, gets decided |
| Growth audit | Fixed fee, sized to the account, quoted on the intro call | A written read of the paid funnel, the signal and the creative, and the order to fix things in | Any spend level, booked on its own; 1 to 2 weeks from access to the written read |
| Steps A, B and C | Flat monthly fee, set on the intro call; no list price | A runs the campaigns, the signal and the tests, B adds the creative strategy, C adds production management | Below about $100K or €100K a month on paid UA; the channels and markets agreed on the intro call; month to month, 14 days notice |
| Fractional Head of UA, full scope | Scoped on the intro call; no list price | Paid UA, creative strategy and signal engineering owned end to end, across every channel | Past about $100K or €100K a month on paid UA; month to month, 14 days notice |
| Ad production: the Sprint | €2,000 or $2,500, one time | 15 ads: 3 ideas, 5 versions of each, tested 14 days in your ad account | Creator fees on top, typically €100 to €300 or $100 to $300 per creator; credited against the Loop if you continue within 60 days |
| Ad production: the Loop | From €2,000 or $2,500 a month | 15 ads a month: 10 new, 5 versions of the winner | Creator fees on top; month to month, 14 days notice |
What sets the fee
- The step. Each step hands me one more block of the work, and the table below sets out the three.
- Spend level. Past about $100K or €100K a month the account gets complicated: account consolidation, incrementality checks, creative volume planning. That is where the steps stop and the full scope retainer starts, set on the call, and it shapes what a fractional Head of UA does.
- Whether you add ad production. The ads themselves are a separate purchase at every step and on the retainer. Ad production is priced on its own page, and it can be bought without any step.
| Step | What I do | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| A, Run | I set up and manage your campaigns and their signal, run the acquisition tests and report the whole funnel. Your team keeps creative strategy and production | A team that makes its own ads and wants the campaigns run in the open |
| B, Decide | Everything in A, plus the research into what comparable apps run, the concepts and the testing plan, and reading the results with you. Your team keeps production | A team with a creator or an editor and nobody deciding what to test and why |
| C, Build | Everything in B, plus the production briefs and the production batches, run by me from brief to live ads. The ads themselves come from the creators you work with or from the Sprint or the Loop | A team with no production in place that wants me to build the pipeline and run it |
No list price, and the audit on its own
I do not publish the step fees or the retainer figure on this page because each is set on the intro call once I have seen the account, and a number without the scope behind it would mislead in both directions. The growth audit ends in a written verdict, so teams leave with something they can act on whether a step follows or not.
What is never on the invoice
A contract that traps you. Nothing locks you in. An account manager. You talk to the person doing the work, and changes happen the day we discuss them. The comparison with an agency and a permanent hire sets the three cost bases side by side.
Questions people ask
Is a fractional Head of UA cheaper than an agency?
Usually yes, once you count what the agency retainer buys. The comparison page sets the three options side by side.
What if we spend less than $100K or €100K a month?
There is no minimum. Below about $100K or €100K a month on paid UA you book one of the three steps at a flat monthly fee. If you are not sure paid UA is the bottleneck, the growth audit reads the whole account first, at any spend level. Several teams have used it to decide whether to hire.
Does creative production have a price?
Yes. A test sprint of 15 ads for €2,000 or $2,500, or 15 ads a month from the same price. It is on the pricing page, with what is included.