The choice between a fractional Head of UA, an agency and an internal hire always comes down to one question. Who reads the data, and is that the same person who changes the campaign? The table below shows how each option answers it.
This page is for a founder choosing between the three ways to run paid UA. It is written by someone who sells one of them, so weigh that, and it says plainly when the other two are the right call. The clients who chose fractional are quoted elsewhere; this page is the argument. What fractional produced on their accounts is in the case studies: Videa’s D0 ROAS from 20% to a 43% record week and Horse Racing Solitaire’s D0 ROAS doubled over two years.
Side by side
| Agency | Permanent hire | Fractional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs the campaigns | A media buyer you rarely meet | The hire | Me |
| Who reads your data | An account manager, then the buyer | The hire | Me, the same person |
| Time to a change | A ticket and a status call | Same day | The day we discuss it |
| Senior level | Depends on the tier you pay for | Rare at this altitude, expensive to find | Yes, part time |
| Creative | Often a separate studio | Usually outsourced anyway | Production from my network as an added level, directed by a creator I work with |
| Commitment | Quarterly or annual contract | A salary and a notice period | Month to month, 14 days notice |
| Cost basis | Retainer, often plus a percentage of spend | Salary plus the ramp | Retainer scoped to involvement |
When each one is right
An agency, when you need hands on many accounts at once and the work is execution against a fixed brief. A permanent hire, when spend is large enough that one person is in the account all day and you can find and afford someone who has done it before. Fractional, when you want senior ownership of channels, signal and creative without adding an executive, and you want the person studying your numbers to be the person changing the campaign. What that role covers is its own page.
I also work alongside the other two. At Deutsche Telekom I built the internal creative testing process and trained the team to run UA independently, which is the version where the fractional role makes itself unnecessary on purpose. The rest of that background is here.
Next to your team, next to your agency, or until you hire
| Shape | Who runs the daily work | What I own | Where it leads |
|---|---|---|---|
| I lead your internal team | Your team runs the daily bid and budget changes | Conversion schema and attribution, budget allocation, creative briefs, the LTV and payback model | A team that runs UA without me |
| I direct and audit your agency | The agency runs the daily bid and budget changes | The read of the data and the decisions: the KPI scorecard against backend revenue, the audit against it, and the SLA rewrite if it needs one | You keep the agency, with a technical owner on the client side |
| I run paid UA until you hire | I do. I build campaigns, set conversion schemas and launch channels myself | The whole remit, with documentation as a deliverable | Your full time Head of UA. I help recruit and onboard them and then leave |
Questions people ask
Can a fractional Head of UA manage our agency?
Yes. Directing and auditing an agency is a common shape. The agency keeps the hands, I own the read of the data and the decisions.
What happens when we outgrow fractional?
You hire, and I help you do it. Training the team to run without me is part of the role, and it is what happened at Deutsche Telekom.
How is reporting different between a fractional Head of UA and an agency?
Reporting is a conversation. A weekly review of the numbers against the targets we set, direct access between reviews, and a format you can forward to your CFO or board.
What does each option cost?
The table above gives the cost basis. What sets the fractional number is written out on its own page, without a figure, and with the reason there is no figure.