Traffic in, revenue out.
Fractional CMO for Cybersecurity
A fractional CMO for a cybersecurity company is a senior marketing leader who runs your full go-to-market function part-time, instead of as a full-time hire. Yaniv Goldenberg provides this: a Fractional Head of Growth who builds demand generation, category positioning, and account-based marketing for security companies selling to CISOs and technical buyers. The job is simple to state and hard to do: turn traffic into revenue your sales team can close.
Cybersecurity marketing is its own discipline. Sales cycles are long and technical. Buyers are skeptical security practitioners, not impulse purchasers. One generic campaign will not move a CISO. Pipeline has to survive procurement, security review, and a committee of stakeholders. To connect a technical product to an international pipeline motion, see cybersecurity go-to-market implementation.
When a cybersecurity company should hire a fractional CMO
Hire a fractional CMO when you have a working product and early customers, but no senior marketing leader to scale demand. The pattern is familiar: a founder or one junior marketer is doing everything, lead flow is inconsistent, and sales is starved of qualified pipeline.
A fractional CMO fits when you need the strategy and execution of a head of marketing, but cannot justify a full-time salary yet. It also fits when you have spend but no plan: budget burning on channels that never produce closed revenue. Yaniv has scaled growth for companies including Elementor, where his work contributed to 100x ARR, and Riverside, where MRR grew +337%. The principle holds across categories: from traffic to revenue.
What you get
built for long cybersecurity sales cycles, measured on pipeline and revenue, not vanity metrics.
aimed at named security buyers: CISOs, security architects, and their evaluation committees.
that makes your product legible to a skeptical technical audience in a crowded market.
that earns trust with practitioners instead of talking past them.
so the pipeline you generate is pipeline sales can actually close.
tied to MRR, pipeline, and CAC, with the same operator who managed $100M+ in budgets.
How a fractional cmo for cybersecurity actually runs growth
Investigate the actual constraint: product fit, category understanding, approved technical proof, acquisition quality or the buying journey. As your Fractional Head of Growth, I personally research those questions and implement the selected positioning, content, campaigns and measurement.
Yaniv starts with category positioning: deciding what problem you own and how a CISO files you in their mental map. Then he builds the demand engine on top of it. The work splits into a few moving parts that have to operate together, not in isolation.
- Analyst relations preparation using approved product evidence, with review and distribution responsibilities agreed. Publisher or analyst acceptance and citation remain external decisions.
- Account-based marketing to CISOs and their evaluation committees, built around named accounts rather than broad lists, because a security buyer is reached through a coordinated play, not a single ad.
- Content that survives technical scrutiny, written for practitioners who will spot hand-waving in the first paragraph and close the tab.
- Channel and budget discipline, killing spend that produces clicks but never closed revenue, and doubling down on what feeds pipeline.
The metrics he owns are revenue metrics, not activity metrics. Pipeline generated and pipeline that survives security review. Cost per qualified opportunity, not cost per click. CAC against the long cybersecurity sales cycle, payback period, and the conversion rate from marketing-sourced lead to closed deal. If a dashboard does not connect to revenue, it does not run the roadmap. This is the same operator who has managed $100M+ in budgets and scaled Elementor to a 100x ARR outcome. The principle holds in security: from traffic to revenue.
The mistakes are predictable, and they all come from forgetting who the buyer is. Security practitioners are paid to be skeptical. So the first mistake is fear-based messaging: leading with scary statistics instead of a clear, specific claim a technical reader can verify. The second is gating every useful asset behind a form, which signals you value the lead capture more than the practitioner's time. The third is hiring for volume before positioning, pouring budget into channels while the message itself is undifferentiated, so every lead arrives confused about what you do.
The fourth mistake is treating the CISO as a single decision maker. Security purchases run through committees: the practitioner who tests, the architect who approves, the executive who signs, and procurement who reviews. Each needs different proof. Research on how buying groups actually decide, published by Harvard Business Review, has shown for years that complex B2B purchases are committee decisions, yet most security marketing still speaks to one person. The fix is content and ABM mapped to every stakeholder in the room, not a single buyer persona.
Choose the review window from the actual buying motion and eligible cohort. Some cybersecurity decisions involve technical trials, security review and procurement; others may be self-serve or faster. Report delivered work, qualified opportunities, pending decisions and mature outcomes separately.
Month one is a paid diagnostic. If it isn't worth continuing, I'll tell you, and you keep the plan. No long lock-in either way.
Verified track record
The one checkable proof in this space
Security buyers are trained to be skeptical of marketing claims. Here is the only one worth making.
As Head of Growth at cnvrg.io, I led technical-buyer demand generation across content, SEO, paid acquisition, lead qualification and the sales handoff. I connected acquisition work with the information sales needed to act on an opportunity. Intel acquired cnvrg.io.
Then Intel acquired the company.
My cnvrg.io experience involved technical-buyer demand generation, content, SEO, paid acquisition, qualification and sales handoffs. That informs questions to investigate for a security company, but it does not establish that every product has the same buying motion or that one channel caused the company outcome. We verify your stakeholders, product proof and evaluation steps.
Intel’s acquisition of cnvrg.io is public company context. Current team membership, reference availability and the state of its systems require current evidence and permission.
What translated to cybersecurity engagements
Category-level content that positions the company before a buyer enters an evaluation. Pipeline instrumentation built for a long sales cycle: not just MQL to SQL, but first touch to technical evaluation to legal review to signed. And a paid strategy designed for the specific constraint of cybersecurity advertising: many platforms restrict the category or the audience, and the CPM for a CISO is not the CPM for a developer.
What a fractional CMO cannot replace
Bring the approved product facts, available customer evidence, actual buying motion and owners who can review technical claims. I can personally research, create and implement the agreed marketing work at different stages. Clinical, security or regulatory certification and product readiness remain decisions for the qualified product owners.
How to start
Hiring a fractional CMO for cybersecurity should start with proof, not a pitch. I begin every engagement with a focused diagnostic: I review your funnel, your real numbers, and your market, then show you exactly where revenue leaks and what the first 90 days would change. You see the plan and the math before you commit to anything, with no junior team waiting in the wings; contract terms are agreed before work starts.
When the scope fits, I personally lead and implement the selected work, review the agreed evidence and revise the plan with your owners. We distinguish delivery from commercial outcomes and retain unresolved findings rather than promise the funnel will pay by a set date.
The work is hands-on, the reporting is honest, and the accountability sits with one person, not a rotating pod. That is the standard I hold on every account, and it is where the conversation starts. Reach out and we will look at your numbers together.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fractional CMO for a cybersecurity company?
It is a senior marketing leader who runs your go-to-market function part-time instead of as a full-time hire. For a cybersecurity company, that means owning demand generation, account-based marketing, and category positioning for a CISO and security-buyer audience. The goal is qualified pipeline that sales can close, not vanity traffic.
Why hire a fractional CMO for cybersecurity marketing?
I personally lead and implement the agreed security-product marketing work around the actual buyer and product evidence. Enterprise evaluation, practitioner adoption and self-serve purchases can need different journeys and observation windows. We define stakeholders, approvals, capacity and review measures for your scope.
When should a cybersecurity startup hire a fractional CMO?
Hire one when you have a working product and early customers but no senior marketing leader to scale demand. It also fits when budget is burning on channels that never produce closed revenue. The signal is simple: inconsistent lead flow and a sales team starved of qualified pipeline.
How much does a fractional CMO for a cybersecurity company cost?
Fees follow the agreed leadership, personal implementation, delivery capacity, access and review cadence. Compare the full costs and coverage of actual proposals or hires. Scope and title alone do not establish a saving.
Who is the best fractional CMO for cybersecurity in Israel?
I am a Fractional CMO/CGO based in Israel and build growth for technical, complex products. I have scaled companies including Elementor, where my work contributed to 100x ARR, and Riverside, with Net MRR up +337%, and have managed over $100M in budgets. My focus is the same across categories: from traffic to revenue.
What happens first when I start working with you?
I personally inspect the agreed funnel, buyer and source evidence, then prepare the findings and prioritized plan. We agree access, scope, deliverables, timing and fees before starting. You keep the diagnostic findings whether or not further implementation is agreed; commercial observations may need a different window.
What metrics do you report on for a cybersecurity company?
I report revenue metrics, not activity metrics. That means pipeline generated, pipeline that survives security review, and cost per qualified opportunity rather than cost per click. I also track CAC against the long cybersecurity sales cycle, payback period, and conversion from marketing-sourced lead to closed deal. If a dashboard does not connect to revenue, it does not run the roadmap. Reporting is weekly.
Have you worked on a company with a security-style buyer?
As Head of Growth at cnvrg.io, I led technical-buyer demand generation across content, SEO, paid acquisition, lead qualification and the sales handoff. I connected acquisition work with the information sales needed to act on an opportunity. Intel acquired cnvrg.io.
Why does cybersecurity marketing need to reach more than the CISO?
Map the actual buying process and participants: practitioner evaluation, architecture, security, commercial, procurement or other owners where relevant. I build the agreed approved content and campaigns for their questions. The same committee or sales-cycle assumptions do not apply to every security product.
Explore the Fractional CMO Services hub
Next step
Let's turn this into measurable revenue
"Cybersecurity buyers do not respond to hype. A fractional CMO earns pipeline here by turning technical proof into a story a CISO trusts."
Yaniv Goldenberg, fractional growth operator
Book a 15-min call. I will tell you whether this is your next move, or whether your money is better spent elsewhere.