Fractional CMO for Shopify Plus Brands
Ecommerce / Shopify Plus
A fractional CMO for Shopify who owns the whole funnel
Most Shopify brands do not have a traffic problem. They have a revenue problem disguised as a traffic problem. You are paying for clicks. You are running email. You are stacking apps. And the contribution margin still does not move. A fractional CMO for Shopify fixes that by owning the path from first ad impression to repeat purchase, not just the channels in isolation. I am Yaniv Goldenberg. My role is Fractional Head of Growth, and my job is one thing: From Traffic to Revenue.
Here is what I actually do. I read your Shopify analytics, your ad accounts, and your email platform together, as one system. I find where money leaks: the checkout step that drops 40 percent of carts, the post-purchase flow that never ships, the acquisition channel that looks cheap on CPC and dies on payback. Then I rebuild the funnel around contribution margin and lifetime value, not vanity sessions. I have managed $100M+ in budgets, so I make spend decisions on payback math, not on what a dashboard says is "performing."
A fractional CMO for Shopify is the right call when you are past the founder-led marketing stage but not ready to hire a $250K full-time executive plus a team. You get senior operator judgment on retainer. I plug into your existing stack, set the strategy, and run the execution that matters: paid acquisition on Meta and Google, email and SMS retention through Klaviyo, offer and pricing structure, landing pages, and the measurement layer that tells you what is real. I do not hand you a slide deck and leave. I sit in the account.
The work splits into three lanes. Acquisition: I cut the channels that lose money on a 30 to 60 day payback window and scale the ones that compound. Conversion: I fix the product pages, the checkout, and the offer so the traffic you already pay for converts harder. Retention: I build the email and SMS flows that turn one order into three, because in ecommerce the second purchase is where the margin lives. Most Shopify brands underinvest here, and it is the cheapest revenue you will ever buy.
I have done this inside companies that scaled hard. I drove Riverside +337% MRR by rebuilding acquisition and retention together rather than treating them as separate budgets. The pattern repeats across Shopify brands: the win is almost never a single clever tactic. It is fixing the leaks in sequence, in the right order, with spend pointed at the steps that actually return cash. A fractional CMO for Shopify earns the fee by knowing that order.
What you should expect from the engagement: a funnel diagnosis in the first two weeks, a prioritized plan ranked by ROI and speed to cash, and weekly execution against it. I report in revenue and contribution margin, not impressions. If a channel cannot hit payback, I say so and we kill it. If your Shopify analytics reports are pointing you at the wrong metric, I fix the measurement before we scale spend, because scaling on a broken signal just loses money faster.
If you run a Shopify brand doing real revenue and you want a fractional CMO for Shopify who operates instead of advises, that is the engagement. Direct, data-driven, focused on the number that pays the bills. Book a strategy call and bring your Shopify analytics, ad accounts, and email platform. I will show you where the revenue is hiding before you commit to anything.
Frequently asked questions
What does a fractional CMO for Shopify actually do day to day?
I own your growth funnel as one system. I run paid acquisition on Meta and Google, build retention flows in Klaviyo, fix checkout and product page conversion, and rebuild your measurement so the numbers are real. I report in revenue and contribution margin, not sessions or impressions. I sit in your accounts and execute, I do not just advise from a deck.
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing agency for my Shopify store?
An agency runs a channel and optimizes inside it. A fractional CMO for Shopify owns strategy across every channel and the path between them: acquisition, conversion, and retention as one funnel. Agencies are paid to spend. I am paid on whether spend returns cash. I set the plan agencies and contractors then execute against, and I hold them to payback math.
When should a Shopify brand hire a fractional CMO instead of a full-time one?
When you are past founder-led marketing but not ready to pay $250K plus equity plus a team for a full-time executive. A fractional CMO for Shopify gives you senior operator judgment on retainer at a fraction of that cost. It is the right move when you need strategy and hands-on execution but your revenue does not yet justify a permanent C-level hire.
How do you decide what to fix first in my Shopify funnel?
I diagnose the whole funnel in the first two weeks, then rank fixes by ROI per hour and speed to cash. Usually the fastest wins are conversion and retention leaks, because you already paid for that traffic. Acquisition scaling comes after the funnel holds, since scaling spend on a leaky funnel just loses money faster. Order matters more than any single tactic.
What results can I realistically expect, and how do you measure them?
I measure in revenue, contribution margin, and payback window, not vanity metrics. I have managed $100M+ in budgets and drove Riverside +337% MRR by rebuilding acquisition and retention together. I will not promise a fixed number for your brand without seeing your data. Expect a diagnosis, a prioritized plan, weekly execution, and channels killed when they cannot hit payback.
Why Shopify Plus brands plateau
Most Shopify Plus brands hit a ceiling for the same reason: every channel is run by a different vendor, and nobody owns the connective tissue between them. The paid agency optimizes ROAS in a silo, the email agency sends more campaigns, and the CRO freelancer tweaks the product page, but no one is reading the whole funnel as a single system. You are paying for motion, not for a compounding growth engine.
The deeper problem is usually the data. After iOS privacy changes, most Shopify brands fly half-blind: platform-reported ROAS no longer matches what actually lands in the bank, and decisions get made on numbers nobody trusts. A fractional CMO who understands both ecommerce growth and the tracking stack underneath fixes the measurement first, then scales the channels that genuinely pay back.
What I own as your fractional CMO
Paid acquisition
Meta and Google strategy, creative direction, and budget allocation against true contribution margin, not vanity ROAS. I direct your agencies instead of replacing them.
Lifecycle and retention
Email and SMS flows, segmentation, and repeat-purchase economics so you stop renting growth from paid alone. See lifecycle marketing.
Conversion rate optimization
Product page, cart, and checkout work tied to revenue per session, not isolated A/B wins. See CRO.
Tracking and attribution
Server-side events, clean data layer, and a single source of truth so every channel decision rests on numbers you trust. See marketing ops.
The tracking layer most agencies skip
This is where I differ from a pure-strategy CMO or a single-channel agency. I build the measurement infrastructure myself: server-side tracking, conversion APIs, and a data layer that reconciles platform-reported numbers against real orders. For a Shopify Plus brand spending serious money on paid, getting attribution right is often worth more than any single channel optimization, because it tells you where the next dollar actually compounds. I run this same stack on my own properties and on client stores. See performance marketing.
Who this is for
Plateaued Shopify Plus brands
Doing real revenue, growth stalled, and you suspect the problem is coordination and data rather than any one channel.
Brands drowning in agencies
Three or more vendors, no single owner of the number, and reports that never quite add up to your bank balance.
Founders who want an operator
You want someone senior who ships and directs, not a deck and a monthly call. See ecommerce services.
Why I can run ecommerce growth
I led acquisition at Elementor from roughly $200K to over $20M ARR between 2018 and 2020 as the product grew past five million users, a self-serve, high-volume motion that lives and dies by funnel math and attribution, exactly like a Shopify brand. I drove 337% MRR growth at Riverside as a growth operator. I led growth at cnvrg.io ahead of its acquisition by Intel, announced November 2020 (TechCrunch). The discipline of owning a whole number and trusting your own data transfers directly to ecommerce. See the Elementor case study.
Pricing
Three ways to work together, depending on whether you need direction, a hands-on operator, or the tracking build alone.
2-4 week audit of your growth stack plus a 90-day roadmap. Fixed scope, converts to a retainer.
- Own the full growth number
- Paid, lifecycle, CRO direction
- Tracking and attribution build
- Server-side tracking
- Attribution and reporting
- Automation build
Frequently asked questions
Do you replace my existing Shopify agencies?
Usually not. I direct them. Most brands already have capable specialists; what they lack is one senior owner who reads the whole funnel and holds each vendor to the metrics that actually drive contribution margin.
Do you only work with Shopify Plus, or regular Shopify too?
The role fits any Shopify brand spending real money on growth. Plus brands tend to have the volume and the multi-agency sprawl that make a single owner most valuable, but the work is the same.
Can you actually build the tracking, or just advise on it?
I build it. Server-side events, conversion APIs, and a data layer that reconciles platform numbers against real orders. This is hands-on infrastructure work, not a slide telling your developer what to do.
How is this different from a performance agency?
An agency owns its channel and its ROAS number. I own your whole growth number across paid, lifecycle, CRO, and data, and I direct the agencies inside that. See fractional CMO vs agency.
What does it cost?
A fixed-scope diagnostic sprint runs $6,000 to $8,000. Infrastructure builds start at $5,000 per month. A full embedded operator engagement runs $8,000 to $18,000 per month.
How fast will I see results?
The first 30 days usually go to fixing measurement so decisions rest on trustworthy data. Channel gains compound from there. I am honest about what is a quick win versus a structural fix.
Do you work with brands outside Israel?
Yes. I work with ecommerce brands in Israel and the US, in Hebrew and English, and run a split day that covers both time zones.
What if I am not sure I need a fractional CMO yet?
Book the call. If a single agency or a junior in-house hire is the honest fit for your stage, I will tell you. See ecommerce CMO.
One owner for your whole Shopify growth number
Book a 15-min call. I will tell you where your funnel is leaking, whether your data can be trusted, and what one operator owning the number would change.
Let's turn this into measurable revenue
Book a 15-min call. I will tell you whether this is your next move, or whether your money is better spent elsewhere.