Four ways to engage.
Retained, embedded, fixed-scope or specialist — four engagement shapes, one operating discipline. Every path starts with a defined piece of work, not an open-ended retainer.
Nothing ongoing is sold before a defined first piece of work.
Every engagement begins the same way: a scoped piece of work with a standalone deliverable — most often an independent audit — agreed in writing before anything continuing is discussed. It gives both sides evidence. The client sees how the work is done and what the findings are worth; Sam sees whether there is a genuine problem to solve. Retainers and embedded roles follow from that evidence, or they do not follow at all.
The practice is independent. Sam earns no media margin, resells no agency services and holds no stake in any supplier a client uses — so a recommendation to move budget, change agencies or stop spending altogether costs its author nothing. The record behind the advice is a decade of accountable delivery, including 25x sustained blended ROAS on $3M+ of tracked revenue for a premium eCommerce retailer.
The four shapes below differ in depth, not in discipline. Executive advisory keeps decisions inside the business and retains the scrutiny; a fractional CMO engagement embeds ownership of the function itself; independent audits answer a specific question and end; the AI search practice is a specialist project with its own senior team. The same standards run through all of them — measurement before opinion, recommendations in writing, results verified against tracked revenue rather than platform reporting.
Pick the shape, not the pitch.
Executive Advisory
Independent advice for executive teams and CMOs on digital marketing investment — spend reviews, agency accountability frameworks, AI readiness and growth strategy.
Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership without the full-time appointment. Sam joins the leadership team on a part-time, ongoing basis — owning strategy, agency management and performance reporting to the board.
Independent Audits
A fixed-scope, senior-led review of marketing performance — Google Ads, measurement, agency delivery and spend — reported as plain findings a board can act on. Often the first piece of work in a longer engagement.
Marketing Due Diligence
A pre-transaction review of a target’s marketing — how much revenue depends on paid spend, whether reported growth survives the evidence, and what actually transfers with the sale.
AI Search Strategy
Focused engagements preparing organisations for AI-driven search — visibility audits across answer engines, content and entity strategy, and implementation roadmaps delivered with a senior specialist team.
Not sure which fits? That is normal — the shapes overlap, and the right one usually becomes obvious after a short conversation about the state of the function. Describe the situation plainly through the contact page and Sam will say which engagement suits, or whether none does.
Let’s talk about what’s next.
For executive advisory, fractional CMO, AI search strategy or speaking enquiries.
sam@sampark.com.au