How to Choose Between an SEO Agency, Consultant or Fractional

Almost every growth-stage SaaS company runs into this decision at some point.

You’ve got an organic channel that’s half-working. Traffic is growing but not converting. You’ve got a handful of articles ranking on page two. Someone in leadership says “we need to get serious about SEO.” 

So you hire someone, an agency, a consultant, whoever has a good deck and a plausible case study, and 90 days later you’re still not sure if it’s working.

More often than not, what’s actually going on is a mismatch between the model you’re running and the results you’re expecting.

The right model also depends on what you can realistically spend, here’s how the numbers break down.

Here’s how pricing breaks down across all three models for 2026.

Annual cost for a Growth engagement: $72,000–$120,000.

Annual cost for ongoing advisory: $36,000–$96,000.

Annual cost for a Core fractional engagement: $96,000–$180,000.

When you add everything up, the comparison looks like this:

On paper, the consultant model feels lean. In practice, it assumes you already have the bandwidth to execute.

If you don’t, you’re adding freelancers or an agency on top, at which point you’re close to the fractional cost anyway, just without the same integrated ownership.

Cost is one dimension, but so is execution. This matrix compares your three options across what actually drives results at a growth-stage company.

No model wins across every dimension.

The agency gets you moving fastest; the consultant gives you the clearest diagnosis; the fractional lead gives you the most durable ownership. Which one matters most depends on where you are in the program.

If organic is under 10% of traffic and you’ve never invested in SEO: You’re starting from scratch. Agencies have done this dozens of times. Consultants will give you a strategy you won’t be able to implement without them. Go agency.

If organic is 15–30% of pipeline and growing inconsistently: You’ve validated the channel but it lacks operational discipline. A fractional lead who owns the roadmap and manages execution is the right fit. They’ll stabilise what’s working and systematise what isn’t.

If organic drives 35%+ of pipeline: You’ve built something valuable. Protect it with dedicated ownership. A consultant for a quarterly audit, and a full-time Director or senior hire who owns the channel day-to-day.

Scoring:

• Organic <10%  → Agency vote
• Organic 15–30% → Fractional vote
• Organic 35%+ → Consultant + In-house vote

Be honest. Can your engineering team prioritise SEO initiatives within a sprint? Do you have a content team who can execute at the volume you need? Is there someone internal who can be the day-to-day point of contact?

If no: Don’t hire a consultant. Their recommendations will sit in a backlog for six months. Also don’t hire a fractional lead expecting them to do the writing, the outreach, and the technical fixes themselves. Hire an agency that handles full implementation.

If yes: You have options. A fractional lead who manages your internal team and an agency for specialist tasks (link building, technical audits, digital PR).

Scoring:

• No internal capacity → Agency vote
• Some capacity → Fractional vote
• Strong internal team → Consultant vote

If you need organic contributing 15–20% of SQLs within 6 months: Agency. They’re executing in 30 days. Consultants and fractional leads take longer to orient before they compound.

If you’re planning 12–18 months out and can absorb a slower ramp: Fractional is worth it. The compounding value of a fractional lead who becomes deeply embedded in your business over 18 months often outpaces what an agency delivers, especially if your product is complex or your ICP is narrow.

If you have a specific tactical problem (site migration, penalty recovery, technical debt): Consultant. Defined scope, defined outcome, defined end date.

Scoring:

•  <6 months → Agency vote
• 6–18 months → Fractional vote
• Specific project → Consultant vote

If you’re horizontal SaaS (project management, CRM, HR tech): Agencies have your framework. They’ve done this dozens of times. You benefit from their scale.

If you’re vertical SaaS (healthtech, fintech, legaltech, logistics): Generic agencies will produce generic content. You need either an agency with provable vertical experience or a fractional lead who’s worked in your category before. Ask to see content samples from your specific vertical before you commit.

If you’re regulated or deeply technical: You probably need a fractional lead who’s worked in your space, supported by specialist writers with domain expertise. Generic content won’t rank, and won’t convert even if it does.

Scoring:

• Horizontal SaaS → Agency vote
• Vertical SaaS → Fractional vote
• Regulated/technical  → Fractional or Consultant vote

If you’re stretched thin and can’t give a vendor meaningful attention: Agency, with clear deliverables and a dedicated internal POC who isn’t you. Without that structure, retainers drift and nobody notices until month six.

If you can carve out 3–5 hours per week for deep strategic collaboration: Fractional lead. The compounding is worth it, but only if you show up as a genuine stakeholder, not just a budget approver.

If you need answers fast and don’t need ongoing management: Consultant, for the project, then decide what comes next.

Scoring:

• Low bandwidth → Agency vote
• Medium bandwidth → Fractional vote
• High bandwidth → Consultant vote

Tally your votes:

• Agency votes: ___ / 5
• Fractional votes: ___ / 5
• Consultant votes: ___ / 5

Decision rules:

Recommended Reading: Vetting B2B SaaS SEO Partners (2026 Guide)

At GrowUp, we work exclusively with B2B SaaS companies from Series A through enterprise. The table below maps our unified model against the friction of stitching together your own vendor stack.

To make this concrete, here’s how one UK-based SaaS company navigated the decision.

Context:

• Organic traffic: decent volume, but only 8% of demo pipeline

• Trial-to-paid conversion: 12% (vs. 18-22% industry benchmark)

• Homepage converting at 1.8%; demo-to-close at 23%

Why they chose agency (us) over a consultant or fractional lead:
They needed speed, cross-functional execution, and funnel clarity. A consultant would have diagnosed the problem but left implementation to them. A fractional lead would have taken 60–90 days to orient before they could drive meaningful change. An agency with the right vertical experience could move across technical SEO, messaging, and conversion in parallel, from day one.

Investment: $7,500/month = $90K annually.

What changed:

• Phased 1: Funnel diagnosis. We audited the entire inbound motion, not just SEO. Messaging, content overlap, demo flow, and trial activation were all working against each other.
• Phase 2: Conversion-first rebuild. Messaging was rebuilt around the specific outcomes that mattered to the economic buyer, not product capabilities, but business impact.
• Phase 3: Buyer enablement at scale. Comparison pages, ROI guides, and implementation content gave ICP-fit prospects everything they needed to make an internal business case before ever speaking to sales.

Impact (within one quarter):

• Demo signups up 178%

• Trial-to-paid conversion up 62%

• CAC down 38%

• Sales cycles shortened by ~3 weeks

Read the full case study here.

You can. And for some companies, that’s the right answer, especially if you have a strong internal PMM or content lead who can manage the translation between consultant recommendations and agency execution.

The problem is the gap. Consultants operate at the strategic layer. Agencies operate at the execution layer. Unless someone internal is managing the handoff, recommendations get lost, context gets dropped, and accountability diffuses. A fractional lead closes that gap, they own both layers, which is why their cost is usually higher than either alone.

Ask for a 30-minute working session before the formal engagement. Give them access to your GSC, GA4, and one of your recent conversion-rate reports. Ask them to come back with three observations and three recommendations. The quality of that output tells you more than any discovery call.

Also check: Have they worked with B2B SaaS companies at your stage? Can they show you pipeline-level attribution from a previous engagement, not just traffic charts? Do they speak the language of revenue, or the language of rankings?

The vetting process tells you most of what you need to know before engagement.

Red flags to watch for: They pitch before asking about your ICP or sales cycle. The proposal looks templated with your logo swapped in. They promise rankings in a fixed timeframe without understanding your competitive landscape.

Green flags: Hard questions about your product, deal cycles, and why you lose deals. A custom proposal that references specifics from your site audit. Conversations about pipeline contribution, not just traffic. Content samples that demonstrate subject matter expertise and take a clear point of view.

This calculator lets you quantify the true Year 1 cost of each model using your own numbers: retainers, tool stack, and the execution costs that don’t always show up in a proposal.

How to use it:

1. Select the agency tier that reflects your current stage
2. Select your consultant engagement type
3. Select your fractional engagement level
4. Adjust tool stack costs if needed
5. Run the calculation and review total cost before your next budget or board discussion