The average chief marketing officer (CMO) lasts just 1.8 years in their role, compared to 4.3 years for the average chief executive officer (CEO), according to a SaaStr analysis of more than 14,000 executives.
That statistic is often treated as proof that marketing is unstable or underperforming. But the real issue isn’t marketing performance; it’s leadership direction.
When CMOs cycle in and out every 18 months, it’s rarely because they quit. It’s because they are being replaced by CEOs looking for a quick fix to a deeper problem.
The Scapegoat Cycle: Why CMOs Get Pushed Out First
Every marketing leader knows this moment: pipeline dips, growth stalls, and someone in the boardroom says, “Maybe we need a new CMO.” It’s the corporate version of firing the coach after a losing season. It feels decisive but solves nothing.
Most CMOs are set up to fail from the start. They are hired to accelerate growth but handed unclear goals, limited budgets, and disconnected teams. CEOs expect marketing to deliver pipeline before the foundation is even ready—confusing a TAM for an ICP, skipping go-to-market planning, and ignoring cross-functional alignment.
The Trademarks of Short Terms
When results inevitably lag, marketing takes the blame. But the underlying problem isn’t marketing—it’s leadership. Here’s what’s really driving those short tenures:
Reactive decision making: CEOs often pivot their strategies quarter by quarter. Without focus, even the best marketer can’t generate predictable pipeline.
Misaligned resources: Leadership sets aggressive targets but fails to allocate the time, budget, and talent to reach them.
Cross-functional disconnect: Sales, marketing, and product run on separate KPIs, so leads fall through the cracks and accountability disappears.
Lack of psychological safety: CMOs aren’t empowered to tell the truth about what’s broken. Challenging unrealistic timelines or short-term thinking can cost them their seat.
This isn’t burnout. It’s a leadership breakdown that ends in replacement.
The Quiet Leadership Gap No One Talks About
Here’s the other problem: it’s not only CMOs being replaced. It’s also senior marketing leaders who never receive the CMO title at all.
There is a growing trend of VP, SVP, and “Head of Marketing” roles that report directly to the C-suite and carry full-funnel accountability but are excluded from executive decisions and boardroom conversations. These leaders are often responsible for driving revenue outcomes without the authority or visibility that comes with a true CMO seat.
They are expected to lead brand, demand, and growth strategy while being compensated below CMO levels. When they eventually leave, it’s not because they couldn’t deliver. It’s because they were asked to own the outcome without owning the authority.
Funding Chaos: Where the Cycle Begins
The pattern often starts right after a funding round or while preparing for one. The board wants results fast, and the CEO feels pressure to prove traction. The instinct is to hire a CMO and declare, “We need pipeline now.”
But scaling growth requires more than new hires or campaigns. The real blockers are often structural— unclear messaging, poor product-market fit, or friction between teams.
Instead of addressing those root causes, companies pour money into marketing execution and then panic when results take longer than expected. The CMO is replaced, the pattern repeats, and real growth never materializes.
Leadership Alignment: The Real Growth Lever
The healthiest growth organizations operate from clarity and shared accountability, not heroics or blame. In aligned companies:
- CEOs define success across the entire revenue function rather than by department.
- Marketing is not just sales support. They contribute meaningfully to pipeline and leadership ensures that sales, product, and marketing are resourced to achieve goals.
- Teams share visibility into KPIs like pipeline quality, deal velocity, and win rates instead of debating whose metric matters more.
When those conditions exist, marketing thrives. Not because the team works harder but because the organization works smarter.
What CEOs Can Do Differently
If you are a CEO frustrated with marketing results, start with introspection instead of termination.
Here is what high-performing CEOs do differently:
- Clarify before you quantify. Define your ICP, growth model, and GTM strategy before setting revenue targets.
- Resource realistically. Ambitious goals require appropriate investment in time, talent, and budget.
- Align before you assign. Create shared accountability across sales, marketing, and product to remove friction.
- Lead with trust. Empower your marketing leader to challenge assumptions without fear of backlash.
- Play the long game. Consistency and clarity compound into pipeline. Reactionary changes destroy it.
If you’ve had three CMOs in four years, the problem is not marketing. The problem may be looking you in the mirror.
Level-Set Early
CMOs cannot control every leadership decision, but they can manage expectations early.
- Define success clearly. Align with the CEO on what success means and how it will be measured.
- Clarify decision rights. Understand what you own and what requires executive or board input.
- Set realistic timelines. Establish how long it takes for marketing programs to show results.
- Connect metrics across teams. Build shared dashboards with sales, product and customer success leaders.
- Communicate constantly. Frequent updates reduce uncertainty and build credibility.
These steps are not just risk management. This is leadership.
The Wrap Up
High CMO turnover is not proof that marketing is broken. It is proof that leadership alignment is missing. Firing the CMO does not fix unclear strategy, unrealistic expectations, or internal friction. It simply resets the countdown to the next departure.
If your company keeps cycling through CMOs, stop asking why marketing is not performing and start asking “where is the alignment and direction missing?”
When CEOs and CMOs operate as partners, marketing stops being a scapegoat and becomes a scalable source of growth.
Tiffany Nwahiri is the Founder and CEO of 3rd + Taylor, a B2B revenue growth agency helping SaaS and technology companies build predictable pipeline. With more than 15 years of experience scaling B2B organizations and her signature frameworks, she helps venture backed CEOs and go-to-market teams align strategy, leadership, and revenue growth.
