Checklist for hiring your first marketer 2026: 18 points for a founder

Once every two weeks some founder writes to me: “We are looking for the first marketer, we don’t know who.” Under this request there is almost always one of two stories: either they hire too early - before product-market fit, or too late - when they have already lost six months without a system.

Over 9 years in digital marketing, I worked with teams of different sizes: at COLIZEUM I led SMM, where the total coverage of VK community publications for 01/01–12/14/2023 amounted to 82.4 million; at EZ KATKA, he was responsible for marketing the network, which reached 19 arenas and a turnover of 124 million rubles in 2024. The turnover here describes the scale of the entire network, and not the increase from my work. Below is a checklist for hiring your first marketer.

The first marketer in a company is not “the person who will do the marketing.” This is the person who will build the system from scratch. The difference is fundamental: the first one can be hired for 80K, the second costs 180K+ and there are much fewer such people.

1. When not to hire a marketer: three pitfalls of a founder

Three scenarios that I've seen several times each and never ended well.

Trap 1: Hire before the first 50 sales. As long as there is no repeatable sale, no clear customer profile and no funnel, the marketer cannot improve anything. He will test hypotheses into the void. The budget is burned, there is no result, the marketer is to blame. But the very idea of ​​hiring him at this stage is to blame.

Trap 2: hire “to do SMM.” This is the most common mistake among small businesses. An SMM specialist without a performance database will not calculate CPL, set up analytics, or build a funnel. In six months, you will have a beautiful Instagram and zero understanding of where clients come from.

Trap 3: Hire “whoever you found.” Without a clear requirements profile, any candidate with a good portfolio looks suitable. Then it turns out that his portfolio is about B2C ecom, and you have a B2B SaaS with a deal cycle of 3 months. The context doesn't match, the methods don't work.

The right moment for the first hire: there are repeatable sales (at least 20-30 per month without your personal participation), CAC is either not considered at all or is considered crooked, and there is no content machine - blog/social networks only work when you personally write something.

2. Three profiles of the first hire: who is needed and when

There is no such thing as a “marketer at all.” There are three fundamentally different profiles, and choosing between them is the first strategic hiring decision.

My experience: 8 out of 10 projects where I entered as the first marketer or audited the first hire required a generalist. The only exceptions are when the business is entirely built on content (YouTube channel, media, educational project) or when there is already a generalist and a narrow amplifier is needed.

Separately about factional CMO - this is not the first hire, this is the next level, when the company has already outgrown the generalist and needs a strategic head without a full-time CMO on staff.

3. How to write a vacancy that the right person will read

A standard vacancy for a marketer on hh.ru is a list of 20 requirements (“communication skills,” “ability to work in a team,” “proactivity”) and not a word about real tasks. Everyone will respond to such a vacancy, and the right person will scroll past.

A vacancy with specifics gives 2–3 times more targeted responses. What to write:

• The current turnover of the company is at least in the order of numbers. A marketer with experience in B2B for 50M ₽/year and a marketer for a company for 500M ₽/year are different people.
• What channels are currently working and what is the approximate budget. If the budget is 100K ₽/month, write honestly, not a “competitive budget.”
• What exactly is broken: no analytics, CAC is not considered, content is released chaotically. A good technician reads this and thinks “oh, I can fix this.”
• What will not happen: do not write “you are responsible for all channels” if you really need one person for traffic and analytics.

What to remove from the requirements: “stress resistance”, “ability to multitask”, “result-oriented”. These are not demands - they are noise. Leave only what can be checked during the interview.

4. Test task in 2 hours: what it checks and how to evaluate

I am against test assignments for 8–10 hours. This is disrespect for the candidate and filters not by quality, but by willingness to work for free. A good specialist will either refuse or make a blunder - he doesn’t have an extra 8 hours.

2 hours is enough to test real competencies. Three formats I use:

Format 1: analysis of an existing campaign. Give screenshots from Yandex Direct or VK Ads (without a brand name if you want) and ask: name 3 problems and 3 specific improvement hypotheses with the expected effect in numbers. Checks whether he can read data and thinks in numbers.

Format 2: landing audit. Give the landing page URL and ask: 5 specific changes with an explanation of why and what the effect on CR will be. Checks: understanding of the funnel and conversion.

Format 3: plan for the first 30 days. Describe the situation (turnover, current channels, what is not working) and ask them to write a plan for the first month of work. Checks: prioritization and understanding of what is important and what is not.

How to evaluate without expertise: look for specificity. If the test says “improve ads” - bad. “Divide the campaign into branded and non-branded requests, put branded ones in a separate group with a separate budget and rates” - good. A good marketer is always specific.

5. Eight red flags in an interview

I've been collecting this list for the last three years. Some flags are obvious, some are not obvious. All are tested in real interviews.

1. Doesn’t know the CPL for his projects. “I did advertising and the results were good” without specific numbers. Either he didn’t do it, or he didn’t understand what he was doing. There is no need to hire both.

2. Reach and subscribers as the main result. No connection to CPL, conversion or revenue. A marketer who does not understand unit-economics is an expensive decoration.

3. “Comprehensive strategy” as an achievement. If you ask “what did you do” and hear “developed a promotion strategy” - this is not an achievement, this is a process. Achievement: “reduced CPL from 2,800 to 1,200 rubles per quarter, the volume of leads increased by 40%.”

4. Can't explain a failed project. A good marketer knows where he screwed up and why. If there is only success in his career, he is either lying or does not reflect. Both options are troubling.

5. Says “this is not my zone.” To the question “how was CAC calculated on the project” the answer is “it was a question of finance.” The first marketer cannot afford a narrow area of ​​responsibility.

6. Doesn't ask about data. A good candidate at the first interview asks: what kind of analytics is currently used, how is the funnel calculated, is there a CRM. If there are no questions, it’s either not interesting or doesn’t understand what’s important.

7. An evasive answer to the question “what can’t you do?” “I have room to grow” is not the answer. Good answer: “Weaker in SEO, never built a loyalty program, worked little with Telegram Ads.” Self-esteem is a sign of maturity.

8. Asks for a “360-degree approach” without priorities. If a candidate answers the question “where do you start with everything at once - SMM, advertising, content, SEO” - he does not know how to prioritize. The first 30 days are 2-3 tasks maximum, not a complete rebuild.

6. Offer and first 30 days: what to agree on before release

Losing a marketer in the first 3 months is the most expensive scenario. Hiring + onboarding + lost time = 3-5 months' salary. To prevent this from happening, three things are agreed upon in writing before the first day of work.

Accesses and resources. Before a person leaves, all access must be ready: advertising accounts, analytics, CRM, team messengers. A marketer who spends the first week asking for access is a wasted week and a bad first impression on both sides.

Structure of the first month. The first 30 days are an audit, not actions. A marketer must figure out what is there, where the problems are, what hypotheses to test. If you put pressure on the launch from the first week, you will get hasty decisions without understanding the context. At EZ KATKA, I spent the first three weeks just auditing the funnel and analytics - and this saved several months of bad decisions later.

Compensation structure. A fix + KPI bonus works better than a pure fix - the marketer is interested in the result. But KPIs must be measurable in its area of ​​influence. “Revenue bonus” is a bad KPI if the marketer does not manage sales. “Bonus from CPL and volume of qualified leads” is good.

Learn more about formats of working with a marketer in the article about agency vs freelancer vs staff.

7. 90-Day KPI Plan: How to Measure Hiring ROI

After 90 days, the question “did the marketing work” should have a numerical answer. If it is not there, the problem is not with the marketer, but with the fact that you did not agree on metrics in advance.

Baseline is recorded before the marketer exits: the current CPL for each channel, the volume of leads per month, lead-sale conversion. This is the starting point. Without it, in 90 days you will argue about what happened “before.”

If after 90 days there is not a single measurable figure, there are two options: either the KPIs were incorrect (too ambitious or not in the marketer’s zone of influence), or the person is not the same. The first is your responsibility as an employer. The second is a reason to break up.

To understand what is normal at different stages, see marketing audit and marketing specialist rates in 2026.

8. 18-point checklist: go through before each stage of hiring

A condensed list for those who want a quick check. Divided into stages.

Before posting a vacancy (6 points):

• There are repeatable sales without your personal participation
• CAC is considered or it is clear why it is not considered
• Defined profile: generalist, performance or brand
• The vacancy includes the company's turnover and current advertising budget
• Unclear words (“proactivity”, “multitasking”) have been removed from the requirements
• It says exactly what is broken and what needs to be fixed.

At the selection stage (4 points):

• Test is a real business task, not a case out of thin air
• The test duration is no more than 2 hours
• During the interview, ask for CPL/ROAS/CAC for each project in your resume
• Checked 8 red flags from this article

Before leaving (4 points):

• All access is ready before the first working day
• The structure of the first 30 days (audit, not launch) has been discussed
• Baseline recorded: CPL, lead volume, funnel conversion
• 90-day KPI plan agreed in writing

After 90 days (4 points):

• Compare with baseline using specific numbers
• There are at least 2-3 documented hypotheses with results
• Analytics is set up and the data matches the CRM (discrepancy up to 15%)
• If there is no result, figure out whose responsibility: KPI plan or person

Read about how to further build a marketing team after the first hire article about the five roles of a marketing team.

If you want to sort out your specific hiring situation, write to Telegram or through form. Starting consultation - 0 ₽.