In this episode of The Fractional CFO Show, Adam Cooper is joined by Callum Lockwood (Re:signal) to explore how SEO and marketing decisions translate into real commercial outcomes.

Too many businesses still measure success through traffic, rankings, and vanity metrics. But as Callum explains, those numbers don’t always lead to what actually matters, revenue growth, profitability, and cash flow.

This conversation takes a more commercial and CFO-led view of SEO, reframing it as a long-term growth investment rather than a standalone marketing channel.

Together, Adam and Callum break down how founders and operators should think about return on investment (ROI), payback periods, and contribution margin when evaluating SEO and digital marketing spend.

They also explore how AI is changing the economics of marketing in 2026, from reducing the cost of content production to increasing competition and shifting where real value is created.

Key themes from the episode include:

• Why traffic alone is a poor indicator of business performance
• How to connect SEO activity to revenue, margin, and commercial outcomes
• The role of SEO within a broader growth strategy and marketing mix
• Common areas where businesses misallocate marketing budget and resources
• Why many “SEO problems” are actually issues with pricing, positioning, or conversion
• How to think about SEO in terms of customer acquisition cost (CAC) and lifetime value (LTV)
• The impact of AI on search, content, and digital competition
• What CFOs and founders should be asking before investing further in marketing

This is a practical, experience-led discussion designed to help founders, CEOs, and operators make better decisions about where to invest for sustainable growth.

If you’re spending on marketing, or questioning whether your current strategy is really delivering a return, this episode will help you rethink how SEO fits into your wider commercial model.

In this episode of The Fractional CFO Show, Adam Cooper is joined by Elliott King, agency founder, digital marketing expert, and Managing Partner at FINN Partners, to explore the real journey from startup to exit.

Elliott shares honest insights on managing cash flow through growth, the shift from project to retainer revenue, and the financial discipline required to build a sellable agency.

They also dive into the realities of M&A, including due diligence, valuation drivers, and what actually changes after a sale.

Plus, a look at how AI, SEO, and owned media are reshaping digital marketing, and what agency founders should be doing now to stay competitive.

A must-listen for agency owners focused on growth, profitability, and long-term exit strategy.

Thinking about raising debt finance for growth, refinancing, acquisitions or working capital?

In this episode of The Fractional CFO Show, Adam Cooper speaks with Steve Cockell, Founder of Obica Business Funding and experienced commercial debt advisor, about how the SME funding landscape has changed, and what founders must do before approaching lenders.

They discuss:

• The decline of traditional relationship banking
• The SME funding gap between £500k - £2m
• Invoice finance vs unsecured cash flow lending vs asset-backed facilities
• How to craft a compelling funding narrative
• When to use a debt advisor
• What lenders really look for in today’s credit environment

If you’re planning business growth and want to use debt finance strategically, this episode will help you approach funding with clarity and confidence.

In this episode of The Fractional CFO Show, we explore a question many agency founders quietly wrestle with:

What would actually change in your business if you freed up just 10 hours a week?

I’m joined by Jesse P. Gilmore, Founder of Niche in Control and host of the Leverage for Growth podcast. Jesse works closely with agency owners who have built successful businesses, but find themselves trapped in delivery, decisions, and day-to-day firefighting.

This is a practical, grounded conversation about escaping founder-dependence without losing control.

We unpack how agency owners can:

• Diagnose where their time is really going using Jesse’s Time Audit framework
• Move away from trading hours for revenue and towards value-led pricing and profitability
• Build systems and delegation that support scale, not complexity
• Use AI deliberately as a leverage tool, not a distraction
• Reframe metrics like utilisation, average client value, and earned standard hours to support better decisions

From a CFO perspective, this episode sits right at the intersection of time, money, and leadership capacity. Because reclaiming time isn’t about working less, it’s about building a business that no longer relies on the founder to function.

If you’re an agency founder or service-based business owner feeling stretched, stuck in the weeds, or unsure how to create headroom without risking performance, this episode will help you think more clearly about what needs to change, and in what order.

A thoughtful, practical listen for anyone serious about building a scalable agency with stronger margins, better systems, and more intentional leadership.

In this episode of The Fractional CFO Show, Adam Cooper sits down with Dean McKenna, Co-Founder of Cassia Digital Agency, to unpack how digital strategy should actually connect to business performance, not just aesthetics.

This is a practical, experience-led conversation for founders, operators, and business owners who know their online presence matters, but aren’t always clear on where to invest, what good looks like, or how to make it pay back.

Dean brings a refreshing, structured perspective to a space that often feels vague or overly technical. He talks through his GROW model, a simple but powerful way of linking business goals to digital execution, and explains why so many companies end up spending money on websites, SEO, or marketing activity that never really delivers a return.

A big theme throughout the conversation is credibility. Many businesses build strong reputations offline through relationships, referrals, and delivery, but lose momentum when a prospective client checks them out online and the website doesn’t reflect that same level of quality. That gap, what Dean describes as “website shame”, can quietly erode trust and cost real opportunities.

We also get into the numbers behind digital performance. Not vanity metrics, but the ones that actually matter from a commercial perspective, traffic quality, conversion rates, SEO visibility, and cost of acquisition, and how these link back to revenue, profitability, and long-term business value.

Along the way, we explore:

• Why a strong offline business can still lose deals due to poor digital credibility
• The hidden cost of misaligned messaging, branding, and user experience
• How to approach website and digital investment with a clear ROI mindset
• Why strategy should always come before design, development, or paid traffic
• The role of structure and accountability when founders are spinning multiple plates
• How AI is starting to reshape search, discoverability, and how customers find businesses
• The difference between a “brochure website” and a revenue-generating digital asset
• Practical ways to sense-check whether your current website is helping or hurting growth

This isn’t a technical deep dive, it’s a grounded conversation about making better decisions, avoiding wasted spend, and treating your digital presence as a core part of your business strategy.

If you’re thinking about investing in your website, improving your online presence, or simply trying to understand what “good” looks like in 2026, this episode will give you a clearer, more commercial way of looking at it.

This week I’m joined by Michael Henderson, Founder of RiskBox Ltd, a man on a mission to help creative businesses understand what insurance they really need.

Michael brings a refreshingly honest take on one of the more confusing of running a businesses. He shares real stories, practical guidance, and insights that could save your business time, money and headaches when things go wrong.

🌟 Some of my favourite parts of our conversation include:

✅ Legal must-haves vs. nice-to-haves: What’s actually required when starting out.
✅ Overinsured or underinsured? Why many founders get this balance wrong.
✅ Contracts and cover: How to handle insurance clauses in big client agreements.
✅ Cyber and ransomware: What protection looks like in a digital-first world.
✅ “Mitigation of loss”: The little-known insurance clause that could save you thousands.

On this week’s episode, I had a brilliant conversation with Harv Nagra, Head of Brand Communications at Scoro and host of The Handbook: The Operations Podcast.

Harv brings a unique mix of insight from marketing, operations, and systems design, particularly for growing agencies and professional service firms.

If you’ve ever felt like your business is spinning too many plates, this one’s for you.

🌟 Some of the highlights we dig into:

✅ Collaborating with finance: How operations + CFOs can lead smarter system rollouts.
✅ The Business Maturity Model: 5 stages of growth from “chaotic era” to “innovation era.”
✅ Burnout warning signs: Why broken internal systems silently sabotage leadership teams.
✅ The reality of accidental founders: Growing beyond creative chaos without losing identity.
✅ Infrastructure for scale: Getting the right tech, people and processes in place to grow cleanly.

This week, I’m joined by Oliver Tuffney, Founder & Head Coach at Sales Velocity, a framework designed to bring discipline, structure, and predictability to SME sales teams.

Some of my favourite takeaways from our conversation:

✅ How to avoid sales teams getting stuck in boom and bust cycles;
✅ How EOS can guide sales, but why Ollie feels it still needs a deeper “sales layer”;
✅ What great compensation plans actually look like, and how to build them without risking your cashflow;
✅ Why sales and finance leaders must collaborate on modelling if growth is going to be sustainable;
✅ And, the Charlie Munger quote that Ollie swears by when building out sales compensation structures.