What's the difference between CRO consulting and a CRO agency?

An agency typically runs the full experimentation program for you — research, hypotheses, test build, analysis, iteration. A consultant advises an in-house team or executive on strategy, prioritization, and methodology without owning execution. acceleroi offers both: the 90-Day CRO Sprint (done-for-you) and CRO Consulting (advisory + audit + training).

Who should hire a CRO consultant vs an agency?

Hire a consultant if you already have an in-house designer, developer, and analyst and just need senior strategic direction. Hire an agency if you want a fully-managed program without building internal capacity. We also see brands hire a consultant for the first 90 days to set up methodology, then transition to in-house execution.

How much does CRO consulting cost?

One-off audit: $7,500–$15,000 depending on funnel complexity. Fractional CRO lead (1-2 days/week): $8,000–$18,000/month. Strategy retainer (monthly advisory + reviews): $4,000–$8,000/month. Team training engagements: project-based, typically $10,000–$25,000.

Do you only work with eCommerce, or also SaaS?

Both. Most consulting clients are eCommerce ($5M–$100M GMV on Shopify, Magento, or custom) or SaaS ($1M+ ARR with active free trial or freemium funnels). The methodology — research → hypothesis → test → analyze → iterate — is the same; what changes is which experiments matter.

How fast can you start?

Audit-only engagements typically start within 1 week of contract. Retainer engagements within 2 weeks. We onboard 4 consulting + Sprint clients per month combined, so capacity is finite — best to start with the free AI audit to see if there's a fit.

CRO Consulting

CRO consulting for brands that already know what's broken.

Senior CRO advisory for eCommerce and SaaS teams at $5M–$100M+. You have the engineers, designers, and analysts. You need a strategist who's shipped 1,000+ tests to point them at the right experiments and tell you which results to trust.

Run Free AI Audit → Talk to a strategist →

When CRO consulting beats hiring an agency

Three patterns where consulting is the better fit than a done-for-you agency:

You have an in-house growth team that's running tests but win rate is <15%. The problem isn't capacity — it's hypothesis quality and prioritization. A consultant fixes the methodology, not the execution.
You're a $20M+ brand standing up the experimentation function for the first time. Fractional CRO leadership accelerates the first 6 months: hire the right roles, instrument analytics correctly, set up the testing tool, train the team.
You're about to spend $300K+ on a redesign. A one-off CRO audit before the redesign exposes which assumptions are wrong, what to keep, and what to validate first — before architects start.

Four consulting engagement types

CRO Audit (one-off)

2–3 weeks · $7,500–$15,000

Full-funnel audit using 48 behavioral heuristics + your analytics data + session recordings. Output: prioritized experiment roadmap with ICE scores, expected lift, and revenue forecast.

Best for: teams that want a third-party strategic review before committing to an ongoing program or redesign.

Fractional CRO Lead

Quarterly · $8K–$18K/month

Embedded senior strategist 1–2 days per week. Owns the experimentation roadmap, runs hypothesis reviews, reviews test results, and pairs with your team on methodology. Quarterly minimum commitment.

Best for: $20M+ brands standing up an in-house CRO function for the first time.

Strategy Retainer

Monthly · $4K–$8K/month

Monthly advisory call + roadmap review + experiment design review for one-two tests in flight. Your team executes; we keep the strategy sharp and catch methodological errors before they become bad decisions.

Best for: in-house teams already running tests who want senior peer review.

Team Training

Project · $10K–$25K

2-day intensive or 6-week training program on CRO methodology, experimentation design, statistical rigor, and behavioral hypothesis development. Custom curriculum for your team's gaps.

Best for: growth, product, or marketing teams adopting experimentation as a discipline.

How our consulting methodology works

Discovery (Week 1). We map your full funnel, instrument any missing analytics, pull conversion data for the last 90 days, and review your existing test history and tooling.
Research (Week 2). Qualitative research: session recordings, heatmaps, user interviews if available. Quantitative analysis: drop-off identification, segment performance, device patterns.
Hypothesis development (Week 3). Behavioral hypotheses grounded in 48 research-backed heuristics from CXL, BJ Fogg's behavior model, and Cialdini's persuasion principles. Every hypothesis includes a falsification criterion.
Roadmap & forecast. ICE-prioritized list with effort × confidence × impact scoring. Revenue forecast based on your traffic and AOV.
Ongoing (retainer & fractional only). Weekly or bi-weekly hypothesis reviews, monthly test-result analysis, quarterly strategic reviews.

Who we work with

We're selective — both because senior strategist time is finite and because consulting only delivers ROI when the brand has the capacity to act on the work.

Ideal client profile:

$5M+ annual revenue (eCommerce GMV or SaaS ARR).
20K+ monthly sessions to converting pages (statistical power for tests).
In-house designer, developer, and analyst — or willingness to hire.
Existing analytics setup (GA4, Shopify, Stripe, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or similar).
Leadership buy-in to act on experiment results, even when they contradict opinion.

Not a fit: pre-PMF startups, sub-$5M brands without engineering capacity, brands looking for a one-month "CRO sprint" with no follow-through, brands looking for tactical copy/design tweaks without underlying research.

Want a working sample first?

Run our free AI CRO audit on your site. You'll get a real funnel analysis with 6 prioritized findings in under 3 minutes — same methodology we use in paid engagements, just automated.

Run Free AI Audit → Or apply for a call →

Conversion

Retention & Growth

Acquisition & Data