Hiring a Head of Marketing isn’t just filling another leadership role. It’s one of the most consequential hires a growth-stage company can make. Done right, this person can accelerate your brand, unify your story, and drive measurable revenue growth. Done wrong, you can burn through budgets, stall your pipeline, and erode trust internally and externally.
We’ve run dozens of Head of Marketing searches, across industries from CPG to SaaS to wellness. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the signs of a great hire — or a risky one — often show up early if you know what to look for.
Here are the biggest red flags to watch for (and some underrated green flags to keep in mind).
🚩 Red Flag 1: All Brand, No Numbers
It’s easy to get wowed by a polished personal brand or glossy campaign stories. But a true marketing leader is fluent in the math behind the message.
If a candidate can’t speak clearly about customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), churn/retention rates, or even channel-by-channel performance, they may not be as data-driven as the role requires.
Real-world example:
We once interviewed a candidate who oversaw a multi-million-dollar paid media budget. They could describe the look and feel of the campaigns in detail — but when asked their CAC by channel, they couldn’t answer. That’s a red flag. A Head of Marketing should know these numbers cold or be able to explain how they tracked them.
Tip you may not have heard: Ask candidates to walk you through a dashboard they’ve used (HubSpot, GA4, Mixpanel, Looker, etc.). The way they explain what matters and why tells you more than any line on a résumé.
🚩 Red Flag 2: No Clear Go-to-Market Wins
Great marketing leaders don’t just “launch campaigns.” They build and execute go-to-market strategies that connect directly to revenue.
What to listen for in interviews:
- Can they clearly explain the business problem they were solving?
- Did they design the strategy end-to-end, or were they a player in someone else’s playbook?
- What were the measurable results (pipeline created, retention improved, revenue impact)?
Real-world example:
We’ve met candidates who proudly told us, “I launched our company’s rebrand.” But when pressed, they couldn’t articulate the positioning strategy behind it, the KPIs they set, or how customer perception changed. That’s marketing theater, not marketing leadership.
Pro tip: Look for storytelling + metrics. A strong Head of Marketing should walk you through their GTM wins like a case study: context → strategy → execution → results → lessons learned.
🚩 Red Flag 3: Short Tenure Hops
Yes, the market has been volatile. Layoffs and pivots happen. But when a Head of Marketing candidate has consistently left roles every 12–18 months, it’s worth pausing.
Why it matters: This role requires time to build a team, test channels, iterate messaging, and learn from the data. Quick exits can signal:
- Lack of accountability (they leave before results are clear).
- Poor collaboration with leadership.
- A tendency to chase shiny objects rather than build foundations.
Real-world example:
We reviewed one résumé with six marketing leadership roles in seven years. Every departure was chalked up to “misalignment with the CEO.” While that can happen once or twice, repeated patterns are rarely coincidence.
Tip you may not have heard: When checking references, ask specifically: “If you could have kept them for another 12–18 months, what impact do you think they would have had?” The answer will tell you whether they left before the work was done — or if they made an impact quickly.
🚩 Red Flag 4: Blame Over Ownership
Marketing leaders operate in messy realities: imperfect products, shifting budgets, and evolving customer needs. If every story a candidate tells ends with, “It didn’t work because of the founder/product/board,” that’s a flag.
What to look for instead:
- Do they show self-awareness about their own missteps?
- Can they explain what they’d do differently next time?
- Do they balance external challenges with internal ownership?
Real-world example:
We once met a candidate who described a failed product launch entirely as “the CEO’s fault.” Another candidate described a similar failure but framed it as: “I should have pushed harder for customer validation earlier. I learned how to build that into my process.” Guess which one we advanced.
✅ What Are the Green Flags?
A great Head of Marketing tends to share a few qualities:
- Balanced thinker: They can toggle between brand storytelling and performance metrics.
- Scrappy operator: They know how to roll up their sleeves — they don’t just manage agencies, they can build a landing page or run an A/B test if needed.
- Team builder: They give credit generously and create an environment where talent thrives.
- Owner’s mindset: They take responsibility, share lessons learned, and stay solutions-oriented when things go sideways.
Bonus: Interview Questions That Reveal True Strength
Here are a few less common, but highly effective, questions you can use to go deeper:
- “Walk me through a campaign that didn’t work. What happened, and what would you do differently today?”
- “If you had $100K to spend in the next quarter, how would you allocate it — and how would you measure success?”
- “What’s a marketing hill you’d die on?” (This reveals philosophy and priorities fast.)
- “Tell me about a time you had to say ‘no’ to leadership. How did you handle it?”
Final Word
Hiring a Head of Marketing is a high-stakes move. Flashy campaigns and charisma can be tempting, but substance matters more: the numbers they track, the ownership they take, and the lasting impact they make.
The right leader won’t just make noise — they’ll build sustainable growth engines, align your brand with your business goals, and elevate everyone around them.
Don’t settle for less.
Ready to bring on a marketing leader who can actually drive growth? We can help. CONNECT WITH US
— The Good People Team
