What is the cost per lead formula?

Cost per lead is the total cost of a lead source divided by the number of leads it produced, over the same period.

What should I count as the cost?

Everything the source cost you: ad spend, agency or tool fees, the price of a list, event costs, and the time you or your team spent, valued at what that time costs you.

Why does the calculator also show cost per customer?

Because leads from different sources convert at different rates. A cheap lead that rarely buys can cost more per customer than an expensive lead that often does. Cost per customer puts sources on the same footing.

Free tool

Cost per lead calculator.

Enter what a lead source cost you, how many leads it produced and how many became customers. The results update as you type. The numbers shown at the start are an example.

Cost per lead

$50.00

Total spent divided by the number of leads.

Cost per customer

$500.00

Total spent divided by customers won. The number to decide on.

Leads that became customers

10%

Customers divided by leads.

Return on spend

200%

What the customers are worth, less what you spent, as a share of the spend.

How the numbers are worked out

Cost per lead: total spent, divided by leads.
Cost per customer: total spent, divided by customers won.
Leads that became customers: customers, divided by leads.
Return on spend: customers times what one is worth, less the spend, divided by the spend.

Use one period for every field, and one source at a time. To compare sources, run each through the calculator and put the cost per customer side by side. The cost per lead guide explains why that is the fair comparison.

What a lead costs on a list

A list of local businesses here costs $7 per 1,000 rows, paid once. To see what that means for you, enter the price of the list plus your time as the spend, and the number of businesses as the leads.

The price for any niche and city is shown before you pay, with the count and sample rows.

Check a niche and a city

Questions and answers

What is the cost per lead formula?: Cost per lead is the total cost of a lead source divided by the number of leads it produced, over the same period.
What should I count as the cost?: Everything the source cost you: ad spend, agency or tool fees, the price of a list, event costs, and the time you or your team spent, valued at what that time costs you.
Why does the calculator also show cost per customer?: Because leads from different sources convert at different rates. A cheap lead that rarely buys can cost more per customer than an expensive lead that often does. Cost per customer puts sources on the same footing.

More on the subject: lead sources compared and pricing.