Series
Cost per lead
What a lead should cost, why yours climbs when you scale, and how to work out the number for your own account.
21 articles so far, in the order they were written.
Then, in order
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The cost per lead formula, and the three numbers it hides
The cost per lead formula is one division. Getting it right means agreeing what counts as a lead, which spend you include, and over what window.
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A good cost per lead is decided by your close rate
There is no universal good cost per lead. Your close rate and profit per sale set the ceiling, and this is how to work out where yours sits.
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Work out what one lead is really worth
A lead value calculation turns profit and close rate into the most you can pay for an enquiry. Here is the maths, and the mistakes that inflate it.
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Cost per lead and cost per acquisition are not the same number
Cost per lead vs cost per acquisition: what each one measures, why the gap between them is your close rate, and which to judge a campaign on.
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What a lead costs in 2026, industry by industry
The average cost per lead by industry ranges from $26.84 to $131.63 on Google search in 2026. Here are the figures, and how to read them properly.
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Most benchmark tables are one dataset wearing several hats
Cost per lead benchmarks get quoted everywhere and traced almost nowhere. Here is what happens when you check the sources against each other.
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What a Facebook lead actually costs right now
Facebook ads cost per lead sits around $27.66 in the most recent published data, but ad prices are up 12%. Here is how to read both figures.
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Google search lead costs fell this year, which almost never happens
Google Ads cost per lead averaged $66.69 in 2026 and fell for the first time in five years. Here is what changed and what it means for your budget.
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Your Meta costs are rising while your Google costs are not
Why cost per lead is rising on Meta while search fell for the first time in five years, what is behind the split, and what to do with your budget.
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Search, social and SEO, priced side by side
Comparing cost per lead by channel is where most budget decisions go wrong. Here is why the cheapest enquiry is often the most expensive customer.
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Cut what a lead costs without losing the volume
Most attempts to reduce cost per lead just buy worse leads. Here is the order that works, from tracking to creative, with what to leave alone.
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Instant forms or a landing page, and when each one wins
Facebook lead ads produce cheaper enquiries than a landing page, and often worse ones. Here is how to decide which your business should run.
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Creative is the targeting now
Meta ads audience targeting used to be the main lever. Broad targeting with strong creative now beats hand-built interest stacks in most accounts.
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A weekly rhythm for testing ads, and why most tests prove nothing
Facebook ad creative testing fails when budgets are too small to read. Here is a weekly rhythm that produces answers you can actually act on.
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The setting most Meta accounts get wrong once and never revisit
The Meta ads optimization event decides who the algorithm goes looking for. Set it wrong and it will find you the wrong people, very efficiently.
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Spending more without paying more for every lead
Scaling Facebook ads usually pushes cost per lead up. Here is how one account held $2.68 across 5,599 leads while the budget kept rising.
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The half hour nobody spends, and where the money still is
The Google Ads search terms report shows what people actually typed. Reading it by hand is unfashionable and still the fastest way to cut waste.
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When Performance Max sends you leads that go nowhere
Performance Max lead quality problems are usually a signal problem. Here is how to give it better data and take back the control that matters.
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Thirty minutes a month on the words you never want to pay for
Google Ads negative keywords are the cheapest fix in a search account. Here is how to build a list properly, at the right level, in half an hour.
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Why your page converts at two percent when the median is 6.6
A Google Ads landing page converting at 2% against a 6.6% median is losing most of your budget. Here is what usually causes the gap, in order.
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