US Auto-Transport: 5,599 Meta Leads at $2.68 CPL
A US auto-transport brand was paying more for worse leads every time it scaled. Rebuilt around what closed, the account hit 5,599 leads at $2.68 each with the cost per lead holding as spend grew.
Leads generated
5,599
one quarter
Cost per lead
$2.68
down from $6+
$6.10 starting CPL · 90 days
Cost stability
Held
flat CPL as spend scaled
After Before The challenge
The account was getting cheap clicks and expensive leads. Cost per lead sat above $6 and climbed every time the team tried to scale, so growth meant paying more for worse. The offers that looked good on paper were not the ones customers actually filled out a form for, and the tracking could not tell the difference.
The solution
I rebuilt the account around the offers that actually closed, not the ones that got the most clicks. Audience and creative testing moved to a weekly rhythm so decisions were made on data, not hunches. The tracking was fixed so the algorithm optimized on real leads instead of form-starts, which is where most of the wasted spend was hiding.
Then I scaled spend in steps, watching cost per lead at every step instead of chasing raw volume. Each increase had to hold the number before the next one.
The results
5,599 leads at $2.68 each, and the cost per lead held steady as spend went up. That last part, holding the number while scaling, is the difference between a lucky week and a system you can plan a business around.
He treated our budget like it was his own money. The lead cost dropped and stayed down as we scaled.
Marketing Lead, US auto-transport (published with permission)