Free tool
Cost per lead target calculator
Work out the most you can pay for a lead and still keep the profit you actually want, from your own sale value, margin, and close rate.
What a typical customer pays you, per sale.
The share of that sale left after your direct cost of delivering it, before marketing.
Of the leads you get, how many actually become paying customers.
After marketing costs, this is the profit you're not willing to give up.
How the math works
- Gross profit per sale: $500 × 50% = $250.
- Room left for marketing, after your profit target: $250 − $150 = $100.
- Leads needed for 1 sale, at a 20% close rate: 100 ÷ 20 = 5.0 leads.
- Max cost per lead: $100 ÷ 5.0 leads = $20.
Assumptions
- Close rate here means leads that become paying customers, not leads that just reply or book a call.
- This covers acquisition cost per lead only, not the labor cost of your sales process itself.
- If you already track margin in dollars, enter it as a percent of the sale value instead (margin dollars ÷ sale value × 100).
Running Google Ads to buy those leads? Our fee is 10% of your ad budget, $600 CAD / $450 USD minimum, and the budget itself goes to Google in full. See how many leads a budget buys with the Google Ads budget planner, or the full terms at /pricing/terms.
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Know your number before you spend a dollar.
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