CPL(Cost per lead)
Advertising
Advertising
CPL (cost per lead) is what you pay on average for one lead: ad spend divided by the number of leads it produced.
Include hours, tooling and content costs for an honest picture rather than media spend divided by enquiries. Agree what counts as a lead — a submitted form is not the same as a qualified enquiry.
CPL says little without quality. A 40 euro CPL where a quarter become customers beats 15 euro with almost no revenue, so track cost per qualified lead and per customer too.
An acceptable CPL follows from your customer value and margin, not a benchmark. At 5,000 euro customer value a lead may cost far more than at 300.
In practice
Lowering CPL by lowering the bar. More but weaker enquiries cost sales time and just move the problem.
Related terms
- CPACPA is ad cost per conversion: total spend divided by conversions, such as enquiries or purchases.
- LeadA lead is someone who has shown interest and left contact details, for example through a form, call or download.
- Lead generationLead generation is attracting people or companies who show interest and leave their details, so sales can act on them.
- ROIROI is the return on an investment: revenue minus cost, divided by cost. In marketing you should work from margin, not revenue.