Free tool

Cost Per Lead Calculator: Calculate What Each Lead Costs

Seed Light built this free cost per lead calculator so you can see what each lead costs, what one is worth to you, and whether the gap leaves you a profit.

Enter your spend and the leads it produced, and see your cost per lead against a lead's worth.

Your spend and your leads

What you spent on ads and marketing

One channel, one period, so the answer means something.

How many leads that spend produced

Calls, forms, WhatsApp messages, booked demos.

Out of every 100 leads, how many buy

Your close rate for this channel, not your best one.

Gross profit from an average sale

What is left after the direct cost of the product or the job.

Your result

Enter your numbers and your result will appear here. The calculation runs in your browser.

Talk through your result

Book a free 15-minute call and we will help you read the numbers and decide what is worth improving first.

We record the result band you reach, not the numbers you enter.

Free to use, with no sign up. The calculation runs in your browser, so the values you enter are not sent to our server or stored.

The maths

How this calculator works

01
Spend divided by leads
That is your cost per lead. Keep it to one channel and one period, because mixing search, social and word of mouth gives you an average that describes nothing.
02
Most leads will not buy
Your close rate turns leads into customers. If two in ten buy, the other eight still cost you the same, so the cost of the eight sits on the two that pay.
03
That gives what a lead is worth
Gross profit on an average sale multiplied by your close rate. A lead is worth a share of a sale, and the share is your close rate.
04
Compare the two numbers
Worth divided by cost, and what is left on each lead. There is no universal target ratio, so read the gap against your own overheads and how much cover a quiet month needs.

A worked example

A roofing firm runs search ads for a month, counts the leads, then checks the cost against what a lead is worth once the close rate is taken off. Example only. Replace these assumptions with your own numbers.

Marketing spend: 5 units
Leads produced: 100 leads
Cost per lead: 0.05 units
Leads that buy: 20 in 100
Gross profit on an average sale: 1 unit
What one lead is worth: 0.2 units
Worth against cost: 4 to 1

See how we run ads

Straight answers

Common questions

Common questions about the calculation and how to use the result.

There is no useful universal cost per lead. Judge yours against the share of leads that become customers and the profit from an average sale.

Your cost per lead can rise when auctions get dearer, ads lose their appeal or the landing page converts fewer visitors. Check each stage separately.

Count every genuine enquiry in the basic cost-per-lead figure, including leads that later prove unsuitable. Keep a second figure for qualified leads. The two results show whether a campaign is expensive because leads cost more or because too many leads are poor fits.

No. A cheaper lead can be worse if fewer of those leads become customers. Compare campaigns by acquisition cost and customer value, not lead cost alone.

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