12+ Years

Cost per lead: definition

Cost per lead is a key marketing metric that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing in relation to generating new leads for your sales team. Put simply, cost per lead is the investment required to acquire a new lead for your business.

A lead is a person who has visited your website and expressed interest in your product or service. This expressed interest could be downloading gated content, booking a demo or another key conversion goal.

Cost per lead is closely linked to other key marketing metrics such as cost per acquisition. By quantifying your cost per lead, you can attach a tangible monetary value to your leads so your marketing team can better understand how much budget is needed to acquire new leads.

Cost per lead can be used across all of your marketing content and strategy. It can also be broken down by channel and campaign so you have a better understanding of how individual aspects of your marketing work to drive new leads.

How to calculate cost per lead

All you need to calculate cost per lead is your total number of leads and your total marketing spend. Calculating your cost per lead couldn't be easier.

Track revenue per lead

This is the juicy bit. Forget cost per lead as your main marketing metric. Revenue per lead allows you to see how much actual revenue you can generate for every lead you bring in.

This gives you a perfect insight into what in your marketing arsenal is working.

Ruler Analytics tracks leads through the full customer journey. And since it talks to all your most important apps, it can pull the data you need and send it where you need it most.

For example, let's say a user converts into a sale and this revenue data is added to your CRM. Ruler can pull that revenue amount and fire it to your analytics tools e.g. Google Analytics or Google Ads. In those tools, it will automatically attribute it to the correct marketing channels, campaigns, ads and keywords. This gives you definitive proof on what's driving your bottom line.

Go beyond cost per lead

Imagine if you could accurately report back on your return on investment. And better, break that down by channel, campaign, ad and even keywords? It would be a great way to get sign off on more budget and better resources.

While cost per lead is a great way to understand how your marketing is work, it's just a stepping stone to better reporting.

By implementing proper tracking and marketing attribution, you can go above and beyond lead generation and focus on revenue generation.

Keep up to date with more tips and tricks on lead tracking and reporting by joining our newsletter. We'll share more insights like this, to help you take your marketing to the next level.