Cost per lead and customer acquisition cost: how to do the maths

Cost per lead is the cost of acquisition divided by the number of requests. Customer cost is costs divided by the number of new customers. If some of the requests are not suitable for the region or task, calculate the cost of a qualified lead separately. Otherwise, cheap messages may look more profitable than real buyers.

What numbers are needed

• Channel costs: placement, page work and other agreed upon costs.
• Number of unique requests without spam and duplicates.
• The number of requests accepted by the sales department.
• New customers and paid transactions associated with these requests.
• Profit from the order after the agreed cost structure.

Select one period and consider the length of the deal cycle. In industrial B2B, this month's call can turn into a payment later. For such a business, it is useful to follow a group of leads to the result, rather than dividing the monthly expenses by all payments that accidentally fall into it.

Example: a cheap bid is not always profitable

A textbook example, not a market standard: they spent 60,000 rubles on customer acquisition, received 30 requests, of which 20 were targeted, and 4 new customers. The cost of an enquiry is 2,000 rubles, a qualified one - 3,000 rubles, a new client - 15,000 rubles. If the profit from the first transaction is 12,000 rubles, the first purchase does not cover this acquisition cost. Repeat sales can only be considered if you have data, not rely on it.

How to determine acceptable cost

Another educational calculation: profit before acquisition costs is 30,000 rubles per sale, and one out of ten qualified requests goes into payment. One such request accounts for an average of 3,000 rubles in profit before acquisition costs. This is a break-even guideline under the assumptions chosen and not the contractor's recommended rate. In order for profit and uncertainty margin to remain, allowable costs must be lower.

Do not mix a click on Telegram, a completed form and a qualified buyer request in one formula. Their likelihood of selling varies. The one-size-fits-all “average cost per lead by industry” does not replace your margin, region, and deal cycle.

What to agree on when paying for results

Determine the characteristics of the target request, source, accounting period, rules for duplicates, returns and existing customers. When sharing profits, agree on the costs included in the calculation and confirmation of payment. Requests are linked to transactions in CRM; Monthly reconciliation should be reproducible for both parties.

In IWH caseB2B website traffic is shown. These numbers are not a substitute for company profits. To calculate your model, you need sales data.Discuss the economics of the projectorsee pay-per-result tariff.