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Cost per lead calculator

Enter your ad spend and the leads it produced. Add your close rate and average deal value to see what a paying customer costs and whether the campaign returns more than it spends.

Your numbers

Total spend for the period, in USD.

Form fills, calls or bookings from the same period.

Percent of leads that become paying customers.

Revenue from one new customer, in USD. Needs a close rate.

Results

Enter your numbers to see results. They update as you type.

What this calculator tells you

Cost per lead (CPL) is the go-to metric for service businesses, B2B companies and anyone who sells through a form, a call or a booking rather than a checkout. It is easy to compute and easy to compare, but a cheap lead that never buys is not a bargain.

This calculator starts with CPL and then follows the lead through to revenue. With a close rate and deal value it shows the cost per customer and the return on the ad spend, which is how the campaign should be judged.

How it works

  1. Enter the ad spend and the number of leads for the same period. The calculator divides one by the other to get cost per lead.
  2. Add the share of leads that become customers. The calculator estimates how many customers the leads produce and what each one cost in ad spend.
  3. Add the average revenue from a new customer to see expected revenue and ROI. ROI above 0% means the leads are expected to bring in more revenue than the ads cost.

The formula

Cost per lead
Ad spend ÷ Leads
Customers
Leads × Close rate
Cost per customer
Ad spend ÷ Customers
Revenue
Customers × Average deal value
ROI
(Revenue − Ad spend) ÷ Ad spend × 100

Worked example

Example figures for illustration, not benchmarks.

A home services company spends $2,500 in a month and receives 50 quote requests, so cost per lead is $50.00. The team closes 20% of leads, which means about 10 new customers at $250.00 each. At an average job of $1,200, those customers bring in $12,000, an ROI of 380% on the ad spend before job costs.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate cost per lead?

Divide total ad spend by the number of leads the ads produced over the same period. Make sure both numbers use the same date range and that leads are counted the same way the ad platform counts conversions.

What is a good cost per lead?

A good CPL is one where the leads turn into customers profitably, so it depends on your close rate and deal value more than on any industry average. Use this calculator to find your cost per customer, then compare it with what a customer is worth. Our benchmark pages show typical CPL ranges by industry and platform where we have enough data.

Why does my CPL look good but sales are flat?

Low CPL often comes from easy lead forms, broad targeting or placements that attract curious clicks rather than buyers. Track close rate by campaign. A campaign with twice the CPL and three times the close rate is the better campaign.

Should I count every form fill as a lead?

Count what your sales team would call a real lead, and remove spam, duplicates and existing customers. If you can, send qualified lead or sale events back to Google Ads and Meta Ads so the platforms optimize for quality instead of volume.

Is ROI here the same as profit?

Not quite. The ROI in this calculator compares revenue from new customers with ad spend. It does not subtract the cost of delivering the product or service. For a profit view, multiply revenue by your gross margin before comparing it with ad spend.

Want to know why your numbers look this way?

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