A lead no longer has a fixed price tag. What a lead should cost depends on what it returns in the end, not on a fixed amount up front. An expensive lead can be cheap if it turns into a loyal customer, and a cheap lead expensive if nothing comes of it. The real question isn’t what you pay, but what you get back.
The price tells you nothing
Fixating on cost per lead is pointless. Five euros a lead feels good, fifty feels expensive. But that number on its own says almost nothing. A lead of fifty euros that becomes a customer who stays with you for years is a bargain. The same goes for recruitment: a candidate who cost fifty euros but turns out to be the right hire who stays for years is worth gold, while ten cheap applications that lead to no one only cost you time. Only when you know what comes out the other end can you say what a lead is worth to you.
So it’s not about the price of the lead, but about the value of what comes out of it. What does it bring over the whole run, how long does it stay, how much does it spend. Without that, you keep steering on a number that tells half the story.
The value only shows afterwards
That’s exactly the point. The value of a lead is determined after the lead is in, not before. Marketing can often only bring in the lead. Whether that lead becomes worth anything depends on what happens next.
That’s where I see it go wrong most often. A lot of attention and budget goes into bringing in leads, and then they arrive in a process that doesn’t work. No follow-up, no system, no path that takes the lead from first interest to customer. The lead is there, but nothing happens with it. Then every euro spent on that lead was wasted, however cheap it was.
Where the real win is
The win is in the whole journey, not just in the lead generation. Bringing in quality leads is the first half. The second half is what comes after, and there’s an enormous amount to gain there with the right setup.
That’s where I strongly believe in automation, with or without a human element. A lead that comes in and gets picked up right away, not days later when the attention has already faded. A connection to your CRM so nothing falls through the cracks. Email follow-up that keeps the lead warm and brings it step by step closer to a decision. Tooling that does the heavy lifting, so every lead gets the attention it deserves, even when a hundred come in at once.
That way lead generation isn’t a one-off action, but part of a system that runs from first click to customer and beyond. Then you don’t just determine how many leads come in, but also how many of them become worth something. That’s what ultimately makes a lead cheap or expensive.
How to look at it
Stop steering on the price per lead as if that’s the whole story. Look at what a customer brings you over the whole run, work back what a lead is worth, and make sure the process afterwards is rock solid. A slightly more expensive lead in a working system beats a dirt-cheap lead that lands nowhere.
The question isn’t what a lead costs. The question is what you do with it.
Who this works for
For those who pay a lot for leads and wonder whether it delivers. For those who see leads coming in but too few customers coming out. For those who don’t just want more leads, but leads that become worth something.
A lead is only worth something when there’s a system behind it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good cost per lead?
There's no fixed amount that applies to everyone. What a lead should cost depends on what a customer brings over their whole lifetime. A high cost per lead can be perfectly fine if the customer stays long and spends a lot, while a low cost per lead turns out expensive if no customer comes of it.
How do you calculate what a lead is worth?
By looking at the value of a customer over the whole run, so how much they spend and how long they stay, and factoring in the conversion from lead to customer. Only once that customer value is known can you justify what a lead should cost.
Why do leads sometimes deliver nothing?
Often because the process after the lead doesn't work. Without fast follow-up, a connection to the CRM and a path that takes the lead from interest to customer, a lead sits idle. The lead generation can work well, while still no customers come out of it.
What matters more, more leads or better follow-up?
Both are connected, but without good follow-up more leads deliver little. The biggest win often lies in setting up the process after the lead, with automation, CRM connection and email follow-up, so the leads that come in actually become customers.
