CPL
Cost per lead
What you pay to get one prospect — their details or their message — not one paying customer.
Formula
CPL = ad spend ÷ number of leads
How to read it
- A lead is not a customer. Divide by your close rate to get the cost of an actual customer, which is the figure that compares against customer value.
- In clinics and services, the difference between a cheap lead and a useful one is reply speed: a lead called back two days later has usually gone elsewhere.
- Follow the number through to the booking or the signed deal — ranking two campaigns at the lead stage alone often reverses the real order.
The common mistake
Celebrating cheap leads that never close. A campaign at half the cost per lead that closes one in twenty is worse than a dearer one that closes one in four, and the only figure that reveals it is cost per customer.