Cost Per Lead Calculator

What this tells you

Cost per lead is your total spend divided by leads generated, but the real number includes the hours you spent, priced at your own rate. Once time is counted, most 'free' channels turn out to cost more than paid ones, and most paid channels turn out to be cheaper than they felt.

Lead gen · free tool

Cost per lead calculator

$500

Ads, tools, lists, sponsorships

20 h

Include writing, posting, replying

$75

What an hour of your time is worth

25

Genuine enquiries, not impressions

15%

Your real historical rate

At those numbers

True monthly cost
$2,000
Cost per lead
$80
Cost per client
$533
Clients per month
3.8

This is arithmetic on the numbers you entered, nothing here is a forecast or a promise about results.

The formula

true spend = cash spend + (hours × your hourly cost) · CPL = true spend ÷ leads · CAC = true spend ÷ (leads × close rate)

How to read the result

  • If cost per client exceeds a third of what a client is worth, the channel is not working however good the lead volume looks.
  • Counting your own hours is what makes this honest. A channel that costs nothing in cash and eats ten hours a week is your most expensive one.
  • Compare channels on cost per client, never on cost per lead, a cheap lead that never closes is not cheap.
  • Put your real hours in. The channel most people describe as free usually turns out to be the most expensive one on the list, and finding that out is the entire point of this tool.

Frequently asked questions

Divide the total cost of a channel by the number of genuine leads it produced. The total cost should include the value of your own time, not just cash spend.

Yes. Excluding it makes organic and community channels look free when they are often the most expensive thing you do, measured in the hours they consume.

There is no universal number, it only means anything relative to what a client is worth. Compare cost per client to lifetime value rather than chasing a benchmark.

The leads are already on Reddit, X and Threads

Leadhoot watches Reddit, X and Threads, scores every new post for buyer intent and sends the high scorers to your email or Slack.

Find my first lead

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