What is the Average Cost Per Lead for Different Marketing Channels in 2024?

To truly optimize your marketing efforts and get the most bang for your buck, you need to understand your average cost per lead (CPL) across different channels. This data helps pinpoint where to invest more heavily and where to adjust strategies. Whether you’re just starting out or scaling an established B2B marketing campaign, tracking and refining your CPL can make a significant impact on your bottom line.

In this article, we’ll explore the top B2B marketing channels, with real-world examples and a breakdown of the average CPL for each one. First, let’s define what cost per lead is and how it should influence your marketing decisions.

What is Cost Per Lead?

Cost per lead, or CPL for short, is the average amount you spend on marketing (cost) to acquire one new prospect (lead). It’s important to track what your CPL is for each of your marketing channels to see how successful your efforts are/were. It’s important to track this number, so you know for a fact that you are not overspending to acquire new leads. To calculate your cost per lead, you’ll need to know your total marketing spend and your total number of leads. Divide your marketing spend by the number of leads that you have generated, and you’ll have your average cost per lead. 

How to Calculate CPL:

To calculate your CPL, you need to know your total marketing spend and the number of leads generated from those efforts:

Total marketing spend ÷ total number of leads = cost per lead

For example, if you spend $1,000 on a marketing campaign and generate 100 leads, your cost per lead is $10.

1. Visitor Queue

First up on our list is Visitor Queue. As you can see from the graphic above, Visitor Queue provides the most affordable CPL, at about 21 cents a lead. Our software allows you to identify the companies that visit your website, along with information about their visit including how they got to your website, what pages they viewed, and how long they spent on each page. In addition, we provide employee contact information to help you reach out. Visitor Queue is one of the fastest and most affordable ways that B2B companies can generate warm leads.

Plus, with our new personalization feature, you can show your website visitors a custom version of your website visitors. Based on your visitor’s firmographics like location, industry size, or even company name, you can personalize their experience with relevant case studies, use cases, testimonials, and much more. The average cost per lead is $0.21, while on the high end a lead may cost $0.25 and on the low end $0.17.

• Average: $0.21
• High: $0.25
• Low: $0.17

2. List Vendor

List vendors sell pre-compiled lists of potential leads, often segmented by demographics or industry. While the CPL is relatively low, the quality of leads can vary. Purchased lists often lack the qualification needed for high conversion rates, so they’re best used when you need a large volume of leads quickly. If you’re running a short-term campaign or need to quickly build up a large pool of leads, purchasing a list can be effective. However, the leads from list vendors may require more nurturing to convert. In addition, if you are looking into buying a list of leads, you’ll want to ensure it’s from a legitimate company. When looking at the average cost per lead from a list vendor, you’re looking at $1.02. On the high end, a lead can cost around $1.45, while the low end is around $0.60.

• Average: $1.02
• High: $1.45
• Low: $0.60

3. SEO

Next up on our list is search engine optimization, or SEO. SEO is one of the best ways to generate traffic to your website, and hopefully turn them into customers. Page content, ALT text, meta data, and blogs are all great ways to improve your website’s SEO. A strong SEO strategy will help your website rank organically on search engines. SEO builds credibility and drives long-term, sustainable traffic to your website. Although the upfront costs can be higher, especially if you’re outsourcing to an agency), it tends to deliver lower CPL over time compared to paid channels. Generally, with SEO you are only paying for the time spent to create and update the content. The average CPL for SEO is $31. On the high end $47, and on the low end $14.00

• Average: $31
• High: $47
• Low: $14

4. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the most common B2B lead generation tactics. Collecting emails can be done in a wide variety of ways. This could include website pop ups, games and quizzes, sign up fields, gated content, and more. Using a CRM, you can automatically send emails to these leads in an effort to convert them into a paying customer. The cost of acquiring email leads can be relatively low, especially if you’re driving organic traffic to capture emails. Automation tools allow for targeted follow-ups, making email one of the most efficient ways to nurture leads over time. If you’re looking for ways to collect more emails, check out our article 19 Ways to Grow Your B2B Email List. On average, a lead from email marketing costs $53. On the high end, a lead can cost $72, while on the low end a lead can cost about $33.

• Average: $53
• High: $72
• Low: $33

5. Webinars

With the rise of remote work, webinars have become an essential tool for lead generation. Their interactive nature allows potential customers to engage directly. This can lead to a higher conversion rate compared to other channels. Webinars can be done to show off your product, talk about industry trends, or inspire others in your field. Plus, the content can be reused in the form of gated content, YouTube videos, or even turned into a blog article and benefit your SEO. With webinars becoming more popular, we have seen businesses getting pretty creative with their topics. Some companies have been framing their webinars as digital trade shows, conferences, and even courses. On average, a lead from a webinar costs $72. While on the high end $98 and on the low end $45.

• Average: $72
• High: $98
• Low: $45

6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of your current customers referring others to your company. In exchange for a new customer, you can provide your current customer with some sort of incentive. Like, a recurring commission. This makes it enticing, and encourages your customers to want to refer others. Here at Visitor Queue, we have used affiliate marketing for years and have gotten some of our best clients from referrals. Tapfilliate and Affise are industry-leading affiliate marketing software that can help you manage your leads. On average, a lead from affiliate marketing costs $73. On the high end, the lead may cost around $92, while on the low end around $54.

• Average: $73
• High: $92
• Low: $54

7. Paid LinkedIn Advertising

As a B2B company, LinkedIn is one of the most popular marketing channels. This is because you can get in front of the right people, at the right time. Most of the time, it is the best social media channel for B2B companies. Lead generation forms, video ads, carousel ads, message ads and boosting posts are all great options for paid LinkedIn advertising. LinkedIn users are made up of salespeople, marketing professionals, CEOs, and other business leaders. So, it can be easy to target highly relevant audiences. But, because targeting can be so specific, the average cost per lead from LinkedIn is higher than other social media channels. The average cost per lead is $75. On the high end, a lead can cost $99, and on the low end a lead can cost $51.

• Average: $75
• High: $99
• Low: $51

8. Content Creation

Next up on our list of marketing channels is content creation. The term content creation is broad, but it encompasses video, written, graphics, and audio content. High quality content can drive leads to your website through your organic social media, blog, YouTube channel, podcast, and other channels. If you are creating high quality content, it can be reused on multiple channels. As an example, if you share an infographic on your social media channels, you can include a link to a blog article that goes into further detail. On average, a lead from content creation costs $92. On the high end, a lead can cost around $140, and on the low end, around $43.

• Average: $92
• High: $140
• Low: $43

9. SEM

SEM, or search engine marketing, is one of the most popular marketing channels for B2B companies. Of course, Google is the most popular search engine. But, that means that your company could take advantage of cheaper ads from Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Especially if your competitors are only using Google. SEM should be an essential part of any B2B company’s marketing strategy, as SEO can only get you so far. If you are in a competitive industry and want to rank at the top of a page, SEM is the way to go. On average, a lead from SEM is typically around $110. On the high end, a lead can cost $181, and on the low end, $38. 

• Average: $181
• High: $181
• Low: $38

10. Tradeshows & In-Person Events

The last marketing channel that we are going to talk about is trade shows and other in-person events. We predict that there will be a boom in trade shows and conventions over the next year or two. To make up for lost time due to COVID-19. So, this could be a great opportunity for your company to explore. Trade show marketing is a great way to get your company in front of potentially thousands of people, and start building a great relationship with them.

However, it takes a lot of planning, time, and money to seamlessly execute a trade show booth. On average, a trade show lead can cost $811. On the high end, a lead may cost $1,442, while on the low end a lead can cost $180. If you have never had your own booth at a trade show, I highly recommend attending a trade show as a guest. This can help you get a better understanding of how they run. 

• Average: $811
• High: $1,442
• Low: $180

Other Considerations

There are a number of things that you should consider alongside your cost per lead. While cost per lead is an important stat to understand, it’s not the be all and end all of marketing. Here are a few things to consider in addition to your CPL.

Competition 

If your industry is very competitive, then your average cost per lead will most likely be higher than the general averages mentioned above. This is because the more companies that are targeting the same audience, the harder it gets to catch their attention. As a result, you spend more money to be at the top of a page, get your ad seen at the right time, or have the best spot at a trade show. This is commonly seen with Google Ads. Where company A will bid on company B’s brand name, in hopes that they will rank above them on search results. Below is an example of this. When searching for “docusign”, Docusign isn’t even one of the first options. This is because the other three companies have outbid them. 

Market Saturation

Similar to competition, market saturation can also drive up your cost per lead. If there are 10 companies who are all spending similar amounts on Google Ads, you are much less likely to rank. If you find that a certain marketing channel is very saturated, and you don’t have any wiggle room with your budget, it may be a good idea to explore other marketing channels. As an example, if SEM is very saturated, try exploring options on how to make your SEO better. SEO could even make your Google Ads rank better. If you’re in a saturated market, it may be worth exploring lesser-known channels or optimizing your existing ones to stand out.

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value, or CLV, is one of the best stats to track alongside CPL. CLV refers to how much money the average customer spends with your company over time. For example, if a customer spends $1,000 with your company over the course of their customer lifetime, you’ll want to ensure that your cost per lead is lower than this. CLV can be calculated by multiplying your customer’s average purchase value and the average customer lifespan. So, if your customers spend an average of $50 each month, and your customer lifespan is 24 months, your CLV is $1,200.

Creating a Holistic Marketing Strategy

While Cost Per Lead (CPL) is an important metric for understanding the efficiency of your marketing spend, focusing solely on CPL can be misleading. A truly effective marketing strategy takes a holistic approach, considering multiple metrics that offer a fuller picture of performance. Like I mentioned above, you should also track Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) to ensure you’re investing in channels that bring long-term, profitable customers. Other essential metrics include Conversion Rate, which measures how many leads turn into actual customers, and Return on Investment (ROI), which tells you how much revenue you’re generating compared to the cost of your marketing efforts. Additionally, Engagement Metrics like click-through rates and bounce rates provide insight into how well your content resonates with your target audience. A well-rounded strategy that goes beyond CPL ensures you’re not just acquiring leads. But also attracting high-quality leads that convert and add lasting value to your business.

Final Words

As you can see, every marketing channel has a different average cost per lead. It’s best to use multiple marketing and lead generation channels. This will ensure you are getting leads from a variety of places. You don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket! In my experience, SEM, SEO, content creation, and website visitor identification drive the most qualified leads. If you have any questions about Visitor Queue, do not hesitate to reach out.