COST PER LEAD

What does a lead really cost you?

Most B2B companies have never added up the true cost of a lead: the retainer, the tools, the ad spend, the list, the salaries and the hours spent on people who never replied. This page adds it up — and lets you model your own numbers.

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$5–$50per hot lead, all-inclusive

$0setup, tools or ad spend

$50minimum top-up

72hreport a weak lead

CALCULATOR

Model your own numbers.

Start from what you can spend, or start from how many conversations you want — the maths runs both ways. Pick your industry, tell us what a customer is worth, and see what lands where.

Monthly budget (USD)

Your industry

Average customer value (USD)

Share of leads you close (%)

Price per hot lead in SaaS & software$30

Hot leads delivered per month50

Customers won at a 20% close rate10

Revenue from those customers$60,000

Return on your monthly spend40.0×

An estimate, not a promise. It assumes every delivered lead is priced at the middle of the range for your industry and that you close the share you entered. Real campaigns mix warm, hot and on-fire leads, so your actual figures will move.

BY INDUSTRY

Where each field sits on the scale.

Every lead is priced between $5 and $50 by how hot it is; the ranges on these pages show where leads in that industry usually land on that scale.

Industry	Warm	On fire	Sales cycle
SaaS & software	$15	$45	Usually 2-8 weeks from first reply to a signed pilot.
IT services & MSPs	$12	$35	Often 1-4 weeks from reply to signed onboarding for smaller clients.
Cybersecurity	$20	$50	Commonly 4-12 weeks, longer in enterprise procurement.
Fintech & payments	$18	$45	Typically 3-10 weeks, plus procurement where the company is large.
Financial advisors & wealth management	$15	$40	Relationships build slowly; expect 4-16 weeks from first conversation to mandate.
Accounting & bookkeeping	$8	$25	Fast: often 1-3 weeks from reply to signed engagement.
Law firms	$20	$50	Fast for a live matter: often days to two weeks.
Insurance brokers	$10	$30	Typically 1-4 weeks from reply to bound cover.
Marketing & creative agencies	$12	$35	Commonly 2-6 weeks from reply to signed scope.
Web & software development	$10	$30	Often 1-4 weeks from reply to signed discovery.
HR & recruitment	$12	$35	Very fast when the role is live: days to two weeks.
Commercial real estate & property	$15	$45	Deals run weeks to months; a search brief can be signed within days.
Logistics & freight	$12	$35	2-8 weeks from reply to a live lane, faster for spot business.
Manufacturing & industrial	$15	$40	Long: 6 weeks to 9 months, which is why a booked technical call is worth what it costs.
Healthcare & dental groups	$15	$45	Usually 3-10 weeks, longer where a group procurement exists.
E-learning & corporate training	$8	$25	Commonly 3-8 weeks from reply to a signed pilot.
E-commerce brands	$10	$30	Typically 2-6 weeks from reply to a first order or agreement.

THE SCALE

Three levels of how hot.

Every delivered lead is tagged with one of these and priced accordingly, so you always know what you are buying before you pay.

Warm

$5 – $15per lead

Replied positively and wants to hear more, or asked to be contacted later.

Most common

Hot

$15 – $30per lead

Asked for pricing, a demo or more detail about your service.

On fire

$30 – $50per lead

Wants a meeting or is ready to buy — the closest thing to a booked deal.

THE COMPARISON

Cost per lead against cost per enquiry.

Same budget, two ways of spending it. The difference is not the price tag — it is what you are charged for.

	Paying for activity	AIViral
You are billed for	Clicks, sends, lists, hours	A person who asked to talk
Cost of a weak lead	Fully paid	Reported in 72h, credited
Tools, sending, ad spend	On top of your fee	Included
Minimum outlay	Retainer or list purchase	$50 top-up
Cost visibility	Spread across five invoices	One number per lead

Figures on this page are our own prices and typical ranges for the fields we work in — not third-party market benchmarks. If you want a comparison against what you pay today, send us your current spend and we will work it through with you.

FAQ

Cost per lead questions.

How the number is calculated, what counts as good, and how to bring it down.

How do you calculate cost per lead?

Take everything spent on lead generation in a period and divide it by the number of leads that actually reached your team. For an agency that means the retainer plus tools, ad spend and salaries. For AIViral it is simply what you spent divided by the leads delivered — because nothing else is charged.

What is a good cost per lead for B2B?

It is whatever your deal economics allow. If a customer is worth $6,000 and you close one in five conversations, you can afford roughly $600 per enquiry before the maths stops working. A $5–$50 lead only becomes expensive when the leads are not interested.

Why is a cheaper lead often more expensive?

Because the real cost is your team's time. A $2 contact record that never replies still costs a search, a write, a follow-up and a rejection. A $30 lead that asked for a meeting costs a phone call.

Do you charge for outreach, ads or tools?

No. Campaigns, sending infrastructure, tools and ad spend are ours. Your balance moves only when a hot lead is delivered to your dashboard.

How can we lower our cost per lead?

Sharpen the brief. One vertical, one trigger and one region beats a broad target on reply rates every time, and a tighter brief means fewer weak leads to review. Removing the weak ones is what brings the average down.

Is there a cap on how many leads we can get?

No. Volume follows your budget and your brief, not a plan tier — ten a month and four hundred a month run through the same setup, with more sends, more ad reach and more of the list worked as you grow. The only real limit is how many businesses actually fit your brief, and we tell you what that looks like before you commit.

Stop paying for activity start paying for interest.

Tell us who you want to reach. We do the outreach. You pay $5–$50 only when an interested business is delivered.

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