Free tool · Plan my marketing
What can I afford to pay for a lead?
Work out a total cost-per-lead target you can explain from your customer economics, then compare it with an acquisition break-even ceiling.
What Can I Afford to Pay for a Lead?
Estimate a planning limit for each inquiry (lead) using your own customer figures. Contribution is not net profit. Calculations stay in your browser.
How to use this tool
Bring: Revenue and delivery cost per acquired customer, plus customers won out of inquiries or a close-rate percentage. Add the contribution you want to retain to calculate a target.
- Choose one transaction and a consistent currency. Enter what a customer pays and the variable cost of delivering that work.
- Use same-period customers won and inquiries, or explicitly choose a close-rate assumption.
- Enter optional retained contribution. Compare current media, included fees, inquiries and customers only for the same period.
- Review the target and ceiling separately. Save up to three named, explicitly labeled scenarios if useful.
Hypothetical example — fictional inputs, not a forecast
A fictional job brings in $1,000, costs $400 to deliver and wins 5 customers from 20 inquiries. The owner wants $300 contribution per customer left after acquisition.
$600 contribution per customer and a 25% close rate give a $150 acquisition break-even total CPL. Retaining $300 gives a $75 target total CPL.
Use these figures only to understand the method. Replace them with your own consistent inputs.
Read the result in context
The target protects the contribution you chose to retain. The ceiling would consume all contribution in acquisition costs, leaving nothing from that transaction toward overhead or profit.
Assumptions and limitations
- Contribution is not net profit: fixed overhead, taxes and other excluded costs still matter.
- The close rate and scenarios are owner inputs, not independently verified results or promises.
- A blank optional input stays unknown; do not enter zero unless zero is accurate.
Your information
Entries and results stay in this browser session unless you explicitly copy, print or download them. Do not enter personal contact details or confidential client information. Reloading may clear your work. These statements describe the tool code. Other website scripts have their own privacy practices; review the website privacy policy before entering sensitive business information.
Questions before you start
Does the target include marketing fees?
It is a total CPL target. The optional spending comparison separates media from explicitly included fees; an allowable media CPL needs those fees and inquiry count.
Can I use lifetime customer value?
The calculation assumes a single transaction. Avoid inserting unverified repeat revenue as though it were an observed first purchase.