Customer acquisition economics · Guide

How much can you pay for a lead and a customer and still stay profitable

From the money a customer brings to a ceiling for cost per lead, and how to test the calculation on real orders

$15

Ceiling for cost per lead at 15% lead-to-sale conversionCustomer contribution over six months: $150. Affordable advertising spend per customer: $100.
Illustrative example

Illustrative example. Affordable cost per lead by lead-to-sale conversion and share left after variable costs, 60% left

Read the guide 8 min · 9 sources

ToolSample numbers

Path from lead to sale

Numbers for one lead cohort: where the largest drop happens.

Leads200

Contact12060%

Qualified3630%

Next step1233%

Deals325%

$15ad spend per lead

$83per qualified lead

$1,000ad spend per deal

The largest drop is before the “Qualified” stage: 84 of 120. Check the qualification criteria: the promise in the ad, purchase conditions and reasons for rejection after the call.

Calculated in your browser, numbers are never sent anywhere. Advertising spend only, not full CAC.

Full calculator with a report

What do you need to decide

Common questions from business owners. Each leads to guides in a sensible order and a calculator where there is one.

How much to pay for a lead2 guides and a calculator Which channel to start with2 guides Can you trust an agency forecast2 guides Where leads are lost before a sale2 guides and a calculator Why CRM and report numbers disagree3 guides How to appear in search and AI answers3 guides

Latest guides

Each starts with a short answer, then a worked example and a task for your team.

All guides

Customer acquisition economics

A cheap lead can still be an expensive customer

Connect the advertising report to acquisition costs, contribution and a defensible budget decision

7 min · 7 sources Leads, funnel and sales

Why lead-to-sale conversion is 3% in one report and 12% in another

How period-based and cohort-based conversion differ, and how to compare leads of the same age

9 min · 8 sources Customer acquisition channels

An agency sent a lead forecast: how to tell whether to trust it

Break the media forecast into its links, check where each assumption came from, rework a teaching example and agree test checkpoints before spending

8 min · 12 sources Analytics and lead tracking

Analytics says 120 leads, the CRM 87, the ad platform 140: which is right?

Why three systems count differently, and how to reconcile one week of data to a single lead definition

10 min · 16 sources Search and AI answers

Is your company visible in AI answers? Measuring when numbers are noisy

A repeatable test of 20 prompts, a plain reading of the official search reports, and the limits you should state out loud

8 min · 15 sources Leads, funnel and sales

How to agree on what makes a qualified lead

A joint inquiry-review protocol for marketing, sales and the business owner

7 min · 6 sources

Journal sections

All 14 guides and two tools by topic.

Channels3

How to decide where to look for customers, test a first channel on a small budget and evaluate a supplier forecast.

Economics3

What a lead and a customer cost, how much you can afford to pay and how to connect ad reports with business money.

Search and AI3

How to prepare a website for search and AI answers, tell indexing from visibility and measure the result.

Analytics and lead tracking3

How to set up lead tracking before launching ads, reconcile analytics with your CRM and read attribution.

Leads and sales2

How to judge lead quality and calculate conversion by cohort

Tools

Run the numbers on your own data. Download the result and review it with your team.

All tools

Tool

How much you can pay for a lead

From order value, refunds, costs and conversion to the most you can pay per lead and per customer. No sign-up, your data stays in your browser.

Calculate Tool

Path from lead to sale

Spend and leads by stage for one cohort: where the largest drop happens. No sign-up, your data stays in your browser.

Calculate

A clear answer starts with a precise question

Every guide has a short answer, when it applies, the steps, a worked example with its conditions, limitations and primary sources with the date they were checked.

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