How Do I Calculate Cost Per Lead?

Cost per lead (CPL) tells you what each new contact actually costs. The formula is simple: divide your total campaign cost by the number of leads captured.

How To Calculate Cost Per Lead

1. Add up your total campaign cost for the period.
2. Count the leads that campaign captured.
3. Divide the cost by the leads.

For paid ads, the cost is your ad spend, so 1,000 leads at $30 each is a $30 cost per lead. For a giveaway, the cost is your plan plus your prize, spread across every entrant. A $500 prize plus a $120 plan divided by 2,000 entrants works out to roughly $0.31 per lead.

This is why running a Gleam Competition can lower your cost per lead so sharply, since you pay one fixed cost rather than a fee for every lead.

Referral and Viral Share actions bring new entrants in for free, so the same fixed cost is divided across a far larger pool. Your cost per lead keeps falling the longer the campaign runs.