Lead Generation Pricing: How Much Does It Take to Get 10+ Leads/Month?

Now that you’ve got funding, the next step is to deliver the rosy picture you painted when raising your round.

This means hitting the milestones and sales numbers that you promised your investors. One way to do this is through effective lead generation.

With an effective lead generation approach, like cold emailing, you can get 10+ sales-qualified leads every month to grow your sales pipeline, just like we do for our clients here at The Scalelab.

Have a look at our results below:

After generating $50 million in pipeline value for clients, we know how powerful effective lead generation can be in scaling your company fast.

But the question is: How much does it cost?

While, no doubt, effective lead generation works, it’s not wise to put all your eggs in one basket.

You still need to:

1. Identify the best lead generation approach for your needs and budget.

2. Balance your burn rate and runway to spend your investors’ money wisely.

3. Strategically assess which approach can give you high-leverage returns for lower costs.

And to achieve these three, you must carefully assess the different lead generation options and how much they cost.

In this article, we’ll help you do exactly that.

So if you want to make sure you invest in a money-wise lead generation approach, read on! 👇🏻

Track Your Cost per Lead To Optimize Your Lead Generation Strategy

How Tracking Lead Generation Metrics Can Generate 5000+ Leads

Want to hit high results consistently and predictably? Track your sales metrics.

Data is crucial to optimize your lead generation strategy and make sure your sales and marketing team are performing at the optimal level.

Without it, your lead generation approach will rely on assumptions, which can be a hit-or-miss.

Simply put: Failing to track sales metrics = A perfect way to burn investors’ money.

At The Scalelab, we continually track our cold email metrics to see how we can improve our lead generation approach. The result? A cold email framework that generated 5000+ leads for our clients.

Why Track Your Cost per Lead?

When it comes to lead generation, the one metric you shouldn’t overlook is the cost per lead.

The cost per lead tells you how much you need to get a new lead for your business. The lower the cost, the more effective you are at generating leads. The higher it is, the more you need to optimize your strategies.

By tracking your cost per lead, you can:

• Attach a monetary value to your leads and effectively budget for your lead generation campaigns.

• Optimize your lead generation approach based on actual data.

• Determine which channels and strategies are cost-effective in generating quality leads.

  • Note: Quality leads refer to people who are:

    • More likely to buy from you.

    • Have the highest lifetime value.

    • High a high rate of referral

• Scale the lead generation channels that give the best results.

How Do You Track and Calculate the Cost per Lead?

You can calculate the cost per lead for any marketing campaign by following these steps:

1. Track the following variables:

   1. Total Marketing Costs - How much did you spend to acquire new leads?

   2. Total New Leads - How many leads did you acquire using the marketing spend above? Note: A lead is a potential customer interested in your product or service.

1. Follow this formula: CPL = Total Marketing Costs ÷ Total New Leads

Thus, if you spend $2,500 to acquire 10 leads, then your cost per lead is $250.

Cost per Lead Calculator

Now, you don’t need to level up your math skills just to calculate the cost per lead. That’s inefficient. Instead, you can use this “cost per lead calculator” by Calculator Academy:

Source: Calculator Academy

Lead Generation Pricing: The Average Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Cost per Lead By Industry

Here’s the 2023 projected average cost per lead by the industry as forecasted by Linchpin SEO.

Looking at the table below, if you’re in the IT industry, then you can expect to pay an average CPL of $106. Meanwhile, the non-profit industry boasts the lowest CPL, ranging between $16 - $43.

​Industry	Low	Average	High
Business Services	$39	$132	$225
Consumer Products	$24	$105	$182
Education	$37	$55​	$66
Financial	$44	$160​	$272​
Healthcare	$36​	$162​	$286​
Industrial and Manufacturing​	$33​	$136	$235
IT	$39	$208​	$370​
Marketing Agency	$22	$99	$173
Media and Publishing	$21	$108	$191
Non-Profit	$16​	$31	$43
Retail​	$25	$34​	$41
Telecom Industry	$24	$45	$64
Travel and Tourism	$29	$106	$182

Source: Linchpin SEO

Source: Linchpin SEO

Cost per Lead: Organic vs Paid Leads

You can generate leads organically or through paid methods. As shown below, organic costs less than a paid approach.

But each comes with its pros and cons. Whichever you choose will depend on your needs and budget:

• An organic approach means producing high-quality leads at a low cost. But this approach can require a longer time investment.

• Paid lead generation can produce results much quicker, but it’s typically more expensive.

Here’s a comparison of organic and paid lead generation costs per industry.

Industry	Organic	Paid
Addiction Treatment	$213	​$380
Aerospace & Aviation	$277	​$469
Automotive	$271	$295
B2B SaaS	$164	$310
Biotech	$236	$274
Business Insurance	$388	$460
Construction	​$174	​$280
​Cybersecurity	$406	$411
​eCommerce	​$83	​$98
​Engineering	​$201	​$373
​Entertainment	​$111	$116
Environmental Services	$209	$346
Financial Services	$555	​$761
​Fintech	$413	​$490
Healthcare	​$320	$401
Higher Education	​$705	​$1,262
​Hotels & Resorts	​$225	​$307
HVAC	$69	$115
​Industrial IOT	​$404	​$590
IT & Managed Services	$388	​$617
Legal Services	$516	$784
​Manufacturing	$415	​$691
Oil & Gas	$502	​$772
​PCB Design & Manufacturing	$271	​$480
​Pharmaceutical	$138	​$124
Real Estate	$416	​$480
Software Development	$510	​$680
​Solar	​$198	$217
Staffing & Recruiting	​$518	$476
Transportation & Logistics	​$505	​$670

Source: First Page Sage

Source: First Page Sage

Cost Per Lead (CPL) by Lead Generation Channel

Tracking the CPL by channel lets you assess which medium works best for your niche and market.

As shown below, events and tradeshows have the highest CPL among the channels. This could be due to the high cost of venues, catering, and other associated costs.

​Marketing Channel	Low	​Average	High
​Content Marketing	​$43	$92	​$140
​Display Advertising (Premium)	$43	​$63	​$82
Display Advertising (Programmatic)	​$34	​$38	​$42
​Email Marketing	​$33	​$53	​$72
​Events & Tradeshows	​$180	$811	​$1,442
​LinkedIn Advertising	​$51	$75	$99
Online Retargeting	$22	​$31	$39
​Public Relations/Earned Media	​$108	$294	​$480
​Referrals	​$54	​$73	​$92
​Search Engine Advertising	​$38	​$110	​$181
​Search Engine Optimization	​$14	​$31	​$47
​Social Media Advertising	​$34	​$58	​$82
Social Media Advertising	​$21	​$47	​$73
​Traditional Advertising (TV, Radio, Print)	​$38	​$619	​$1,200
​Video Marketing	​$59	​$174	​$288
​Webinars	$45	​$72	​$98

Source: Linchpin SEO

Source: Linchpin SEO

Lead Generation Pricing: DIY vs. Outsourcing Lead Generation Strategies

Inbound Lead Generation

1. Content Marketing

Want to get your brand found on search engines? Writing an article, like the one you’re reading now, is a great way to achieve this.

Insightful LinkedIn, Twitter, IG, and Facebook posts are also great for attracting leads from social media platforms to your website.

As long as you write content with your target customer in mind and bring value, you’ll attract them like a magnet.

A great example of this is College Raptor, a startup that raised Series A for their tech that matches high school students with the right college. Their approach?

• Creating evergreen content on topics that their audience will always search for.

• Building awareness and visibility by creating content that may not check all SEO requirements, but is more likely to go viral on social media.

• Developing pieces geared towards increasing the number of inbound links to their webpage.

The results?

Because of their highly shareable content and evergreen topics, they established their brand reputation and achieved huge growth. As a result, they generated over 100,000 organic sessions per month and 1 million website visitors in one year.

Content Marketing: Pros and Cons

Pros	​Cons
​Builds authority With the right content, you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry. With this, it’s easier to build relationships with prospects and build trust.	​Time-consuming Researching and writing content is time-consuming. A single well-researched 3,000 words article can take you 10 - 16 hours. Not to mention, you need to make sure the article resonates with your audience.
​Great support for other lead-generation channels If you send a person a LinkedIn message, they’re more likely to reply if they’ve seen your posts and resonated with them. The same goes for cold emails and cold calls. If prospects are familiar with your brand through your content, they’re more likely to respond.	Difficult to track, manage, and distribute If you don’t have the right analytics and management tools, it can be hard to track where your leads are coming from. This is especially true if you have multiple campaigns. Thus, you won’t always know if your content campaign is working.

Content Marketing Pricing Options: DIY vs Outsourcing

​DIY COSTS

​OUTSOURCING COSTS

​Here are some of the tools you need to do content marketing on your own: Jasper - This is an AI tool that can help you make blogs, websites, and social media content. In addition to providing content ideas, it also improves your existing content. ($29 - $99 / month) Ahrefs - This is an all-in-one SEO tool to help you search for keywords on a specific topic. ($99 / month) WordPress - This is a popular website builder for creating websites, blogs, and more. (Starts at $4 /month) Content marketing training, such as consulting and workshops, costs between $800 - $6,000.

​Outsourcing costs depend on the type of content you’re outsourcing: Blog writing = $200 - $750 per blog with 1000 words. Website content creation = $1500 - $4500 for 5 - 10 pages Social media content = $800 - $5,000 for 3 - 7 social media platforms. Digital media content = $1,000 - $5,000 Video content creation = $1,200 - $20,000.

1. Paid Ads

Here’s one of the common downsides of inbound marketing: It can be quite slow.

But if you want to speed things up, you can use paid ads to put your content or lead magnet right in front of your ideal audience in less time.

Here’s an example.

SamCart founder, Brian Moran, used Facebook Ads to sell his training products and courses.

He targeted three different groups:

1. His existing email list

2. Lookalike version of his email list

3. Custom audience created using Facebook’s native + advanced targeting features.

The results? After spending $8,240 for the ads of these groups, he was able to get:

• Group 1 - $3,496 in sales from $1,800 ad spend.

• Group 2 - $1,546 in sales from $895 in ad spend.

• Group 3 - $9,039 in sales from $5,153 in ad spend

As seen here, Brian was able to use paid ads, such as Facebook ads, to put his offer in front of the right audience. All the 3 groups he targeted were profitable.

Plus, with Facebook’s native + advanced targeting features, he was able to get a whopping $9,000 in sales despite spending only $5,153 in ad spend for group 3.

Paid Ads: Pros and Cons

Pros	​Cons
​Reach more people faster Paid ads can help you reach thousands (even millions) of users from different social media platforms. Note that paid ads are not limited to Facebook Ads, it also includes Google Ads, YouTube ads, and more. And these 2 search engines alone? They can bring your brand in front of billions of users.	​Increased competition Because paid ads are a common way to promote your brand, you can expect tons of competition. Not to mention, most people on social media platforms are not there to read your ad. So you need to make sure your ad catches their attention.
​Target your ideal prospects With advanced targeting features, like the one Facebook ads displayed above, you can get your brand in front of specific people based on their interests, and demographics.	​Strict policies and restrictions Most channels that offer paid ads, like Facebook, have strict advertising rules. This is to make sure their users still enjoy using their platform, while they cater to advertisers. If you’re not savvy enough to tiptoe around these policies, your account could get banned or restricted.

Paid Ads Pricing Options: DIY vs Outsourcing

​DIY COSTS

​OUTSOURCING COSTS

​Paid advertising, is often called “PPC” or “Pay per Click.” This is because it’s one of the most common ways to pay for it. Here are some of the costs you can expect per type of paid ad: Google Remarketing - $0.66 to $1.23 per click Native Display Ads - $10-20 per thousand impressions Facebook Ads – $1.35 (CPC) Instagram Ads– $3.56 (CPC) Google Ads (Display) – $2.32 (CPC) LinkedIn Ads – $5.26 (CPC) Twitter Ads – $0.38 (CPC) Amazon Ads – $0.89 (CPC) Pinterest Ads – $1.5 (CPC) You also need to consider training and certification programs to learn paid ads. For Google Ads courses, you can expect to pay $350 - $4000. Social media marketing certificate courses cost around $2,500 (cheaper for on-demand video courses).

​Outsourcing social media marketing services cost $500 - $10,000 per month. Facebook Ads specialists cost $15 - $40/hour. Full-Time Google Ads specialists cost $15 - $40/hr. PPC Agencies charge a flat fee of $500 - $4,000 or 15% - 30% of your ad spend.

Outbound Lead Generation

1. Social Media Outreach

Want to maximize your social platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? Then social selling or social media outreach is for you.

Unlike social media marketing, with social selling, you don’t need to wait for prospects to message you first or engage in your posts. You take the initiative and contact them first. This is a great approach because you get to actively qualify the leads you contact, and there are lesser touchpoints.

Furthermore, social selling is a great support for your other lead generation strategies. For example, at The Scalelab, our lead generation approach is a mix of cold email outreach and LinkedIn outreach and follow-ups.

After sending our cold emails, not only do we follow up with another email, but we also send them short and punchy LinkedIn follow-ups like this:

“Have you seen my email (First Name)? Let me know if we’re good to talk about (prospect’s company name) in 2022 growth projects. Talk soon”

Or something like the sample note below.

Source: The Scalelab

The result?

• A connection acceptance rate of 68% (which is pretty above average, considering the typical LinkedIn acceptance rate is 30%)

• And an email reply rate of 63% (which is 12X higher than the typical cold email response rate)

Social Media Outreach: Pros and Cons

Pros	​Cons
​Great support for social media marketing (SMM) and cold emailing. If you’re doing SMM, simply contact those who commented on your posts. Your post most likely warmed them up, so they are now more likely to reply. You can also follow up on those who didn’t respond to your cold email outreach.	​Manual process For most social media platforms, there are little to no options to message multiple people, have automated responses, and track replies.
​Can be done via mobile You don’t need wide monitors and high specs computers to do social selling. You can do it even if you’re not in the office, as long you have your phone and internet.	​Restrictive Most social media platforms prefer you to do ads. Thus, they have very restrictive outreach policies. If you send too many messages, you could get banned from using the site.

Social Media Outreach Pricing Options: DIY vs Outsourcing

​DIY COSTS

​OUTSOURCING COSTS

​One of the most common tools for social selling is Sales Navigator. Professional: $99/month Team $149/month Enterprise: starts at $1600/year Some of the other tools you may need are the following: Twitter Outreach tools - for bulk messaging and tracking replies ($10 - $150+/month) Social Media Management Automation Tool - for managing most social media accounts, auto-replies, and tracking engagements ($5 - $600+/month)

​Outsourcing social media management costs $900 - $20,000 per month depending on the service inclusions. While it includes social selling activities, social media management can also include community management and social customer service.

2. Cold Calling

Want a lead-generation approach that gets you leads with just one touchpoint? With cold calling, all you need to do is pick up the phone and call prospects that fit your customer profile.

With this quick call, you can quickly gauge interest, answer questions in real time, and handle objections quickly. All of these get you one step closer to the sale.

Cold Calling: Pros and Cons

​Pros	​Cons
​Fewer Touchpoints There’s minimal back and forth between you and the prospect. Unlike inbound marketing which could take months to gain traction, cold calling lets you answer questions and close the lead all in one call.	​High-Stress Approach As the call is unsolicited, some people can find it intrusive and irritating. You might also catch the person at the wrong time or get directed to voicemail.
​Direct Feedback from Prospects Through the call, you can directly ask for feedback from prospects which you can use to optimize your offer to fit their needs.	​Require More Training Because cold calling requires you to answer prospects’ concerns in real time, there’s not enough time to flip through company manuals or consult a supervisor. Thus, the person performing the cold-calling must master the brand from the inside out.

Cold Calling Pricing Options: DIY vs Outsourcing

​DIY COSTS	​OUTSOURCING COSTS
​Some of the tools you can use for cold calling are the following: Hubspot Sales Hub - It’s a multichannel outreach tool for streamlining your sales process($45 - $1,200). Myphoner - A pure cold-calling software with lead tracking, segmenting, power dialer, and more (starts at $19). For cold calling setup and training, you can expect to pay $2,500 - $10,000+.	​Telemarketing company based in the U.S. = $20 - $75 / hr Offshore telemarketing service = $12 - $20 / hr Telemarketing company charging per lead = $35 - $60 / lead List of Prospects = $3000 / 1000 names

3. Cold Emailing

Want a low-cost and highly effective approach to getting leads? At The Scalelab, we used cold emails to generate 5000+ leads and over $50 million in pipeline value for our clients.

And if you look at the numbers, I’m talking about:

• 92% Open rate - (3X the average open rate of 25%)

• 63% Reply rate - (12X the average reply rate of 1% - 5%

• 68% Connection acceptance rate - (2X the average LinkedIn acceptance rate of 30%)

That’s how effective cold email can be in generating leads for your company. And if done right, you can get responses like these:

Response from the global head of a large insurance company:

Response from a C-level executive of a large bank.

These are just some of the interested leads we got for our clients.

Cold Email: Pros and Cons

​Pros	​Cons
​Cold emailing is cost-effective Compared to running ads, you can send thousands of emails for free or for a really cheap price.	​Easier to Ignore Compared to cold calling, cold emailing is easier to ignore. Despite this, at The Scalelab, we get a 93% open rate and a 63% reply rate. This is because we send personalized cold emails with high-value offers.
​Scalable and Easy to Automate At The Scalelab, we leverage various tools like Lemlist to automate the cold email process. As a result, we easily get 1-2 sales-qualified leads per week.	​Prone to spam While cold emails get mistakenly called “spam,” when done right it can yield 10+ leads every month. At The Scalelab, we lower our spam complaint rate to less than 0.1% by making sure we only send max 50 emails per day.

Cold Email Pricing Options: DIY vs Outsourcing

​DIY COSTS

​OUTSOURCING COSTS

​When doing cold campaigns on your own, you need to invest in various tools: List building tool - $9 - $60 / month Drip campaign tool - $9 -$700 / month Email warmer - $9 - $200 / month Email verification tool - $40 / month Deliverability tool - $25/month This alone could cost you $92 - $1,025/month. However, you also need to consider the time and money investment to learn cold email copywriting and strategies. Courses typically cost around $150+ depending on the complexity. Meanwhile, private consulting costs around $4,500.

​Here are the pricing options at The Scalelab: Get 5 - 10 leads per month with our “Scaler” option ($2,500/month). Enjoy a mix of email and LinkedIn as outreach channels, plus personalized email image integrations. Want something within your budget? Get 2- 4 leads per month with “Starter” ($1,500/month) Want to get more than 10 leads month after month? Then, the “Moonshot” option is for you (for partners). With “moonshot”, you can enjoy everything in the “scaler” and “starter” options, plus lead nurturing and CRM setup.

Get 10+ Leads Every Month with The Scalelab

Ready to get 10+ leads month after month WITHOUT spending thousands on cold-emailing tools and courses or spending years learning the skill? We at The Scalelab have decades of combined experience in cold outreach and sales. After generating 5,000+ leads and over $50 million in pipeline value for clients, we know what it takes to consistently get you sales-qualified leads that’ll turn into sales.

Our team has helped companies land appointments with top-tier businesses such as Google, Nike, Citibank, and Samsung. Our lead generation campaigns consistently deliver warmed-up and highly qualified sales leads that directly increase your company’s pipeline value.

Come and say hello or drop us a line at hello@thescalelab.com