Real cost per lead benchmarks across UK service sectors. Use these to assess whether your current lead generation costs are competitive or whether there is significant room for improvement.
Cost per lead varies enormously across industries, locations, and marketing channels. These benchmarks are based on well-managed campaigns running in competitive UK markets. Poorly managed campaigns can cost 2 to 5 times these benchmarks.
The right cost per lead for your business is determined by your average job value and profit margin, not by what competitors pay. A dental practice with a £2,000 average treatment value can justify a £100 CPL that would be unsustainable for a domestic cleaner with a £80 visit value.
A rough benchmark is that your CPL should be between 5% and 15% of your average job value. A business with a £500 average job should target CPLs below £75. A business with a £5,000 average job can justify CPLs of £150 to £500.
Above-benchmark CPLs typically result from one of three causes: traffic quality (wrong keywords or broad match waste), conversion rate (poor landing page performance), or attribution issues (leads not being tracked correctly). A campaign audit identifies which is responsible.
Find Out If Your Lead Costs Are Above Benchmark Book a free lead cost audit and find out exactly where your spend is going and what a well-managed campaign would deliver.