How Much Does Lead Generation Cost? Here’s a Breakdown (2024)

Are you getting your money’s worth when running lead generation campaigns? Unfortunately, many businesses are burning resources to fill their sales pipelines.

Without the proper research, tools, and strategies, lead generation becomes detrimental to the growth of your business.

So, how much should be spent on each campaign? Should you outsource lead generation to a marketing agency? Or should you be running targeted ads yourself?

We’ll be answering those questions and more! By the end of this article, you’ll be able to learn:

• The cost of running lead generation
• How much do lead generation agencies cost
• Tools needed to run lead generation in-house
• Lead generation best practices

The Cost of Running Lead Generation

A lead generation campaign can cost anywhere between zero to several thousand. You heard that right! Lead generation can be free of cost if you’re utilizing the right tools and campaign structure.

But that’s if you’re doing everything yourself. Not everyone has the luxury of time, especially business owners taking on several roles.

In most cases, businesses use several lead generation strategies instead. Here is a breakdown of the cost of the most popular ones.

Buying Leads or Email Lists

There are thousands of agencies and individuals selling leads online in every industry.

You can find many lead sellers from online communities and social media platforms. Pricing per 10k leads can start anywhere from $10 to $100. The only issue is validity.

Most sellers offer cheap leads because they aren’t verified. If you’re running cold email campaigns, unverified leads could ruin bounce rates, deliverability, and sending reputation.

For pre-verified leads, you can try out Instantly B2B Finder. It’s a lead finder tool that can pinpoint your buyer personas and find people who fit your ideal customer profile.

Paid Advertisem*nts and PPC

If you want a more proactive approach for lead generation, paid advertisem*nts, and PPC campaigns are the way to go. But pricing depends heavily on your niche and keyword difficulty.

Pricing also varies depending on the platform. On average, Facebook ads cost $0.44 per click and $14.40 per mille (thousand impressions). Meanwhile, Google’s average CPC costs $2.59.

Hiring an In-house Marketing Team

An in-house marketing team has the advantage of having a deeper understanding of your business. This translates to better content, branding, and lead generation efforts.

But for marketing to be effective, they need the right sales enablement tools. These tools streamline lead generation, customer management, and closing sales.

According to Glassdoor, in-house marketing managers’ base pay ranges between $90k to $150k annually. You’d also need to pay for marketing tools and other additional overhead.

Running Inbound Marketing Campaigns

There are several ways to do inbound marketing. You can run content campaigns on social media, optimize for SEO, or multimedia content production.

Pricing depends on several factors, including the type of inbound marketing you want to do, campaign length, and industry.

For example, quality SEO services range between $2500 to $20,000+. This should already include content production, backlink building, and SEO management.

Optimizing Landing Pages for Conversions

Your business website should be the central hub for all your lead generation efforts. When a lead clicks on your ads, they should be directed to a landing page optimized for conversions.

This job suits multimedia specialists or people in UX design or web development. Outsourcing these specialists can cost around $3K/month.

They can work with your marketing team to create better website design, layouts, and CTAs for your key landing pages.

How Much Does a Lead Generation Agency Cost?

Lead generation agencies can have different pricing options. The four most popular pricing models include cost per lead, cost per appointment, lead list pricing, and retainer-based.

According to studies, businesses within the B2B industry can expect to spend $40-$190 per lead. Agencies with retainer-based pricing models charge between $3K to $20K monthly.

Depending on the industry, a single lead can even cost upwards of $400, which is typical for high-ticket leads. Other agencies charge for setting up your lead generation funnels; some ask for a revenue percentage.

But if outsourcing an agency isn’t an option for you at the moment, you can always run lead generation in-house. You just need to have the right tools.

How To Do Lead Generation Yourself

Outbound lead generation requires three core tools in your arsenal—a lead finder tool, an outreach tool, and a lead management tool.

Inbound lead generation requires tools for media and content creation. Think of editing software like Photoshop, which can cost a premium.

Let’s say you want to run a cold email campaign. You’d need email searching tools, an outreach tool to engage with leads, and a CRM to monitor where the leads are in the sales pipeline.

After creating a lead list, you must verify your leads through platforms like MillionVerifier to ensure high-validity rates.

That’s four separate apps you need to pay for and learn to use. With Instantly, you get them all in one intuitive tool. You can find pre-validated leads with Instantly B2B finder and immediately use the list in a campaign. Then, you can monitor your leads with Instantly’s Dealflow CRM.

It’s the most streamlined and cost-effective approach to in-house lead generation.

Key Takeaways

Lead generation is essential for sustaining your sales pipelines, growing revenue, and scaling your business. The cost of lead generation varies depending on the strategy, industry, and pricing model. Here’s a quick recap of the average cost of running lead generation campaigns:

• Buying lead lists from sellers can range between $10-$100 per 10k leads. These leads still need to be verified.
• Paid advertisem*nts cost around $0.44 per click and $14.40 per impression on social media platforms like Facebook. Google’s CPC costs $2.59 on average.
• Hiring an in-house marketing team or manager requires you to pay a salaried position between $90K and $150K.
• Inbound marketing and content campaigns like SEO can range between $2.5k to $10k.
• Optimizing your landing pages can run $3k/month if you outsource services like UX design and web development.

Finding leads is just half the battle. You must engage with your leads, nurture them, and nudge them further down your sales pipeline. Instantly has you covered with all these! Want to 10x your leads? Try Instantly today!