Cost per lead, per appointment, per customer
Most businesses know their cost per lead and stop there. The number that decides whether a channel is worth running is cost per acquired customer, and the gap between the two is your booking rate and your close rate. Enter both and see all three.
By Jayden Forshee ·
Almost always the booking rate — the third input. It is the cheapest of the three to change and the one most businesses have never measured.
Cost per lead is set mostly by the market and your competitors' budgets; you have limited leverage. Close rate is a function of your offer, your pricing and your salespeople, and moves slowly. But the share of enquiries that turn into a booked appointment is largely a function of how fast and how persistently you respond — and that is infrastructure, not talent.
Run the same channel twice: once with today's booking rate, once with it ten points higher. The difference in cost per customer is usually larger than anything you would gain by renegotiating your ad management fee.
Divide total channel spend, including management fees, by the number of customers actually won from it. Cost per lead divided by your booking rate and close rate gives the same figure and shows where the loss happens.
As a rough guide, under 3× leaves little room for overhead once delivery costs are counted. Above 3× a channel can usually absorb more spend, provided the business can service the additional work.
The booking rate — the share of enquiries that become appointments. Cost per lead is set largely by the market and close rate moves slowly, but booking rate is mostly a function of response speed and persistence.