Marketing - Cost Per Lead Analyzer.xlsx
Formula-driven | 5 sheets: README, INPUT, LOGIC, OUTPUT, CONFIG
What This Spreadsheet Solves
- No visibility into true cost per qualified lead vs. raw CPL
- Channels appear cheap on CPL but produce low-quality leads
- Cannot compare lead generation efficiency across paid and organic sources
- Budget allocation is based on volume rather than lead quality
- No way to track CPL trends over time
Who This Is For
- Demand generation managers optimizing lead sources
- Marketing operations analysts building reports
- Growth marketers managing multi-channel acquisition
- Sales operations leaders evaluating lead quality
Inputs
- textChannel / Campaign Name
- $Total Spend
- #Number of Leads Generated
- #Number of Qualified Leads
- dateTime Period
Outputs
- Cost per lead (CPL) by channel
- Cost per qualified lead (CPQL) by channel
- Qualification rate percentage
- Channel efficiency ranking
- Blended CPL and CPQL across all channels
How Calculations Work
CPL is Total Spend / Leads. CPQL is Total Spend / Qualified Leads. The qualification rate is Qualified Leads / Total Leads. Channels are ranked by CPQL rather than CPL to reflect actual business value. A composite efficiency score weights both volume and quality.
Example Use Case
Scenario: A B2B company spends $6,000 on Google Ads (120 leads, 30 qualified) and $4,000 on content syndication (200 leads, 20 qualified).
Result: Google Ads: CPL $50, CPQL $200, 25% qualification. Content syndication: CPL $20, CPQL $200, 10% qualification. Despite a lower CPL, syndication has the same CPQL and a far lower qualification rate.
What You Get: 5 Sheets
Technical Details
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a qualified lead?
That depends on your business. Use whatever definition your sales team uses (e.g., MQL, SQL). Enter only leads that meet that bar in the qualified column.
Should I include organic leads with zero spend?
You can. CPL will be $0, and CPQL will be $0. They are excluded from cost-based rankings but shown in the volume summary.
How often should I update this?
Monthly is standard. The date field lets you compare month-over-month CPL trends on the OUTPUT sheet.
Can I add a conversion-to-customer column?
The INPUT sheet has an optional closed-deal column. If populated, the LOGIC sheet will also compute cost per customer.
Why is CPQL more useful than CPL?
CPL ignores lead quality. A channel with $5 CPL and 2% qualification costs $250 per qualified lead, which is worse than a $50 CPL channel with 40% qualification ($125 CPQL).
Download Cost Per Lead Analyzer
Ready to use immediately. Enter your data in the INPUT sheet, see results in OUTPUT.