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Metrics
Cost per lead is ad spend divided by the number of leads generated, where a lead is a form submission, phone call, chat, or other inquiry that a sales process can follow up on.
CPL is CPA for businesses that do not sell online. It is easy to measure and easy to game: count every form fill and every three-second call and the CPL looks wonderful while the sales team wastes its day. The useful version counts leads that meet a definition: calls over a duration threshold, forms that pass validation and qualifying fields, chats that leave contact details.
CPL varies enormously by industry because the value of a lead does. Legal and insurance leads cost more than moving or locksmith leads because the client is worth more. Comparing your CPL to a general benchmark is nearly meaningless; comparing it to your own close rate and average job value tells you whether the campaign is profitable.
The next step beyond CPL is cost per qualified lead and cost per customer, which need CRM data. That is where offline conversion import earns its keep.
Why it matters
It is the everyday metric of lead generation, and it is only honest when the definition of a lead is.
RELATED TERMS
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
Cost per acquisition is total ad spend divided by the number of conversions, giving the average cost to produce one defined outcome such as a sale, lead, or sign-up.
Offline Conversion Import
Offline conversion import uploads events that happen after the click, such as qualified leads, booked appointments, or closed deals, back into Google Ads or Meta, matched to the original click so bidding can optimize toward them.
Conversion Action
A conversion action is a defined event in Google Ads (purchase, form submission, call, sign-up) that the account counts as a valuable outcome and that Smart Bidding optimizes toward when set as primary.
Written by Ilya Bulychev, Founder, Live PPC Ads. Part of the PPC Glossary.
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