Organic vs paid cost per lead: comparing like with like

Key takeaways

To compare organic and paid cost per lead fairly, include every cost on both sides. Organic cost per lead is time, tools and content divided by organic enquiries. Paid cost per lead is ad spend, management and ad creative divided by paid enquiries. Organic is often undercounted because time is ignored and leads are not tracked.

• Organic CPL = time + tools + content ÷ organic enquiries.
• Paid CPL = ad spend + management + creative ÷ paid enquiries.
• Track every enquiry's source, or organic will look worse than it is.
• Compare over 3 months, not one.

How do you calculate organic cost per lead?

Organic cost per lead is the full monthly cost of organic social divided by enquiries it produced. Include staff or owner time at its hourly cost, agency fees, tools and content. ONS ASHE data can help estimate time costs if you do not have exact payroll figures.

• Organic social media vs paid advertising: which to choose?
• Organic vs paid social: what each one really costs

How do you calculate paid cost per lead?

Paid cost per lead is ad spend plus management fees plus creative costs, divided by enquiries from ads. Platforms report cost per result based on ad spend only, which understates the true cost. Add the other costs before comparing.

• The maximum cost per lead your business can afford

Why is organic often undercounted?

Organic is undercounted because many organic enquiries arrive by phone, direct message or walk-in, and are never tagged. Paid platforms track their own results automatically. Ask every enquirer how they found you and log it, and use GA4 key events for website enquiries.

• Phone calls after seeing a post.
• Direct messages that never reach the website.
• Referrals from shared posts.
• People who saw a post, then searched your name.

• 'How did you hear about us?' Asking the question properly
• Not knowing which enquiries came from social media

What is a sensible cost per lead?

A sensible cost per lead depends on what a customer is worth and how many leads become customers. If a customer is worth £1,000 in profit and one in four leads buys, you can afford well under £250 per lead. Work this out before judging either channel.

• Cost per lead by channel: comparing social media and offline

Should cost per lead decide between organic and paid?

Cost per lead is useful but not the whole picture. Organic leads may convert better because they already trust you; paid leads may arrive faster. Compare cost per customer where you can, and consider speed and volume as well as price.

• Are customers from social ads worth less than organic ones?

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a removals firm believed paid social was far cheaper per lead than organic. Adding phone enquiries that mentioned seeing posts to the organic count, and adding the management fee to paid, showed the two were close. Both stayed, with clearer jobs for each.

• See client work
• Social Media Marketing for UK businesses

Cost per lead checklist

• Ask every enquirer how they found you.
• Log enquiries by source weekly.
• Value organic time at real hourly cost.
• Add fees and creative to ad spend.
• Compare over three months.
• Compare cost per customer where you can.

• Organic vs paid social: what each one really costs
• How much time does organic social media take each week?

Next step

For the next month, log every enquiry with its source and add up the full cost of organic and paid. Divide each and compare like with like before changing your budget.