00:00 You are listening to the scaling of freedom podcast. I’m your host, Christina Bernhard. And this week we are chatting about what is a good cost per lead for Facebook ads. So this is a super common question that I get all the time. Um, and so what I wanna talk about today is what you need to know to determine what a good cost per lead is because it’s not a straightforward answer, which you were probably not surprised by that. Um, but I also wanna talk about why cost per lead. Isn’t actually the most important metric and what else you should look at. Um, and I will give you some common cost per leads for ads , um, for different types of free offers. That way you have an idea, because I know even though there are lots of other variables and different metrics that you need to look at that are in relation to your cost per lead, I know a lot of people really just want to know what is the most common or what’s the average or whatever. So I’m gonna give you those numbers. Um, and I’m also going to talk about ways to lower your cost per lead as well. If you feel like it’s out of range or it’s a little bit higher than you want it to be to get the kind of return that you want on your ad spend.

01:06 So let’s start with what you need to know to determine your cost per leave. So if you are live launching with a, you know, like typical like webinar to an email sequence, you have a cart open cart close , like the kind of standard live launch that a lot of people do. Um, then at minimum, the metrics that you’re gonna need are webinar conversion rate , um, or your overall funnel conversion rate . So how many people that sign up for your webinar or go through that email sequence? How many of them at the end end up purchasing? So having that conversion rate is going to be really, really helpful. Um , we need to know the cost of your offer, of course. Um , and this is going to calculate what the cost per lead needs to be in order for you to get a good return. So we can actually calculate , um, from that cost per lead, how many people going through are likely going to purchase and at what cost , so, you know, whatever the purchase cost is, the cost of your offer , um, what that is going to look like at the end. Um, so I highly recommend using Google sheets to do this or having Excel or whatever it is that you use. Um, I do have a free resource and I will put a link in the show notes. You can go to Christina bernhard.com/roasfreebie . So it’s R O A S freebie . And that is going to give you a free resource where I’ve actually already created a Google sheet for you that will , um, calculate this for you. So all you have to do is put in those specific numbers and the sheet, I also put in ways to guide you on how to determine your cost per lead , if you’re not sure what it is. Um, and you just follow the steps and fill out the fields , and it’s going to give you your potential return on ad spend. Um , so it’s a really, really good resource. I love this Google sheet. We actually use this in the agency for all of our clients. So whenever we are about to go into a launch, we always fill this out. It’s a very similar sheet and we’re basically making sure that we are spending enough money , um, to reach their actual goals at the end for the launch. So we’re making sure that we’re on track to reach their launch goals. Um, and so we aren’t underspending or anything like that. And then we also wanna make sure that with the cost leads that we have and where we’re at with the ad performances, that , um, we’re going to get the return also, that they are really wanting. So definitely check that out. I’ll put a link in the show notes. It’s completely free. Go ahead and download that and put in your numbers and see what your potential return is.

03:40 When you do put in your numbers into the sheet, you will quickly realize that cost per lead is not the most important metric. So if your cost per lead is $50 , um , which a lot of people would consider a high cost per lead, but the leads are high quality and highly convert into your $5,000 program. It might be well worth it, and you might still get a really great return. Um, I would absolutely pay $50, a hundred dollars, $300 for , um , $5,000. So if you have a high conversion rate , um , even with your higher cost per lead , um, it can still be really, really profitable and also low cost per leads can also mean low quality, not always, but there is sometimes a correlation. So it really also depends on your industry and how competitive your , um, market is. So I of course don’t, but I do know how to rig Facebook ads to give you a low cost per lead. Like if you just wanted a low cost per lead, all we need is a high clickthrough rate and low CPMs, and we shoot for this always, but you have to balance it with being intentional about finding quality leads. So high ticket programs often require higher income individuals, so that often will relate to higher CPMs because we’re going to have to target locations where people have more income. So , um, for example, we will make sure that our regions, if we do have clients that are very global, we make sure that we only target regions of higher cost per living, because those leads tend to actually convert to those higher ticket programs more than if we target lower cost of living locations. Um , even if they are ideal, they’re not ideal if they can’t afford it, right. So they’re not going to actually join . And that’s just how it is. And so whenever we do target those lower cost of living , um , areas or regions , um, the CPMs do tend to be lower. So those cost per leads are probably gonna be lower, but they are going to be less likely to actually convert. Um, you also might be in a competitive industry where it’s just simply going to cost you more. Um, your cost per leads are just going to be higher, but there’s, that’s totally okay. And once you start to put in the numbers into that sheet and start to play with it and see how much your conversion plays a role in how profitable your ads will actually be, you’ll see that cost per lead is not the only metric.

06:11 So it is still an important metric. So we don’t want to, you know, have a crazy high cost per lead. And if we’re getting a return, then we’re just happy. We always do want to, you know, again, find that balance, find the lower cost per lead so that we can get that return , um, as big as possible. But , um, if you do want a, the common cost per leads , um, if you’re like, please just give me the numbers fine. I will give you the general range. Okay. Super quick. If you are enjoying this episode, I would love if you took a moment to screenshot this, added to your stories and tag me so we can get this content to more people that are looking to scale their businesses to more freedom and wealth. Okay. Back to the episode . Okay. So I’m gonna give you the most common ranges that I see in the state . So in the USA, because it is different whenever you go into different regions, but the average is going to be for a freebie download. You can expect to spend anywhere between as low as $2 to in the upper range of $10. And again, your cost per lead might be higher or lower than both of these. We do see a full range, but those are probably the average is going to be somewhere between $2 and eight to $10 on the higher end. Um, for webinars, your cost per leads can be anywhere between $5 and $15 on the higher end. Um, again, they can be, you know, any variety of those. And if you are targeting specifically Europe or Australia, they are likely to be lower just because the CPMs are lower in those regions, typically for most audiences than the USA. So , um, I do want to also point out that this is post iOS 14. So if you’re looking at past results and for reference, this was last June, if you’re looking at past results, verify with whoever’s showing these results, if they are pre or post iOS 14, because things have changed. Um, I sadly decided to toss my pre iOS 14 case studies because I just don’t feel good about sharing them because it feels like I’m like tricking people without that really important context, that a lot of things have changed with visibility and, and stuff like that. And I do have , um , if I recorded an episode recently on , um , our Facebook ads still worth it, and I go through some of those changes specifically, if you wanna know exactly what I’m talking about , um, check out that episode. I quickly just run through the biggest changes , um, that have happened and you know, why this has caused higher cost per leads. Um, but there are a few reasons, some of it’s visibility and some of it’s actually just, it is costing more , um, they are legit , uh , results even though that they were in the past, but things are different. Um, and we’ve been able to match those results post iOS 14 in many cases. So we don’t really need them anyway, but it is, I think just important to make sure that you have that context whenever you are looking at past data, or you’re looking at cost per leads, just try and , um, ask or understand if it was pre iOS 14 update or post , um , because that, that matters. So we really want to compare and look at things post the iOS 14 update, which was last June , um , June of 2021. I was like, what year then ? Um, so those are the common cost per leads. Um, this can just kind of give you a gauge of what to expect. Um, whenever you are doing some , um, uh , calculations and projections. So whenever you’re filling out the row is freebie , um, the calculator that I have, you can put in a range between those numbers.

09:44 So let’s talk about ways to lower your cost per lead . So let’s say you start running ads and they are outside of that normal range, and you wanna see if you can get them lower. So the first thing that we want to do is we need high converting ads, right? So we need very clear messaging. We need , um, the ad to catch their eye in the feed . So we don’t wanna blend in too much. Um, but there is some value in blending in , um, sometimes the less curated ads where they look more native to the platform and more just like warmer, sometimes those work. So you can also try to blend it . And then also if you are running an ad that is like a graphic or something, make sure it does catch people’s attention. Um , you can do this with really good copy too . If you’re speaking directly to someone, then it’s going to catch their attention. If it’s something that they’ve been looking for or thinking about, and you’re kind of just speaking directly to them, it’s going to catch their attention. It doesn’t necessarily need to be like bright pink or something. So there are different ways to , um , have a scroll stopping ad. And I , we also have some episodes on ad creatives as well , um , about scroll stopping ads. Um , you also want it to be very clickable. So , um , you know , we want to catch their attention. We want to speak directly to them have that clear messaging that’s going to help that clickthrough rate of that ad be higher. So click the rate’s gonna be really important. Um , another thing that we need is a high converting landing page or registration page. So take a look at what your conversion rates are on the page that you’re sending the ad to, because this is going to really determine that cost per lead. Um , it’s holds a heavy weight. So we wanna make sure that that is looking good. And we can look at things on the page that might be deterring people , um, certainly look for any kind of tech issues or anything that might be , um , having people drop off. Um, and , uh , also with that, make sure that your tracking is set up properly, because if you have a crazy high cost per lead, we wanna make sure it’s not a visibility problem. And what I mean by that is that ads manager is just not able to track all of the actual leads. So your cost per lead, showing an ads manager, it might not actually be your real cost per lead. There might be more leads actually happening and going through, they’re just not showing up an ads manager. So look in your third party tool or where , whatever it is, you’re using your email marketing service to see how many leads have actually gone through. And you can kind of make those calculations to see if you have a visibility problem . And there might be ways to set up your tracking to make it a little bit more reliable in ads manager. So I do wanna point that out as well. Um , and then the other thing that we want to do is make sure you are targeting is broad enough to have lower CPMs, but we of course don’t want it too broad to give the algorithm a really hard time in finding your audience. So , um , we want to help the algorithm out a little bit in finding our ideal client, but we don’t want to make our audience so small and narrow because if we are targeting a cold audience and we make it very small and narrow, those CPMs are going to be much higher. Um, so the CPMs are what Facebook is charging you to get in front of a thousand people. So we want to make sure that that is lower because if it’s higher, even if you have a higher click through rate , it’s just costing you more money just to even have those impressions to begin with.

13:04 So if we can get those CPMs down a little bit, get that click through , rate up a little bit and then increase that , um , landing page or registration page conversion rate that is going to give you your lower costs per lead. And definitely visibility is a huge thing. It’s kind of a side note, but, you know, make sure that your tracking is set up properly. We will not always get a hundred percent of all the tracking all the time, but we do want to make sure that we’re doing what we can to try and fill that gap as much as possible. So that is what I have for cost per lead. Um, it’s a hot topic. It’s a very common question. So I really wanted to do an episode about this and break it down so that you really understand. I think it’s really important to understand cost per lead and its role and you know, what else you need to happen to help that cost per lead and help support that. And also what makes it, you know, where you need a cost per lead at a certain amount, depending on your conversion. Um, and that’s gonna make more sense whenever you fill out the calculator and actually visibly see what your cost per lead needs to be to get the kind of return that you want and to reach your launch goals for your next launch. So , um , we talked about what you need to know to determine that cost per lead. So definitely check out the freebie. Um , and , um , also talking about the, how the cost per lead is not the most important metric. Um , I did give you some numbers on the most common cost per leads and the range that you can expect to kind of fall in, and then also different ways to lower your cost per leads . So definitely in the show notes, I’m gonna put a link , um , Christina bernhard.com/roas freebie . So R O A S freebie to download the freebie . Um , it’s a really great resource. It’s super legit. We use it for all of our clients and it’s very, very helpful. It keeps us on track. Um, so we know exactly what kind of ad spend we need to happen to reach those launch goals. Um, and so you’re also going to be able to see what kind of cost per lead that you want to go for , um, and make happen so that you can reach your goals as well.

15:05 So that is what I have for you this week. I hope that you found this podcast helpful, and I will see you guys next week. Thank you for listening to the scaling to freedom podcast. If you are a seven figure coach looking for ads management with an agency that partners with you to get your work out into the world and amplify your impact. See if we are a good fit by applying for a spot in our agency@christinabernhard.com slash apply . Find the link in our show notes.