Six quick questions about your business. At the end you get one number: your target cost per lead in Google Ads, and the maths behind it.
Before you start: these numbers will not be perfectly accurate, and that is fine. They are a moving target for every business. The point is a shared starting point, so your ad targets are based on your economics instead of guesswork.
Question 1 of 6 · your revenue
What does an average customer pay you?
This anchors everything: it is what winning one new customer is worth. Answer monthly, or switch to annual contract value (ACV) if that is how you think.
$/ month
Question 2 of 6 · your gross margin
What is your gross margin?
Of every $100 a customer pays, how much you keep after the direct costs of serving them.
Rough is fine. The median for private SaaS companies is 75% (KeyBanc survey); service-heavy models run closer to 65%.
%
Question 3 of 6 · the one real decision
How fast does a new customer need to pay back what they cost to win?
Your CAC payback period. This is a choice, not a fact. Companies sit on a spectrum between growth (longer payback, pay more per lead, move faster) and efficiency (shorter payback, safer cash, fewer leads), and plenty move along it in both directions. Where are you right now?
Benchmarks: SaaS companies with sub-$15k contracts typically target 8-12 months; the top quartile runs 6 or under (Optifai, 939 companies).
months
Question 4 of 6 · your funnel
What is your demo show rate?
Of all the demos people book, the percentage who actually turn up.
%
Question 5 of 6 · your funnel
What is your demo-to-customer close rate?
Of the demos that actually happen, the percentage that become paying customers.
%
Question 6 of 6 · your budget
What is your monthly Google Ads budget?
So we can show what these numbers mean in leads, customers and revenue per month, not just cost per lead.
$/ month
Your result
Your target cost per lead
Most a customer can cost to win
Leads it takes to win one customer
What you get if we hit these numbers
New customers / year
New MRR by month 12
ARR run-rate added
Play with the assumptions
Drag any slider and everything above updates.
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What happens next: with our clients, we agree these numbers together, they become the working assumptions behind campaign targets, and we revisit them every quarter as real data comes in. Not set in stone, ever.
The maths: revenue × gross margin × payback months = most a customer can cost. Times your funnel (show rate × close rate) = your target cost per lead. Benchmarks: KeyBanc, Optifai.