What is an excellent Cost Per Lead?

An excellent Cost Per Lead is $12.30 or lower (as low as the cheapest category average in the same table, Career & Employment at $12.30). The minimum acceptable tier is $61.56 or lower (the most expensive category average in the LocaliQ 2026 lead-campaign table, Dentists & Dental Services at $61.56).

Conversions

What's a good Cost Per Lead?

A good Cost Per Lead is $27.39 or lower — at or below the LocaliQ 2026 all-industry average for Meta lead campaigns, $27.39. Average cost to acquire one lead. LocaliQ puts the 2026 all-industry Meta lead-campaign average at $27.39, with category averages from $12.30 (Career & Employment) to $61.56 (Dentists & Dental Services). Excellent is $12.30 or lower (as low as the cheapest category average in the same table, Career & Employment at $12.30), and the minimum acceptable tier is $61.56 or lower (the most expensive category average in the LocaliQ 2026 lead-campaign table, Dentists & Dental Services at $61.56).

Last updated: September 27, 2026

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The three tiers Karbon grades against — and where each comes from

Tier	Value	What it means	Basis
Minimum	$61.56	The floor. Below this, something is broken.	The most expensive category average in the LocaliQ 2026 lead-campaign table, Dentists & Dental Services at $61.56
Recommended	$27.39	The tier a healthy campaign should hit.	At or below the LocaliQ 2026 all-industry average for Meta lead campaigns, $27.39
Excellent	$12.30	Top-tier performance worth defending.	As low as the cheapest category average in the same table, Career & Employment at $12.30
Published average	$27.39	LocaliQ 2026 all-industry average, Meta lead campaigns. Source (2026-09)

Lower is better for this metric.

How it's calculated

Total Spend / Total Leads

Why Cost Per Lead matters

Core unit economics metric. Lower CPL means more leads per budget, and more chances at conversion downstream.

Sources

The three tiers on this page are Karbon Agency's grading targets. These published figures are the outside reference points for Cost Per Lead, so you can check our tiers against them.

LocaliQ / WordStream — Facebook Advertising Benchmarks for 2026 (September 23, 2026; read September 26, 2026)All-industry lead campaigns: $27.39 cost per lead, 8.54% conversion rate, $1.80 cost per click, 2.70% click-through rate. All-industry traffic campaigns: $0.60 cost per click, 1.93% click-through rate.
LocaliQ / WordStream — Search Advertising Benchmarks for Every Industry (2026) (June 1, 2026; read September 26, 2026)All-industry search averages: $5.42 cost per click, 6.64% click-through rate, 8.18% conversion rate, $66.69 cost per lead.