How Much To Charge For Lead Generation? [In-Depth Analysis Of 100+ Lead Generation Agencies]

There’s tons of information online on many aspects of starting a lead generation business. Client retention strategies? Yes. Lead generation strategies? Yes. Lead generation channels? Yes. 

But when it comes to pricing info, people become a bit tight-lipped. 

Maybe, that’s because existing lead generation companies don’t want to share a vital component of their competitive advantages. Or maybe it’s because money is still a bit taboo as a topic. 

Either way, we’re blowing the lid on lead generation pricing. 

We’ve analyzed the pricing strategies of over 100 lead generation agencies, and in this article, we’ll share our findings with you. 

Here’s a brief breakdown of the structure of this article:

And here’s a summary for those who want to skip to the good parts:

TL;DR 

• Lead generation agencies use four popular pricing models:
  • Cost per lead pricing
  • Cost per appointment pricing
  • Bulk data pricing
  • Retainer-based pricing 
• Our analysis of over 100 lead generation agencies shows that retainer-based pricing and cost per lead pricing are the two most popular models. 
• The average cost per lead is $198, and the average cost per appointment ranges from $150 to $250. 
• Retainers typically cost between $3,000 and $20,000 per month. 
• Lead generation agency owners should think outside the box when it comes to lead generation. LinkedIn is often overlooked, and considering that it’s responsible for 70% of B2B social media leads, it shouldn’t be. Expandi can help you scale LinkedIn outreach. Try Expandi with a 7-day free trial.

Our methodology

To prepare for this article, we analyzed the pricing strategies of over 100 lead generation agencies. That analysis included:

• Speaking to employees, CFOs, and CEOs 
• Obtaining quotes 
• Analyzing publicly-available pricing data
• Doing the math to uncover profit margins and total overhead costs 

We also read over 20,000 words of content and listened to five hours of podcasts on lead generation.

Now, don’t worry — we don’t intend to bore you with every single one of our findings. 

Instead, we’ve summarized the most important information in this article. We’ve also severely limited the scope of this article to just lead generation costs and pricing. 

We do have more insights to share, however, so we recommend that you read these three articles as well:

1. How To Start a Lead Generation Business? [Takeaways From Lead Gen. Agencies Doing Over $200m in Revenue Combined]
2. Lead Generation Website — How To Capture as Many Leads on Your Website as Possible
3. Lead Generation Processes, SOPs, and Frameworks From The World’s Best Companies

The most common lead generation pricing models

The most important thing we learned — hands down — was that most lead generation agencies don’t reinvent the wheel with their pricing. 

And while using the same pricing strategy as many of your competitors is kinda lame, there is logic to it. Namely:

• Clients know exactly what to expect (and transparency is very important to lead generation clients)
• You don’t have to waste time explaining your pricing model in-depth
• It’s easier for agency owners to compare their margins to other agencies 
• It’s easier for your management and finance teams 

From our research, we discovered that the majority of lead generation agencies use one of these four pricing models:

Cost per lead

Cost per lead is a very effective pricing model because clients only pay for actual, real leads. We’ve noticed this model is also very approachable for clients who are new to lead generation because they can easily justify the cost.

Here’s how it works: 

1. You work out how much it costs to obtain a lead for a client. Then, you add a profit margin and arrive at a “per lead” price. Typically, this price ranges from $30 to $400 per lead (industry dependent).
2. You enter into an agreement with the new client. 
3. You get the client leads. 
4. The client pays you for those leads. 

Cost per appointment

This pricing model only applies to agencies that help clients schedule demos or sales appointments for their leads — though many of these agencies offer cost-per-lead services as well.

Here’s how it works:

1. You determine how much it costs to get a single appointment for a client. Then, you work in a profit margin and arrive at a “per appointment” price. 
2. You enter into an agreement with a client.
3. You get the client appointments, and the client pays you for each appointment (regardless of the outcome, of course).

Your “per appointment” price should ideally be higher than your “per lead” price because leads who make an appointment are lower down in the sales funnel (and thus, they are higher quality). 

Bulk data purchasing 

This pricing model is for agencies that offer clients leads from a pre-existing database. 

Here’s how it works:

1. You collect contact information (name, phone number, email address, etc.) from hundreds to thousands of potential customers. 
2. You determine the cost of collecting this information and add in a profit margin. Let’s say, for example, this figure is $1,830,000.
3. You divide this total figure ($1,830,000) by your projected number of clients (let’s say, for example, 450). In this example, that gives you $4067.
4. You charge clients $4067 for a list of leads. 

Typically, agencies charge less for bulk data purchasing because the leads are very low quality. Thus, they’ll have a low conversion rate.

Retainer

This is the most popular form of pricing by far.

This pricing model is for agencies that do ongoing lead generation work for clients. Typically, these contracts last from three months to two years. 

Here’s how it works:

1. You determine the cost of one month’s worth of work for a client and add in a profit margin. 
2. You enter into an agreement with the client.
3. You complete one month’s worth of work for the client. 
4. They pay you the monthly fee (either in advance or at the end of the month). 

Agencies that use this model offer Search Engine Optimization (SEO), traffic-driving activities, sales funnel building, analytics and results monitoring, and lead scraping, generation, and nurturing. 

Typically, the “per month” cost is between $3000 and $20,000.

What is the average cost per lead and cost per appointment?

Data from the DeTorres Group shows that the average sales price differs by industry, company size, company revenue, and marketing channel. 

Overall, it’s $198 per lead. 

Here’s a breakdown by industry…

Industry	Cost per lead
IT and services	$370
Healthcare and medical	$286
Financial services	$272
Industrial and manufacturing	$235
Media and publishing	$191
Consumer products	$182
Marketing agencies	$173
Education	$66
Non-profit	$43

And by company size…

Company size (by the number of employees)	Cost per lead
2-50	$147
51-200	$180
201-1000	$212
1000+	$349

By company revenue…

Company size (by revenue)	Cost per lead
Under $1 million	$166
$1 million – $10 million	$185
$10 million – $500 million	$179
$500 million+	$429

And by the B2B channel used:

Lead generation channel	Lowest possible cost per lead	Highest possible cost per lead
SEO	$30	$175
Pay Per Click (PPC)	$40	$150
Content creation	$80	$300
Display advertising	$65	$85
Webinars	$50	$110
Video marketing	$175	$225
Public relations	$300	$400
LinkedIn	$75	$125

The average cost per appointment ranges from $150 to $250. 

Now, the “average” figure might not be the best price for you to charge. You should take into account the age/reputation of your agency, the quality of your leads, and your clients.

5 examples of lead generation pricing from leading companies

To prepare for this article, we looked at pricing information for over 100 lead generation agencies. 

If we went through them one by one, however, this article would be a pretty monotonous read. 

So instead, we’re going to focus on five agencies that we believe represent the rest fairly well. 

Without further ado…

#1. ServiceDirect

ServiceDirect has over 2000 clients. The agency has generated over $520 million in revenue and delivered over 2 million leads. 

ServiceDirect has a fairly limited scope and focuses on clients in the home improvement, legal services, medical services, insurance, and automotive industries. They also work with small businesses offering:

• Computer repairs
• Printing
• Flight booking
• Flowers
• Internet and cable
• Hotel accommodation

ServiceDirect uses per-lead pricing. The agency has a set range for each industry — highly qualified leads cost more. 

Here are some of the price ranges in the home improvement niche:

Here are the price ranges in the legal services niche:

Here are the price ranges in the medical services nice:

And here are the price ranges in the insurance, automotive, and small business niches:

#2. The Martal Group

The Martal Group has a database of over 100 million contacts that was built over the twelve years the agency has been in business. 

The Martal Group uses a flat fee per month price. The final price is determined by the client’s industry and the service tier they choose. 

The Martal Group offers three service tiers:

• Tier one — Lead generation 
• Tier two — Lead generation and customer onboarding
• Tier three — Lead generation, customer onboarding, and account management 

Tier three is obviously the most expensive (and also the most effective). 

The Martal Group’s new clients sign up for a three-month pilot campaign. If things go well, they transition into a monthly subscription. 

The Martal Group uses a range of strategies, including email outreach, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calling. They also offer sales reps who can nurture leads for clients. 

On average, the agency targets 3000 to 5000 leads per month for each client and flips five to 15 of them. 

Securing appointments for clients is a major component of The Martal Group’s offering — so the agency charges clients more than many other competing agencies. 

Our research indicates this price ranges from $2000 to $40,000 a month. 

#3. Belkins

Belkins works with clients in Europe, Australia, North America, and South America. It’s a fairly new agency (founded in 2017). Belkins has scheduled 28,000+ appointments for clients, has 790+ clients, and offers a Return On Investment (ROI) of 10:1. 

Belkins offers three “types” of services: appointment setting, inbound appointment setting (i.e., inbound lead generation), and LinkedIn influencer marketing. 

Clients can choose to commit to a six-month-long or one-year-long contract. 

For appointment setting, Belkins offers these plans:

• Startup — Netting customers 72+ appointments a year or 36+ appointments in six months
• Growth — Netting customers 120+ appointments a year or 60+ appointments in six months
• Growth Plus — Netting customers 360+ appointments a year or 180+ appointments in six months

For inbound appointment setting, Belkins offers these plans:

• Inbound Appointment Setting
• Inbound Appointment Setting + Post-Sales Enablement
• Post-Sales Enablement 

For LinkedIn influencer marketing, Belkins offers these plans:

• LinkedIn Outreach
• LinkedIn Influencer + Outreach
• LinkedIn Influencer

Belkins customizes prices based on clients’ goals, target audience, and industry. Our research indicates this price likely ranges from $3,000 to $70,000 (though the lowest appointment-setting plans likely start at around $13,000 for six months).

#4. Cience

Cience has worked with over 2500 organizations in the software development, IT, finance, marketing, biotechnology, and education niches. 

Cience offers six plans designed for organizations requiring different marketing services (from Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) building to generating leads). Several plans include full-time experts in marketing and content creation. Cience also offers Sales Development Representatives (SDRs).

Cience customizes the pricing of each plan depending on the client’s needs. 

But they do offer an ROI calculator. This calculator shows that the cost for a single Cience SDR team is $64,800 for twelve months and $10,800 for one month. 

Cience compares this cost to the cost of hiring your own SDR team. When accounting for hiring, training, overhead, salary, and management costs, Cience estimates that the team costs $131,159 annually or $10,930 monthly.

#5. BlueZebra Appointment Setting

BlueZebra has been in the market since 1999 and has worked with over 3000 companies. BlueZebra’s focus is solely virtual sales appointments and lead generation — the agency doesn’t offer any other services. 

BlueZebra charges new clients an initial investment fee of $2,500. These funds will go towards developing a market-focused strategy suitable for the client’s specific ICP. 

BlueZebra then charges a per-appointment fee for each lead they secure. The exact price for each lead depends on the client’s industry and goals. 

Clients can exit their contacts by paying a $1,250 one-time fee. 

BlueZebra’s customer service and reporting services are accounted for in the per-appointment fee. 

Things to consider when setting your prices

At this point, you have nearly all of the information that you need to set your agency’s prices. 

I say “nearly” because there’s one major thing we haven’t covered: the direct and indirect costs you need to account for in your prices. If you don’t account for these expenses, they’ll eat into your profits. 

What do these costs include?

• Overhead — Including the cost of renting or buying an office, electricity costs, printing costs, water costs, and business insurance costs.
• Staff costs — Including the cost of hiring, training, managing, retaining, and paying staff. You should also include your salary as the CEO. 
• Campaign costs — Including the cost of LinkedIn outreach (like $99 per seat per month for Expandi), SEO, cold calling, PPC, content marketing, social media marketing, and any other costs required to generate leads and demand.
• Client maintenance costs — Including the cost of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, reporting and analytics tools, sales prospecting tools, customer success activities, and whatever you spend on your marketing efforts.  

Of course, you should also account for your profit margin. 

Data from an NYU report shows that the average profit margin across all industries is 7.71% (as of January 2022). 

A low profit margin is 5%, a healthy profit margin is 10%, and a high profit margin is 20%. 

Final thoughts: How much to charge for lead generation

Ultimately, there are four primary lead generation pricing models. These include:

• Cost per lead pricing
• Cost per appointment pricing
• Bulk data pricing
• Retainer-based pricing 

The right model for you will depend on the scope of your services, your clients, and your goals. 

If we could make one recommendation to all agency owners, it would be that they think outside the box when it comes to picking lead generation strategies. 

LinkedIn outreach is often overlooked. And it shouldn’t be — 70% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn. 

If you want to make waves on LinkedIn, you need to try Expandi. 

Expandi can help you bypass LinkedIn’s account limits and generate leads quickly and easily. You can even nurture them with personalized messages. 

Curious about Expandi? Try Expandi’s 7-day free trial today.