2025 CPL and CAC Benchmarks [HubSpot Research]

As a advertising advisor, I work on shopper accounts and guarantee their advertising is working (i.e., being profitable for the enterprise). To gauge advertising success, I notably like two benchmarks: the associated fee per lead benchmark (CPL) and the client acquisition prices benchmark (CAC).

These benchmarks are useful for everybody in enterprise to know, however particularly essential for gross sales and advertising groups.

I work primarily within the B2B area, and the B2B value per lead benchmark is among the most precious metrics. B2B gross sales cycles can take a very long time, and it may be tough to find out the precise buyer acquisition prices, however you should get as shut as doable to those numbers.

To assist refine your advertising technique to decrease the prices of buying leads and prospects, listed below are some useful CPL and CAC benchmarks, plus insights from a latest HubSpot survey of tons of of entrepreneurs. I wished to take a look at what the numbers inform us about CPL and CAC, alongside the behaviors of entrepreneurs in 2025.

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Buyer acquisition value (CAC) is how a lot an organization spends to get a brand new buyer.

HubSpot State of Advertising and marketing surveys have beforehand confirmed that CAC varies between firms and industries.

What reduces buyer acquisition prices will rely significantly in your business, services or products, buyer, and most well-liked purchaser journey. The excellent news is that yow will discover information with the associated fee per lead benchmarks by business, and this could enable you see how your web site performs.

I wished to seek out some information to see what would possibly scale back CAC. I used HubSpot’s State of Advertising and marketing Survey to grasp what entrepreneurs are doing in 2025 and past. Protected to say, any advertising that’s getting the eye of the lots is what’s shifting the needle for the enterprise.

Right here’s what I discovered:

• Person-generated content material (UGC) is voted as the highest advertising technique for 2025.
• In the event you use UGC in advertising, take into account what type of media your viewers is most engaged with. For instance, entrepreneurs report short-form movies as having excessive ROI.
• Take into consideration your viewers. Each B2B and B2C companies are primarily concentrating on millennials.
• Authenticity appears to be main the cost for almost all of entrepreneurs. Of entrepreneurs surveyed, 92% plan to keep up or make investments extra in model consciousness. I’d argue that branding and authenticity go hand-in-hand with video.

In response to First Sage Web page, natural advertising channels with the bottom CAC embrace electronic mail advertising and public talking for B2B, in addition to social media advertising and webinars for B2C.

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For paid channels, the bottom CAC channels are:

• Direct Mail and PPC/SEM for B2B.
• Fb Advertisements and PPC/SEM for B2C.

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When measuring your CAC, take into account your gross sales cycle and time to shut leads.

I used to work in a B2B advertising company, and yearly, we’d run an affordable unsolicited mail marketing campaign. Nonetheless, the marketing campaign outcomes typically didn’t present up for years. The shoppers we did get had been glorious, although! The takeaway is that whereas low CAC is fascinating, you should steadiness this with effectivity.

Advertising and marketing Channels With the Highest CAC

The tables above additionally present us the best CAC by channels for B2B and B2C.

I wished to analyze the advertising persons are doing in 2025. It’s secure to imagine that these channels are thought to decrease the CAC.

Let’s check out social media in 2024. Apart from LinkedIn, each B2B and B2C companies prioritize the identical social media platforms. The favourite is Fb, adopted by Instagram, Linked (for B2B solely), YouTube, and TikTok. B2C manufacturers favored LinkedIn final, which is smart.

Professional tip: It might be that channels with the best CAC help channels which have decrease CAC. In the event you’re doing plenty of advertising, take into account media combine modeling to establish how channels, comparable to a better CAC channel, help others.

An instance from the media combine modeling article I wrote completely demonstrates what I imply: As pictured above, radio advertisements have a excessive CAC for B2B. Nonetheless, a marketer discovered that radio advertisements elevated clicks and engagement in social media by 25%. Advertising and marketing channels all have completely different roles to play and must be measured individually and collectively.

Value per lead (CPL) tells you ways a lot you’ve spent on advertising earlier than you get a lead. A lead could be the client’s contact info or curiosity within the enterprise’s services or products.

One efficient option to decrease CPL is with advertising automation. Utilizing AI instruments like HubSpot’s AI, Breeze, will increase inbound leads by 99%. In the event you can improve high quality leads with minimal effort — utilizing AI — CPL will lower.

Kyle Denhoff, HubSpot’s Senior Director of Advertising and marketing, efficiently lowered value per lead with creator companions. Denhoff says, “Creators have turn into considered one of our high development drivers in lower than three years. Some long-term creator partnerships minimize our value per lead by 30-40% in comparison with advertisements on Meta and Google. We’ve now obtained over 100 creator companions, and so they’re driving about 50% of our media community attain and demand.”

In the case of CPL, you need to spend much less cash per lead. However what does a superb CPL appear like? Properly, that relies on industries and channels, however right here’s a have a look at CPL for various channels based on Customer Queue.

In the event you’re questioning what is an efficient CPL, then you’ll be able to seek advice from averages as proven within the desk beneath.

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In response to First Web page Sage, advertising channels that consequence within the highest ROI (and, due to this fact, assumed the best high quality of leads) embrace:

• Public talking.
• Thought management and search engine optimization.
• Webinars.
• Electronic mail advertising.
• Podcasts.

First Web page Sage presents this info in a desk with the time to outcomes.

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With this new information in thoughts, I need to nod again to what I stated earlier concerning the unsolicited mail marketing campaign. The best ROI lead era channels are:

• Principally medium to very arduous to execute.
• Costly.
• Take time.

Our unsolicited mail marketing campaign took years to repay, however we obtained high quality leads. It was at the least low-effort and low-cost, although.

The reality is that producing high-quality leads for what you are promoting isn’t simple, and it’ll take time.

Professional tip: Make these channels as environment friendly as doable so you will get essentially the most out of them. For instance, AI may help write content material, generate blogs from video transcripts, and vice versa. Use the appropriate software program (Advertising and marketing Hub, for instance) with built-in AI to assist streamline processes. The extra streamlined you’re working, the higher the possibilities you’ll carry your CPL consistent with value per lead benchmarks.

Josh Ames is a HubSpot and GTM Supervisor at Phocas Software program, and he’s utilizing HubSpot’s AI to do extra testing.

Ames says, “HubSpot’s information enrichment function rapidly improved our information high quality, resulting in more practical campaigns and higher alignment. 92% of firms in our CRM had at the least one new enrichment property populated by the brand new function. AI lets you go from A/B testing to A to Z testing and rapidly discover out which advertisements or posts are the more than likely to carry out the very best along with your viewers.”

Advertising and marketing Channels Ensuing within the Lowest High quality of Leads

Advertising and marketing that ends in low-quality leads is advertising completed poorly. Seemingly, you’re not reaching your viewers in a manner that resonates, otherwise you’re utilizing advertising channels that your viewers doesn’t use.

For instance, HubSpot’s Shopper Developments Report discovered that Millennials’ primary channel for product discovery is social media. Contemplating that entrepreneurs in B2B and B2C companies are concentrating on Millennials, a social media presence is a should!

Keep in mind what I stated earlier? The highest three social media channels utilized by entrepreneurs are:

• B2B: Fb, Instagram, LinkedIn.
• B2C: Fb, Instagram, YouTube.

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Customer Queue recorded information CPL by channel. Utilizing the associated fee common, the bottom CPL channels included:

• search engine optimization ($31).
• Electronic mail advertising ($53).
• Webinars ($72).

It’s essential that you simply discover your business to find out what returns a low CPL for you. The information discovered by Customer Queue conflicts with First Web page Sage, which listed search engine optimization because the third costliest channel with medium to excessive time to get outcomes.

There’s no one-size-fits-all in metrics, and even companies inside the identical class (B2B or B2C) have to dig into their area of interest information accordingly. For instance, the B2B SaaS value per lead benchmark could also be completely different from B2B typically.

Advertising and marketing Channels With Highest Value per Lead

Sticking with Customer Queue’s information on CPL by channel, they discovered the channels with the best value per lead included:

• Commerce exhibits ($811).
• PPC ($181).
• Content material creation ($92).