- Lead generation cost is what you pay to get one company that wants to talk about your offer.
- Agencies usually charge a monthly retainer, an hourly rate, or a price per lead or client. Only the last one ties the price to the result.
- At MWB, complete marketing (Google, email and phone) costs $2.80 per client.
What is lead generation, in plain words?
Lead generation means finding companies that might buy from you and getting them to say "yes, tell me more". That person or company is a lead. A lead is not yet a sale, but it is the first real step: someone who knows you exist and is willing to listen.
In B2B, leads come from a few proven channels: people who find you on Google, replies to email campaigns, phone calls, referrals, trade fairs and social networks. Most small and mid-size companies do not have the time or people to run these channels every week, so they hire someone to do it.
How agencies price lead generation
There are three common pricing models. Each one shifts the risk differently between you and the agency.
| Model | You pay for | Who carries the risk |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly retainer | The agency's time and tools, every month | You. If the campaign brings nobody, you still pay. |
| Hourly rate | Hours worked, whatever the outcome | You. More hours do not mean more clients. |
| Per lead / per client | Each client the campaign delivers | Shared. The agency earns only when it delivers. |
A retainer can make sense for long-term brand work, where results are hard to count. For getting new clients, though, a price per client is the easiest to understand and to compare: you know exactly what one new contact costs.
How to calculate your real cost per client
Whatever offer you get, convert it to one number: total cost divided by the number of clients delivered. Include everything – agency fees, ad spend, tools, and your own time spent on briefings and reports.
Then compare that number with what a client is worth to you. If an average new client brings you hundreds or thousands of dollars in margin over a year, even a small conversion rate from leads to deals pays off quickly.
Example with our pricing: a campaign that delivers 100 clients costs 100 × $2.80 = $280. If only a few of them become paying customers, the campaign usually pays for itself many times over. You can do this calculation before you start, because the price per client is fixed.
Which channels bring B2B clients?
No single channel works for every industry. That is why our complete marketing package runs three of them together and measures which one performs best for you.
- Google: search engine optimization, Google Ads with a hard spending cap, Google Business Profile and business directories. People who are already looking for your service find you. SEO takes months to grow, ads work immediately.
- Email campaigns: a target list of companies, short personal emails, polite follow-ups. Cheap to scale, and you see replies within days.
- Phone outreach: the fastest way to a real conversation. A good caller explains your offer in two sentences and books a meeting with the people who are interested.
Red flags when buying leads
- No definition of a lead. Ask what exactly you pay for. A downloaded e-book is not the same as a company that agreed to a call.
- Purchased consumer lists. Sending offers to private people who never agreed to it can break data protection rules and damage your brand.
- No control over the message. You should approve the target list, the emails and the call script before anything goes out.
- Reports without names. You should see who was contacted and who replied, not just a chart with "impressions".
- Long contracts with no exit. A good campaign proves itself quickly; you should not be locked in for a year.
Is cold outreach legal?
In most countries, contacting companies with a relevant business offer is allowed when it is done fairly, but the rules differ from country to country and are stricter for consumers than for businesses. In the EU, the GDPR and national direct-marketing laws apply. In practice that means: contact companies rather than private consumers, say clearly who you are, give an easy way to opt out and respect it, and keep the list of people who said no. We run every campaign this way.
Why MWB charges $2.80 per client
We built our own products – GPS fleet tracking and a product comparison platform – and had to find customers for them on a small budget. The tools and processes we built for ourselves now run campaigns for other companies too. Because a large part of the work is automated, we can keep the price low and transparent: $2.80 per client, no retainer.
Get a campaign plan
Tell us what you sell and to whom. We reply with a plan and a price estimate.
Related: business automation to handle the new clients without extra admin, and digital transformation to get your sales data into one system.