As a marketing consultant, I work on client accounts ensuring their marketing is working effectively and generating revenue. Two key benchmarks I prioritise are the cost per lead benchmark and the customer acquisition costs benchmark. These benchmarks are vital for everyone in business, but they are especially crucial for sales and marketing teams.
Primarily working in the B2B sector, the B2B customer acquisition costs benchmark is one of my most valuable metrics. B2B sales cycles can be lengthy, so pinpointing exact customer acquisition costs can be challenging. However, obtaining those numbers is essential for refining your marketing approach and reducing the associated costs in acquiring both leads and customers.
To optimise your marketing strategy, it is beneficial to have an understanding of key benchmarks like CPL and CAC, along with insights from recent surveys conducted among marketers in 2025. These numbers reveal important aspects about the trends and behaviours prevalent among marketing professionals.
Most Effective Strategies for Lowering CAC
Customer acquisition costs, or CAC, reflect how much a company spends to acquire a new customer. Research from various surveys indicates that CAC can greatly vary between different companies and industries.
Reducing customer acquisition costs largely depends on factors such as your industry, the products or services you offer, and your customer’s journey. The good news is that industry data regarding the cost per lead benchmarks is abundant, allowing better performance tracking for your marketing efforts.
Recent findings suggest that user-generated content ranks as the top strategy for marketing in 2025. Those implementing this type of content should consider the media forms that engage their audience the most. Notably, marketers have reported that short-form videos yield high ROI. When targeting customers, both B2B and B2C companies primarily focus on reaching millennials.
Authenticity is increasingly influencing marketing strategies, with 92% of surveyed marketers planning to maintain or boost investments in brand awareness. Branding paired with authenticity can lead to improved audience engagement and marketing effectiveness.
Marketing Channels With the Highest and Lowest CAC
Being mindful of the marketing channels you use and their associated costs can significantly contribute to lowering your customer acquisition costs.
Channels With the Lowest CAC
According to industry research, organic marketing channels boasting the lowest CAC are email marketing and public speaking for B2B companies. Social media marketing and webinars rank similarly for B2C entities. For those considering paid channels, direct mail and PPC/SEM are the lowest cost options for B2B, while Facebook Ads and PPC/SEM are the best for B2C enterprises.
Identifying your sales cycle and time to close leads is essential when measuring your CAC. In my previous role at a B2B marketing agency, I learned that while low CAC is desirable, ensuring efficiency across campaigns is equally important. Campaign results might take years to manifest, but the customers gained from those campaigns often prove to be high-value over time.
Channels With the Highest CAC
The data on channels with the highest CAC reveals insightful trends for marketers in 2025. In reviewing prevalent social media platforms, B2B and B2C entities largely favour the same most-used channels — Facebook, Instagram and YouTube dominate, whereas LinkedIn ranks higher predominantly for B2B purposes.
It’s worth mentioning that channels with high CAC, such as radio ads, may still support lower CAC channels. An example is a radio ad campaign that showed it increased social media engagement by 25%, despite its high CAC. Different marketing channels play various roles and should be evaluated both individually and collectively.
Most Effective Strategies for Lowering CPL
Cost per lead, or CPL, reflects your spending on marketing efforts before securing a lead. Effective lead generation strategies contribute to reducing your CPL significantly. One method to achieve this is through marketing automation. AI tools can enhance inbound leads significantly, reducing your CPL. Marketers who partnered with creators have witnessed a marked decrease in their CPL, with cuts of 30-40% compared to ads on conventional platforms.
Depending on your industry and channels, the definition of a good CPL may differ. Assessing averages across various channels can provide a benchmark. Research indicates that SEO commands a competitive average cost per lead. Email marketing and webinars follow closely, suggesting a range of options to explore further.
Marketing Channels With the Highest and Lowest Quality of Leads
Understanding the quality of leads is just as important as tracking costs. Not every lead generated has the same potential to turn into a customer. Here, I’ll delve into the channels yielding the highest and lowest quality leads.
Channels Resulting in Highest Quality of Leads
Marketing channels leading to high-quality leads include thought leadership, public speaking, and SEO. While these channels may require significant effort and investment without immediate payoff, they often deliver leads with a higher intent to purchase.
Conversely, channels that yield low-quality leads often stem from ineffective targeting or poor channel alignment with your audience. Ensuring you’re reaching your target demographic effectively is integral for optimising lead quality and ultimately increasing sales.
Channels With the Lowest Quality of Leads
Poor marketing performance typically results in low-quality leads. For instance, millennials predominantly explore product information through social media. If your marketing does not adequately engage them, your campaigns will not perform optimally. The significant social media platforms for B2B marketing are Facebook and LinkedIn, whereas B2C brands focus on channels like Instagram and YouTube.
Marketing Channels With Lowest and Highest CPL
Understanding which marketing channels yield a favourable CPL is essential in maximising your lead generation efforts.
Channels With Lowest CPL
According to current data, channels with the lowest CPL include SEO, email marketing, and webinars. Investigating your industry can help pinpoint channels that drive low CPL results, as variations exist. Different strategies may yield distinct outcomes even within similar business categories.
Channels With Highest CPL
In regard to the highest cost per lead, trade shows emerge substantially at $811 per lead, while PPC ads sit at $181. Content creation leads to a CPL of about $92.
Conclusion on Understanding Customer Acquisition Costs Benchmark
Now that you’ve uncovered the effective strategies for lowering your customer acquisition costs and cost per lead, you can refine your marketing approach to attract new clients while managing expenses. Tracking these metrics while remaining aware of how different channels interplay can considerably optimise your marketing strategy. It’s fundamental to realise that the channels with the lowest CPL that yield quality leads often require the most time to reveal successful results.
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