How much should a local newsletter charge per lead?

Price a lead against what it costs you to make one, and against what it's worth to the business. Not against a rate card. There's no standard price. It's whatever you can get away with.

What does a lead cost me to produce?

Here's my rough math. About one in 50 subscribers says yes to a given offer. Acquisition runs around 50 cents a subscriber. That means 50 subscribers, $25, for one lead. Anything below $25 a lead and you're paying to give leads away.

A better offer changes everything. If six out of 100 new subscribers take it and you get $20 each, that's $120 back on about $50 spent getting those 100 subscribers. Now you're making money while you grow.

Your numbers will differ. Do the math with your own cost per subscriber and your own yes rate before you quote anyone.

How do I figure out what a lead is worth to the business?

Walk the owner through it, because a lot of business owners haven't done it. Ask what they charge per month, how long customers stay, and what their close ratio is.

My example: a client is worth about $600 and they close 20%, one out of every five leads. At $20 a lead, a customer costs them $100. Paying $100 to get $600 is a deal you take all day. Until the owner sees their own lifetime value, they can't judge any per-lead price.

• Insurance agents pay $150 to $200 for a client all day. Closing about one in five, that's why they'll pay $20 to $30 a lead.
• Realtors get their money back for the year off one deal. The difference between zero deals and one deal is massive. Past two deals, they should be doubling your price.
• Recurring-revenue businesses can pay the most. An indoor golf studio told us it closes about 60% of the leads from our signup survey into $200-a-month memberships, which by my math makes each lead worth about $1,400 to him. That's his report, not mine. If it holds, he should easily pay $50 to $100 a lead.

You'll hear that Zillow leads are better. They do convert better, because those people were already searching. But for something this high value, if yours close at half the rate and cost five times less, they still win.

What are other operators charging?

Lead type	Price	Source
Realtor lead from a signup survey	$30	A partner operator
Floor ask to a realtor or insurance agent	$20	My live walkthrough example
Local services pilot (spa, pet boarding, insurance, entertainment)	$25 opening price	A pilot with partners
After 45 days of free leads	$50	A partner's idea
Booked home-service call	$30 to $40	A partner's proposal
Restaurant redemption	About $10	A partner's proposal

In the pilot, two insurance agents a partner pitched at $25 a lead reacted well, and he thinks it could go to $100 if conversion holds. Another partner mentioned an insurance contact who pays about $100 a lead elsewhere. Those are his numbers, not results I've seen.

Low prices are often a sales problem. If an operator is getting $10 for a lead, I bet a good salesperson gets $20 or $30 from the same businesses, especially the smart, private-equity-backed ones that understand the math on recurring revenue.

How do I pitch per-lead pricing?

Frame it as a choice: pay for leads, or pay for a slot where you might get zero leads. Per-lead feels safe to a small business owner.

I come from insurance, maybe the biggest lead-buying industry there is. The model there is simple:

"You just pay for the person's info. If you can't get ahold of them, too bad for you, right?"

My first instinct for newsletters was charging $50 only when a customer actually used the offer. I now think selling the lead outright for about $10, on a one-month trial, is better. They'll only close one in four or one in six, and it's still worth it to them. That's how sales works. Finding a business that will trust the model is the hard part.

• Start free. Put them on the offer wall and give them the first five leads at no charge, then agree on a price.
• Treat a low price as short term. You need proof first.
• Ask for feedback. Tell them you won't charge more during the trial if it goes super well, but they have to tell you when they get a good lead. That information helps you sell in every other location.
• Let them do the math. If they close 25% and a customer is worth thousands, a $30 lead is cheap. On leads we've handed to one advertiser, they close about 25%.

Can I charge more for some audiences?

Yes. A B2B local audience of business owners and six-figure earners justifies a higher cost per lead, and ad rates scale up with it.

Where do the leads come from?

Mostly from a survey right after someone subscribes. A homeowner question leads to "interested in buying or selling?" A yes fills out the realtor's form. One newsletter I run the system for in Canada was getting about one real estate lead a day from a single "do you own or rent" question. The manager asked me to turn it off because she had no realtor to send them to. Line up the buyer before you turn on the faucet.

Offers work too. The golf studio's ad just sits on the last page of the survey: a free hour of golf. People see it, go check it out, and sign up. No extra work.

The offer has to be a home run. A med spa with a customer lifetime value of $4,000 to $8,000 should be happy to give $100 off to get a new client in the door. If they want it to spread, make it a $1,000 treatment. They'd spend $1,000 on ads and marketing that wouldn't work nearly as well. A bigger offer means way more people take it, which is better for you and for them.

I set this up with greetform. In a pilot, homeowners who claim an offer like a free insurance-cost review send an email to both the team and the partner agent at once.

Can I resell leads I already have?

Maybe. After a recent campaign produced apartment leads, I floated reselling them at around $10 each. Demand and revenue are unproven. Treat that as an idea, not a price.