What does lead generation cost?
2026-05-10 · 4 min read · Adam Axelsson, founder of Revexa
A B2B lead costs on average 880 to 1,155 SEK to generate in Sweden, but the range per channel is enormous: from a few hundred for a content lead to several thousand for an event lead. And that is before the hidden costs are counted. The ranges look similar across most Western markets. Here is what each channel actually costs and why the cheapest leads already sit in your CRM.
What does a lead cost per channel?
The numbers below are typical ranges for B2B companies selling to other companies. Your industry and your average order value shift the ranges, but the proportions tend to hold.
| Channel | Cost per lead | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn ads | 700 to 2,000 SEK | Good targeting, expensive clicks |
| Google Ads | 500 to 1,500 SEK | Depends entirely on keyword competition |
| Content and SEO | 200 to 800 SEK | Cheap over time, expensive the first year |
| Events and trade shows | 1,500 to 5,000 SEK | Booth, staff, travel, follow up |
| Bought lists | 20 to 100 SEK per contact | Low quality, compliance risk, damages domain reputation |
| Agency (lead gen/outreach) | 1,000 to 3,000 SEK | Retainer spread over delivered leads |
Note the difference between a contact and a lead. A bought list gives contacts, not leads. A contact who has never shown interest converts a fraction as often and drags down your reply rates on top of that.
Which hidden costs get forgotten in the calculation?
The channel prices above are only the visible part. The real cost per lead includes:
- Working time. Someone has to write ads, build landing pages, staff the booth and qualify inbound. Count the hours times fully loaded salary.
- Tools. CRM, forms, email platform, data enrichment. Often a few thousand a month in total.
- The follow up cost. A lead without follow up is worth zero. The sales time to work leads is often larger than the acquisition cost.
- Waste. Duplicates, wrong audience, students who download your guide. Count on a significant share of the gross leads never being sellable.
Add these items and many companies land well above the average of 880 to 1,155 SEK per usable lead.
How do you calculate your real cost per lead?
Take a quarter. Sum all channel costs, tools and time spent on lead generation. Divide by the number of qualified leads, not gross contacts. Do it per channel, because the average lies: it is common for one channel to deliver leads at 400 SEK while another costs 4,000 SEK each without anyone noticing.
Why are the leads you already own the cheapest?
Every lead in your CRM is already paid for once. Last year's event lead maybe cost 3,000 SEK, the whitepaper lead 600 SEK. If no deal came of it back then, the money is spent, but the value remains. Industry data shows that 70 to 80 percent of all leads in a CRM never get followed up.
Reviving the contact costs, in practice, only the follow up, a fraction of what a new lead costs. Before you raise the ad budget it is therefore almost always more profitable to work through what you already have. That is the gap Revexa builds Leo for: waking dormant leads with personal, signal driven emails instead of buying the same contact a second time.
If you want to put numbers on your own database, there is the calculator.
Common questions
What is a good cost per lead in B2B?
The one that gives a profitable cost per customer. Working backward: if you can carry a CAC of 40,000 SEK and every tenth lead becomes a customer, you can carry 4,000 SEK per lead. The channel matters less than the math.
Are bought lists worth the price?
Rarely. Low reply rate, a shaky legal basis and the risk of a damaged domain reputation make the low unit price expensive in practice.
What does a meeting cost compared to a lead?
Count on 3,000 to 8,000 SEK per booked meeting via cold channels, depending on audience. Meetings from reactivated CRM leads usually land considerably lower because the acquisition is already paid for.