The Current Benchmarks
WordStream by LocaliQ's latest Facebook benchmarks put the average leads campaign at $27.39 per lead, down slightly from $27.66 the year before, with an average conversion rate of 8.54%, up from 7.72% (LocaliQ, updated September 2026).
| Industry | Avg. cost per lead | Avg. conversion rate |
|---|---|---|
| Dentists and dental services | $61.56 | 6.07% |
| Home and home improvement | $42.95 | 5.32% |
| Automotive (for sale) | $35.52 | 4.15% |
| Health and fitness | $27.11 | 7.98% |
| Real estate | $13.74 | 9.95% |
Source: WordStream by LocaliQ Facebook ads benchmarks. Your numbers depend on your offer, area and creative.
Cost Per Lead Is the Wrong Finish Line
A $6 lead that never answers the phone costs more than a $40 lead that books. Lead ads make it easy to submit, because Facebook fills in the name, email and phone for you. That brings volume, and it also brings people who tapped through without reading.
We see it in our own account. Our main lead form asks whether the business is ready to take on a marketing partner. Out of 120 leads, 44 (37%) picked the answer that said they weren't. Those leads cost the same to get as the good ones, so the real cost of a qualified lead was higher than the cost per lead in Ads Manager.
Track This Number Instead
Divide your ad spend by the number of leads who actually booked, then by the number who paid. Cost per booked call and cost per customer tell you whether the ads work. Our LTV calculator shows how much you can afford to pay for a customer.
Three Ways to Lower the Real Cost
- Add one qualifying question, and route leads who say they aren't a fit away from your sales calendar. We cover the setup in how to stop paying for leads that never buy.
- Call back in under a minute. Lead quality drops fast while a lead waits. See why leads go cold.
- Lower the budget on ad sets with no booked calls. In our own account, a low-ticket campaign's cost per sale dropped after we cut its daily budget. Meta spends the first dollars of a budget on the people most likely to act.
Want us to run your lead ads and follow-up? See kenjiai.com/pricing, or plan your spend with the Facebook ads budget calculator.