What is a customer actually costing you?
Cost per lead is the number most accounts are judged on, and it is the one that hides the problem. Put your figures in below to see what a customer costs once the close rate is applied — and whether that leaves anything.
Free, nothing to sign up for, about 2 minutes. Your numbers stay in your browser unless you ask for the written breakdown.
What actually leaves the account each month.
From the Google Ads overview, last 30 days.
Leads or sales. If this number is inflated, so is everything below.
Of the enquiries that arrive, how many become paying customers?
Gross revenue from one customer. Use lifetime value if you have it.
How to read the result
Cost per customer is cost per lead divided by your close rate. It is the only acquisition number that means anything commercially, because leads do not pay invoices.
Break-even CPA here is your gross deal value — the point at which a customer costs exactly what they bring in. Real break-even is lower, because delivering the work costs something too. If you know your gross margin, multiply the deal value by it and compare against that instead.
Estimated waste is the soft number and is labelled as such on screen. It scales an assumed tail of non-converting search terms with how far your conversion rate sits below 4%. It exists to give you a sense of scale before you open the search terms report, not to replace opening it.
The first thing to do with this
Pull your search terms report for the last 90 days, sort by cost, and read every line with real spend and no conversions. That list is your negative keyword list, already written. It is the single most profitable hour available in most paid search accounts, and it needs nobody's permission.