Cost per qualified lead and margin-based ROAS calculator

How to use it

Choose a closed period and a single campaign or channel. Enter media spend and, separately, any other costs you want to attribute to it, such as agency fees or tracking numbers. Then fill in the funnel: calls, share answered, share qualified and closing, which you can give as a rate or as quotes sent and accepted. Finish with the average sale value excluding VAT and the gross margin.

All amounts must be on the same basis: euros, excluding VAT and from the same period. The result updates with every change and never leaves your browser.

What it calculates

The tool uses the same definitions as the CallsIQ guides on cost per qualified contact and on ROAS and ROI for services:

• Cost per stage = ad spend / volume at that stage (calls, answered, qualified, sales). The table adds total cost, which includes other acquisition costs and is labelled separately.
• Revenue = sales × average sale value excluding VAT.
• ROAS on revenue = revenue / ad spend.
• ROAS on margin = (revenue × margin) / ad spend. Above 1, margin covers the advertising.
• Break-even ROAS = 1 / margin. With other costs: (ad spend + other costs) / (ad spend × margin).
• Contribution after advertising = revenue × margin − ad spend. Contribution after all acquisition costs also deducts the other acquisition costs.
• Gross margin per qualified lead = margin generated / qualified leads: the most you can pay in total per qualified lead without losing contribution.

Google Ads defines target ROAS as the average conversion value, such as revenue, that you want for each unit spent on ads, and expresses it as a percentage: €5 of sales for €1 of spend is 500% (Google Ads help on target ROAS). Its help page on conversion values allows sales revenue or profit margins to be used as the value. That is why the tool shows both ROAS figures: do not compare one with the other.

Worked example

Fictitious data, the same as the form's defaults: €1,000 of ad spend, €200 of other costs, 100 calls, 80% answered, 25% qualified, 20% close rate, a €1,000 sale value excluding VAT and a 40% margin.

Revenue is 4 × 1,000 = €4,000 and gross margin €1,600. ROAS on revenue is 4,000 / 1,000 = 4 (400% in Google Ads) and on margin 1.6. Break-even is 1 / 0.40 = 2.5; adding the €200 of other costs raises it to 1,200 / 400 = 3. Contribution after advertising is 1,600 − 1,000 = €600, and after all acquisition costs €400 remains. Each qualified lead brings €80 of margin against €60 of total cost. In quotes mode, 10 sent and 4 accepted give the same four sales. With fewer than ten sales the tool warns that the sample is short.

How to read the result and its limits

A ROAS of 4 is neither good nor bad on its own: with a 25% margin break-even rises to 4 and the same campaign stops contributing. Always compare ROAS with its break-even and look at contribution in euros.

Contribution is not net profit. Fixed costs are missing, as is any cost you did not put into the calculation. Nor is it an accounting result: it is an estimate for investment decisions under an attribution rule.

Use the value of the accepted sale. As the guide on quote, sale and payment values explains, adding quote, sale and payment together inflates revenue. If your Google Ads conversions send the quote value, the platform's ROAS will not match this one.

Do not use the tool for periods in which sales have not yet matured, with calls not attributed to the campaign, or with samples so small that one sale changes the decision. It does not calculate customer lifetime value or repeat sales either.

Common mistakes

• Including agency or telephony costs for one channel and not for the other. Use the same scope for both.
• Counting each follow-up call as a new lead, which lowers cost per lead without changing sales.
• Mixing amounts with and without VAT, or revenue from one month with spend from another.
• Showing a cost of €0 when there are no sales: with no denominator, the figure has no basis for calculation.

The values you enter are calculated in your browser and are not sent to CallsIQ. The page measures visits with Google Analytics as described in the privacy policy.