Three years of compounding optimisation across Meta paid social — from a launch-era peak of £19.41 to an all-time low of £4.50 per lead. Held to that launch peak, these 97,102 leads would have cost over £1.88M — delivered for £1.16M, a saving of roughly £722,000. Here's the full story, in the data.
Every figure below is pulled live from the Meta Ads API for the Learning People UK ad account. Lead tracking began in August 2023; spend and reach data covers the full period from launch.
Toggle between cost per lead, monthly spend, lead volume, and click-through rate. Hover any point for the full month breakdown. The CPL line tells the headline story; the metric toggles reveal what drove it.
CPL didn't fall by accident. Each phase reflects deliberate changes to audience strategy, creative approach, and campaign structure — each building on the last.
Blended annual cost per lead, calculated across each calendar year of lead-tracked activity. The trajectory is unambiguous.
From March 2026, the strategy shifted away from raw lead volume toward higher-intent leads: mandatory call bookings, phone-verified forms, and continuous price testing. CPL rose by design — the trade-off for leads far more likely to convert. Here's the thinking behind the shift, and the levers driving it.