When it comes to running Facebook and Instagram ads, many business owners focus on one thing: Cost per lead (CPL).
And while CPL is an important metric, it’s not the only one that matters.
If your ads are bringing in leads at a low cost but those leads aren’t turning into sales, then are your ads really working?
The real measure of success isn’t just how many leads you get—it’s how many sales you make.
Let’s dive into why looking at the bigger picture is crucial and explore three real-life examples where deeper analysis led to better results.
Example #1: Higher CPL, Higher-Quality Leads
One of my clients runs a lead magnet campaign where the ultimate goal is to get subscribers to book a discovery call for their service.
At first glance, the numbers told us this:
- Some ads were converting at $8 per lead.
- Others were converting at $15 per lead.
Most people’s first instinct, mine included is to turn off the $15 ads and push the $8 ads harder.
That makes sense if we’re just looking at CPL.
But when we took a closer look at the actual conversions, something surprising was happening.
The ads with the higher CPL ($15) were the ones actually leading to booked discovery calls.
The lower CPL ads? Not so much.
If we had just focused on cost per lead, we would have mistakenly turned off the ads that were driving the real results—sales calls.
By looking beyond CPL and focusing on the entire funnel, we ensured the ads were generating not just leads but quality leads that moved further down the pipeline.
Example #2: Audience Building Ads – Cheap Clicks vs. Valuable Leads
In another campaign, we are running ads to blog posts with the goal of increasing website traffic and building an audience.
The cost per link click ranged from $0.25 to $0.87.
Again, the obvious choice would be to turn off the more expensive clicks and keep the cheaper ones.
But when we looked at what happened after the click, we discovered that the higher-cost clicks were actually generating more leads.
Why? Because these visitors were engaging more deeply with the content and opting into the lead magnets embedded in the blog posts.
The “cheaper” clicks were bringing traffic, but that traffic wasn’t converting.
This is why a broader perspective is crucial.
A campaign that seems “too expensive” at first glance might actually be delivering higher-quality leads that are worth far more than the cost per click suggests.
Example #3: Evergreen Masterclass Funnel—Sales Over CPL
A client of mine runs an evergreen masterclass funnel with a tripwire offer and a coaching program upsell.
The cost per lead varies between $2 and $5.
If we only looked at CPL, we’d want to scale the $2 leads and cut the $5 leads. But when we tracked actual purchases, we saw that the ads generating the $5 leads were also the ones producing the most sales from the tripwire and coaching program.
Yes, we were paying more per lead, but those leads were far more likely to buy.
If we had focused only on CPL, we would have shut off our most profitable ads.
The Lesson? Look Beyond CPL
Cost per lead is a great metric for assessing initial ad performance, but it doesn’t tell the full story.
You need to optimise for the metrics that matter to your bottom line.
Not just the top-of-funnel costs.
So what should you do differently?
First, make sure you’re tracking the entire customer journey.
Are you connecting your Facebook ads to your actual sales data?
If not, you’re flying blind.
Set up proper conversion tracking beyond just the initial lead.
Look at which ads are generating actual sales, not just leads.
Give your campaigns enough time to gather meaningful data.
Don’t jump to conclusions based on a few days of results.
Remember that sometimes quality costs a bit more upfront.
But it pays dividends on the backend.
I’d rather pay $15 for a lead that has a 50% chance of becoming a customer than $5 for a lead with a 5% chance.
Wouldn’t you?
Take some time this week to review your campaigns with fresh eyes.
Are you making decisions based on surface-level metrics?
Or are you digging deeper to find the true performers in your ad account?
Your future profits depend on getting this right.
By shifting your focus to what really matters – sales and long-term ROI – you’ll make smarter ad decisions that lead to real business growth.
If you want an expert eye watching your campaigns with you to optimise them for the best possible results, then Abundant Ads Academy is perfect for you.
Abundant Ads Academy is a done-with-you Facebook & Instagram Ads program where we not only analyse and optimise your ads, but we also look at the entire customer journey through your funnel or launch sequence.
Learn more about Abundant Ads Academy here.
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