Free tool · no email needed
What does a customer actually cost you?
Three numbers you already know, and one honest answer: the price you pay to win a single customer. Then see how far that price falls when enquiries come in free and every lead gets followed up.
A worked example, before you touch a slider
Say you spend 500 pounds a month getting found, and that brings in 25 enquiries. That is 20 pounds an enquiry. If 1 in 5 becomes a paying customer, you win five customers, and each one cost you 100 pounds to win.
These are example figures, not a quote and not a forecast; they simply run the calculator's own division on round inputs. Put your real numbers in below.
Why the number moves
The four levers on cost per customer
This calculator shows the first two levers. All four pull the price of a customer down in a different way, and the more you pull, the lower it goes:
- Bring enquiries in free. Local search and a tended Google Business Profile put you in front of buyers without paying for every click.
- Convert more of the visitors you have. A faster, clearer site turns the same traffic into more enquiries, so the same spend wins more customers.
- Follow up every lead. Automation replies instantly, reminds before the appointment and asks for the review, so you stop paying twice for the same person.
- Keep the customers you win. A repeat customer costs nothing to acquire, so retention lowers your average quietly and permanently.
The full walk-through is in the pillar guide, what a customer really costs you. Weighing paid ads against organic specifically? The Google Ads vs organic calculator runs that comparison.
Frequently asked questions
What does it cost to get a customer?
Take everything you spent on marketing in a month and divide it by the number of customers it actually won you. If you spent 500 pounds and gained five customers, each one cost 100 pounds. Marketers call this cost per acquisition, or CPA. This calculator works it out from your own figures.
Where do the numbers come from?
Only from you. The three figures you type in, your monthly spend, your enquiries and your conversion rate, are the only inputs. There are no hidden benchmarks and no industry averages baked in. The maths is simple division, run live in your browser, and nothing you type ever leaves the page.
Are the free organic enquiries realistic?
You decide how many, we do not assume a number. The slider is there so you can model what happens when some enquiries arrive through local search rather than paid clicks. Getting found organically takes a properly built site and a tended Google Business Profile, so it is not effortless, but once you rank those enquiries do not carry a per-click cost.
How does following up lift conversion?
The second slider lets you model a higher conversion rate. In practice that lift comes from following up every enquiry fast, before it goes cold, with an instant reply, a reminder before the appointment, and a nudge for a review afterwards. You set the target here; the point is to show how much each extra point of conversion lowers the price of a customer.
Does this send my numbers anywhere?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and your figures never leave it. The site uses Plausible, a cookieless EU analytics service that counts page visits but never sees what you type. There is no email gate and no tracking pixel attached to this tool.
How do I actually lower mine?
Four levers: bring enquiries in free through local search, convert more of the visitors you already have with a faster site, follow up every lead so you stop paying twice, and keep the customers you win. The full guide is at what a customer really costs you, and the free audit shows where your spend is leaking today.
Methodology & assumptions
- Cost per enquiry = monthly spend ÷ enquiries. Cost per customer = monthly spend ÷ customers won, where customers won = enquiries × conversion rate. Plain division, nothing else.
- The only numbers on screen are yours. There are no benchmarks, no industry averages and no assumed uplift built in. If a figure looks wrong, it is reading back the inputs you gave it.
- The two levers default to zero. On load, the "new cost per customer" equals your current one, because the tool assumes no improvement you have not chosen. Move a slider to set your own target and the saving appears.
- Free organic enquiries carry no extra spend in the maths, which is the honest way to model them: you do not pay Google per click for an organic visit. Ranking still takes a properly built site and steady upkeep, so it is not free of effort, only free of a per-click meter.
- The conversion lift is a target you set, not a promise we make. It stands in for following up every lead fast; how much lift you actually get depends on your business.
- Runs entirely in your browser. Your figures are never sent to a server, stored, or attached to any analytics event.