We have departments specialising by lead type — local service enquiries, ecommerce, B2B and high-value considered purchases. Each has different economics, and the strategy is built for yours rather than borrowed from another.
Lead generation splits into two businesses that share a name and almost nothing else. One sells you leads. The other builds you a system that produces them. The difference determines whether you are renting demand or owning it, and it is worth understanding before you buy either.
Bought leads versus owned lead generation
| Buying leads | Owned lead generation | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Contact details, often shared with competitors | An asset that produces enquiries continuously |
| Speed | Immediate | Builds over weeks and months |
| Cost over time | Recurring, rises with demand | Front-loaded, falls per lead over time |
| Exclusivity | Frequently none | Entirely yours |
| What you keep if you stop | Nothing | The site, the rankings, the list, the accounts |
| Lead quality control | Little to none | You define who arrives |
We do the second one. That is a scope statement, not a criticism of the first — bought leads genuinely make sense when you need volume immediately and have the margin to absorb sharing them. But the market for them is a commodity market, competing on price, and a small business rarely wins a commodity market.
What an owned lead system is made of
- Pages that answer what buyers search at the moment they are choosing, not brochure copy about you
- Forms that reach you reliably and store every enquiry somewhere you own — a startling number of businesses lose leads to a form quietly failing
- Search advertising for demand that exists right now, while the organic side compounds
- Local visibility for the customers deciding on proximity
- Follow-up, because most enquiries are lost after they arrive, not before
The part most agencies skip
Measuring what a lead is worth to you. Without a close rate and an average customer value, cost per lead is a number with no meaning, and every optimisation decision after that is guesswork. That arithmetic takes an afternoon and it changes what the right channel is. See what a lead costs for the benchmarks.
Where the leads come from
Google Ads for immediate demand, SEO for compounding demand, local SEO for proximity-driven buyers, and a site built to convert them — web design. Which mix is right depends on your margins and how fast you need it.
What it costs: Lead Generation Agency
Lead generation is priced by the channels used to produce the leads and by what a lead is worth to you. For Lead Generation Agency, the planning ranges below are from our marketing agency pricing guide; whether a cost per lead is good depends on your close rate and job value, which is where a quote starts.
| Component | Typical range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Google Ads management | $800–$2,500 / month, or 10–20% of spend at scale | Media budget is on top |
| Local SEO, one location | $1,000–$2,500 / month | Compounds; slower to start |
| Landing page, single | $1,200–$4,000 | Often better value than a full rebuild |
| Conversion tracking across channels | $1,200–$5,000 one-off | Without it, bidding optimizes toward the wrong thing |
| Email or SMS follow-up program | $500–$4,000 / month | Turns enquiries into booked jobs |
| Performance / per-lead pricing | Per lead, negotiated | Definitions of a lead decide everything |
Ranges are US planning figures, not quotes. Every engagement is priced after a written scope, and the planning range tells you which tier the conversation starts in.
Lead generation questions, answered straight
Should I buy leads or generate my own?
What is a good cost per lead?
How long before an owned lead system produces enquiries?
Are shared leads worth buying?
Do you guarantee a number of leads?
Why am I getting leads that never convert?
What counts as a lead?
Do I own the leads and the system?
Which industries does this work for?
How do I track which channel produced a lead?
Is cold outreach part of this?
What is the single biggest cause of wasted lead spend?
B2B lead generation agency, B2B lead generation company or B2B lead generation services
A B2B lead generation agency produces qualified opportunities for companies that sell to companies, through inbound (search, content, LinkedIn, paid capture) and outbound (lists, email, LinkedIn and phone sequences), with qualification against criteria agreed with sales and reporting in meetings held and pipeline. B2B lead generation services sold as MQL volume, or as bought lists, produce contacts that sales ignores; a B2B lead generation company worth hiring is measured on what sales accepts and closes.
Progression Agency provides B2B lead generation from New York for software, services, manufacturing and agency companies across the United States and worldwide, combining the inbound system on this page with outbound programs, demand generation and account-based approaches, each with its own page on this site, and reporting in qualified meetings, opportunities and pipeline by source.
What does a B2B lead generation agency do?
Produces qualified opportunities through inbound and outbound channels, qualified against sales criteria and reported in meetings held and pipeline.
What do B2B lead generation services cost?
$3,000–$12,000 per month depending on channels and segments, with media and data separate. Ranges are published; quotes follow discovery.
How do I judge a B2B lead generation company?
By what sales accepts and closes from its work, not by MQL counts or lists delivered.
What does a lead generation agency do?
Builds and runs the machinery that turns attention into enquiries: paid media, outbound, landing pages, forms, lead capture and routing into your CRM. Some also qualify, and a few book meetings directly.
The single most consequential clause in any lead generation contract is the definition of a lead. 'A form submission' and 'a decision-maker at a company of the right size in the right sector who asked to be contacted' are separated by an order of magnitude in both cost and value, and agencies quoting a low cost per lead are almost always quoting the first. Write the disqualification rules down: wrong geography, wrong company size, student or competitor, no contact detail, existing customer. Then have the leads land in your system so you can audit the count.
Which lead generation approach fits which business?
Paid search suits businesses whose customers are actively searching. Outbound suits high-value B2B with a definable target list. Content and organic suit long cycles and considered purchases. Most businesses need two of the three, not all of them.
B2B lead generation
Longer cycles, fewer and more valuable leads, and attribution that is genuinely hard. Meetings booked is usually a better metric than leads captured.
B2C lead generation
Higher volume, faster decisions, and speed-to-contact matters enormously — the difference between calling in five minutes and calling the next day is often larger than any targeting change.
Insurance and financial services
Heavily regulated, with compliance constraints on claims and on how data is collected and used. The compliance review belongs before launch.
Home services such as HVAC
Local intent, seasonal demand, and a market where the same lead is frequently sold to several companies. Ask whether leads are exclusive.
MSP and technology services
Small addressable markets where outbound and account-based approaches outperform broad paid media.
White label lead generation
An agency generating leads under your brand for your clients. Establish lead ownership and exclusivity in writing.
How do you tell good lead generation from expensive noise?
Track what happens after the lead, not the lead. A cost per lead with no close rate attached is not a performance measure; it is a purchasing statistic.
Ask for three numbers monthly: leads delivered, leads accepted after your qualification, and opportunities created. The ratio between the first two is the honest measure of quality, and an agency that resists reporting it is telling you something useful.
Are exclusive leads worth paying more for?
In most local service markets, yes. A shared lead sold to four companies is a race rather than an enquiry, and the arithmetic of a lower unit price rarely survives the lower close rate. Ask explicitly; shared leads are frequently sold without the word shared appearing.
What to settle before signing
| Term | Why it matters | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition of a lead | Decides cost and value | Written, with disqualification rules |
| Exclusivity | Decides close rate | Exclusive, stated explicitly |
| Where leads land | Decides whether you can audit | Your CRM, directly |
| Who owns the ad accounts | Decides what you keep | You do |
| Rejection process | Decides what you pay for | Defined window and criteria |
| Notice period | Decides your risk | Thirty days or month-to-month |
Frequently asked questions
What is a lead generation agency?
An agency paid to produce enquiries from potential buyers, usually through paid media, outbound, landing pages and lead routing into your CRM.
How much does a lead generation agency cost?
Either a retainer, a price per lead, or a base plus performance bonus. Per-lead pricing is only meaningful once 'qualified' is defined tightly in writing.
What counts as a qualified lead?
Whatever you define before starting. At minimum: the right geography, the right company size or consumer profile, a real contact detail, and an actual request to be contacted.
Should leads be exclusive?
In local service markets, almost always. A lead sold to four companies is a race, and the lower unit price rarely survives the lower close rate.
How do I know the leads are genuine?
Have them land in your CRM rather than the agency's, agree disqualification rules up front, and report leads delivered against leads accepted every month.
What is B2B lead generation?
Lead generation for business buyers, with longer cycles and fewer, higher-value leads. Meetings booked is usually a better metric than raw lead count.
What is different about B2C lead generation?
Higher volume and much faster decisions. Speed-to-contact often matters more than targeting — minutes rather than days.
Does lead generation work for insurance?
Yes, with compliance handled first. Insurance lead generation carries regulatory constraints on claims and on how consumer data is collected and used.
Does it work for HVAC and home services?
Yes, and exclusivity is the key term. Home services lead markets routinely sell the same enquiry to several companies.
What is white label lead generation?
An agency generating leads under your brand for your own clients. Settle lead ownership and exclusivity before the first campaign.
How long before lead generation produces results?
Paid channels produce leads within weeks; a reliable cost per acquisition needs a full buying cycle. Judging in the first month rewards luck.
Should I do lead generation in-house instead?
If you have the channel expertise and someone to own it, yes. The usual reason to outsource is speed to competence, not cost.
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