01
Calculate your maximum affordable click price first
Gross-margin customer value times lead rate times close rate. Until you know it, no bid is expensive or cheap.
Business playbook · 10 tactics
10 Ways to Cut Cost Per Acquisition This Month
When a click costs fifty dollars, the funnel matters more than the bid.
02
Build the negative keyword list before touching bids
On expensive terms, one week of irrelevant broad-match traffic costs more than a month of waste on cheap keywords.
03
Switch from maximum click bidding to target acquisition cost
You do not care what a click costs. You care what a customer costs, and only one of those pays wages.
04
Improve the landing page to lower the price
Relevance and page experience feed the quality score, which literally reduces what you pay for the same position.
05
Bid the question, not the head term
Every expensive head term has a cheaper long-tail version asked by someone further into the same problem.
06
Fix the answer rate before raising budget
A missed call wastes a click you already paid for. In high-value services this single fix beats any bidding change.
07
Measure close rate in the CRM, not the ad platform
The platform counts form fills. Only your CRM knows which of those became revenue.
08
Separate branded from non-branded spend
Branded traffic converts far better and flatters blended numbers until it hides a failing acquisition channel.
09
Audit wasted spend monthly
Irrelevant click share grows quietly. It is the cheapest line on this list to fix and the easiest to ignore.
10
Fix unit economics before scaling
Growth multiplies whatever your economics already are. Doubling spend on a broken funnel doubles the loss.
Put it to work
Calculators for these tactics
Business & Tech
Ad Platform CAC Comparison Calculator
Compare acquisition cost across platforms once CPC, conversion and close rate are counted.
Business & TechCAC & LTV Calculator
Customer acquisition cost, lifetime value and the ratio investors ask about.
Business & TechAnswering Service ROI Calculator
What missed calls cost, and whether a 24/7 service pays for itself.
Business & TechBreak-Even Point Calculator
Units and revenue needed to cover fixed costs, plus margin of safety.
Estimates, not advice. Every figure here is produced from the inputs you enter and the formula printed on the page. Rules differ by state, carrier, lender and contract, so use these numbers to prepare for a conversation with a qualified professional rather than to replace one. See our full disclaimer.