Phil RisherPhlash Consulting · No. 1 Digital Marketing Consulting Company For $1m-10m Home Service Businesses 🚀

The businesses scaling past $3M and $5M aren't chasing cheap leads. #shorts

12 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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In this short monologue, Phil Risher argues that cost per lead (CPL) is a vanity metric that should not drive marketing decisions. He emphasizes that the true measure of success is the full‑funnel return on ad spend (ROAS) or overall return on investment (ROI). Using examples (e.g., $1,000 CPL yielding $10,000 revenue), he shows that the absolute CPL amount is irrelevant if the downstream return is strong. Risher warns that many marketers operate on gut feeling because they lack visibility into both CPL and ROAS, leading to half‑baked decisions. He concludes that knowing both metrics is essential for sustainable growth.

Chapters

I just finished a chapter in my book and it completely changed how I think about cost per lead. I believe that cost per lead is a vanity metric. Cost per lead doesn't matter. What matters is the full funnel return on ad spend. If it was $1,000 for a lead and you made $10,000, you would take that all day. If it was $100, if it was $100,000, the cost per lead does not matter. What matters is the return on ad spend or the return on investment that you got from it. The problem is, is that most people don't know the full numbers. So they're just operating on gut feeling of what cost per lead feels good to them. If you do not know your cost per lead and your return on ad spend, you're just operating on half of the equation. You got to know both in order to grow.