The ROI of Good Lead Data: A Math Problem

The ROI of lead data quality is one of the most underappreciated calculations in B2B sales. Most teams evaluate data providers on cost per lead. The smart ones evaluate on cost per meeting booked. Here is the math.

The Baseline

Let us assume a B2B company with a $15,000 average contract value, a 25% close rate from meetings, and an outbound team sending 2,000 emails per month.

Scenario A: Cheap Data ($0.10/lead)

• 2,000 leads purchased: $200
• Bounce rate: 15% (300 bounces)
• Emails delivered: 1,700
• Of those, 20% have wrong title/company: 340 wasted
• Effective emails to real, relevant contacts: 1,360
• Reply rate on relevant contacts: 2% = 27 replies
• Positive reply rate: 40% of replies = 11 interested
• Meeting rate from interested: 70% = 8 meetings
• Close rate: 25% = 2 deals
• Revenue: $30,000

Costs: $200 (data) + domain damage risk + 15 hours cleanup labor ($750 at $50/hr) = $950

Net per campaign: $29,050

Cost per meeting: $119

Looks good on paper. But the domain damage from 15% bounce rate is the hidden cost. After 2-3 months of this, deliverability drops. Reply rates decline. The $119 per meeting creeps to $300, then $500, then your domain is in spam and you are starting over.

Scenario B: Verified Data ($2.00/lead)

• 2,000 leads purchased: $4,000
• Bounce rate: 2% (40 bounces)
• Emails delivered: 1,960
• Wrong title/company: <2% = ~40 wasted
• Effective emails to real, relevant contacts: 1,920
• Reply rate on relevant contacts: 3.5% = 67 replies (higher because better targeting)
• Positive reply rate: 50% of replies = 34 interested
• Meeting rate: 70% = 24 meetings
• Close rate: 25% = 6 deals
• Revenue: $90,000

Costs: $4,000 (data) + $0 cleanup + $0 domain risk = $4,000

Net per campaign: $86,000

Cost per meeting: $167

The cost per lead is 20x higher. The cost per meeting is only 40% higher. The revenue is 3x higher. And there is zero domain damage risk.

The Compound Effect

Run Scenario A for six months. Domain reputation degrades. Deliverability drops from 85% to 60%. Reply rates fall. By month six, you are getting 3-4 meetings per month instead of 8, and your domain needs weeks of recovery.

Run Scenario B for six months. Domain reputation improves. Deliverability stays above 97%. Reply rates remain consistent or improve. By month six, your outbound machine is running better than month one.

Over a year:

• Scenario A total revenue: $180,000 (declining trajectory)
• Scenario B total revenue: $540,000 (stable trajectory)
• Scenario A total data cost: $2,400
• Scenario B total data cost: $48,000

The difference in data cost is $45,600. The difference in revenue is $360,000. That is a 7.9x return on the incremental investment in data quality.

The One Number That Matters

If you remember one thing from this analysis: the cost of the data is almost irrelevant compared to the cost of the outcomes it produces. A $2 lead that generates a $15,000 deal is infinitely more valuable than a $0.10 lead that bounces and damages your domain.

Buy the best data you can afford. The ROI math is not close.