01 · The $7.97 return
Every $1 of lead-gen ad spend sourced $7.97 of pipeline in 2025.
Do this: Report pipeline per dollar to the board, beside cost per lead.
Read the proof →What a lead-gen dollar returned in 2025
2026 B2B Paid Media Benchmark Report
What $57.6M of B2B ad spend says you should do differently.
153 advertisers · $57.6M · 211,000 leads · 2025 · no email gate. Eight findings, one chart each, six minutes to read.
$57.6Mof 2025 B2B ad spend
$7.97of pipeline sourced per $1 of lead-gen spend
$202for a LinkedIn lead
$32kfor a customer
Eight findings from $57.6M of B2B ad spend
Each one is a number, the chart behind it, and the move it supports. Click through for the proof.
02 · The $10 LinkedIn dollar
LinkedIn turned $1 of lead-gen spend into $10.20 of pipeline.
Do this: Fund LinkedIn lead-gen first.
Read the proof →Sourced pipeline per $1 of lead-gen spend, by channel
03 · The real price of a lead
A LinkedIn lead cost $202. Instagram $138, Facebook $145, Google Ads $524.
Do this: Benchmark your LinkedIn lead against $376, the middle of the market.
Read the proof →What a LinkedIn lead cost, 2025
04 · Where every dollar went
Where $57.6M of B2B ad spend went: 37% cold prospecting, 20% retargeting, 21% other lead-gen audiences, 22% traffic and awareness.
Do this: Write your own four shares next to these before the planning meeting.
Read the proof →Share of all 2025 B2B ad spend
05 · Forms beat landing pages
LinkedIn lead forms cost $193 a lead. Landing pages cost $346.
Do this: Make the in-feed form the default on every LinkedIn lead campaign.
Read the proof →Cost per lead by destination, LinkedIn lead-gen campaigns 2025
06 · Documents beat video
LinkedIn document ads made a lead for $142. Image ads $200, video $265.
Do this: Rebuild your best gated asset as a document ad this week.
Read the proof →Cost per lead by LinkedIn ad format, 2025
07 · Retargeting pays 9.6x
Retargeting sourced 9.6x of pipeline per $1 at $196 a lead. Cold prospecting cost $187.
Do this: Fund retargeting on pipeline per dollar, not on cost per lead.
Read the proof →Sourced pipeline per $1, 2025
08 · The $31k customer
On LinkedIn a small-company customer cost $31k. Mid-market $103k. Enterprise $78k.
Do this: Set a cost-per-customer target per company size. One blended number hides a 3x gap.
Read the proof →Cost per customer on LinkedIn, by target company size, 2025
Take it with you
No forms, no gate. Forward it to whoever owns the budget.
For the CMO
The eight findings as a deck, one page each, with the question to ask your team on every page.
Download the CMO editionFor demand generation
The same eight findings, with the move to make on each one and how to test it.
Download the demand-gen editionThe data
Every published cut as a spreadsheet: company size, industry, channel, ad type, goal, offer and audience.
Download the CSVHow we counted
153 B2B advertisers ran $57.6M of paid media through Metadata in 2025 across LinkedIn, Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram. Cost per lead, cost per click and click-through come from all of them.
Pipeline and cost per customer come from the 90 advertisers whose CRM is connected. Sourced pipeline is the value of opportunities the CRM credits to an ad-generated lead. Influenced revenue is closed-won deals an ad touched on the way.
No segment is published on fewer than five advertisers, and no advertiser is allowed to be the majority of a published number. The full method is two pages.
Want your numbers next to these?
Metadata runs paid campaigns for 150+ B2B companies. Bring your spend and your CRM and we show you where your cost per lead, cost per customer and pipeline per dollar sit against this benchmark.
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