What is Cost per Lead?

Cost Per Lead is used in online advertising. CPL defines how much revenue a publisher receives when they create a lead for an advertiser. For example, the publisher may place an ad for an investment site on their website. If a person chooses to sign up, a lead has been created and the publisher is paid a certain amount based on the CPL. CPL pricing models are at the pinnacle of the online advertising ROI hierarchy. CPL advertising enables advertisers to generate guaranteed returns on their online advertising dollars, which is especially useful in a tough economy.

It's no surprise that CPL advertising has shown explosive growth in recent times. CPL advertising is also commonly called online lead generation. In CPL campaigns, advertisers pay for an interested lead - i.e. the contact information of a person interested in the advertiser's product or service. That lead can then be pursued  through a solution like the Cloud Call Center. CPL campaigns are suitable for brand marketers and direct response marketers looking to engage consumers at multiple touchpoints - by building a newsletter list, community site, reward program or member acquisition program. 

CPL campaigns are advertiser-centric. The advertiser remains in control of their brand, selecting trusted and contextually relevant publishers to run their offers.On the other hand, CPA and affiliate marketing campaigns are publisher-centric. Advertisers are starting to leverage different software and communications platforms to calculate and analyze CPL.  Advertisers cede control over where their brand will appear, as publishers browse offers and pick which to run on their websites. Advertisers generally do not know where their offer is running.

References

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