Solved: Low Digital Course Sales Despite Good CPL

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your campaign. It's a common situation to be in – you're getting leads, which feels like a win, but the sales just aren't following, which can be incredibly frustrating.

The short answer is that your problem likely isn't the cost per lead itself, but everything that happens *after* you've got the lead. We need to look at the whole system, from the ad to the final purchase, to figure out where the real issue is. Let's get into it.

We'll need to look at your Cost Per Lead in context...

First off, let's tackle your main question: is a £4.22 Cost Per Lead (CPL) good? For a digital course in a developed country like the UK, honestly, it's not bad at all. I've seen campaigns for similar niches where the CPL is anywhere from £2 to over £15. For example, one campaign we ran for an eLearning client generated over 45,000 signups at under £2 each. For a targeted UK campaign, £4.22 is completely within a normal range.

But here's the brutally honest truth: your CPL doesn't matter.

It's a classic vanity metric. It feels good to see a low number, to feel like you're acquiring potential customers cheaply. But if 100% of those leads are just freebie-seekers who never intend to buy, you could have a CPL of £0.10 and you'd still be losing money. You've spent over £60 a day for 15 days, that's around £900, to get about 213 leads and zero sales. The real metrics you need to obsess over are your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) – how much it costs to get an actual paying customer – and your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

Right now, your CPA is infinite because you haven't made a sale. The goal isn't just to get cheaper leads; it's to get leads that are more likely to *buy*. Sometimes, that means paying a *higher* CPL to attract a more qualified, higher-intent audience. A £10 lead that converts at 5% is infinitely better than a £4 lead that converts at 0%.

This is the fundamental mindset shift you need to make. Stop optimising for the lead and start optimising for the sale. The calculator below demonstrates this relationship. Play around with the sliders. You'll see how a tiny increase in your lead-to-sale conversion rate has a massive impact on your final cost to acquire a customer, much more so than just lowering your CPL.

I'd say you need to diagnose the drop-off...

So, where are your potential customers going? We need to act like detectives and follow the trail from the moment they see your ad to the moment they decide *not* to buy. Your sales process is a funnel, and right now, it has a massive leak somewhere between the "lead" stage and the "sale" stage.

Let's break down the potential problem areas:

1. The Ad & Targeting (Top of Funnel - ToFu): You're getting leads, so something here is working. But are you attracting the *right* people? Your ad might be promising something too broad or too "free," which attracts people with low buying intent. For example, if your lead magnet is a "Free Guide to Digital Marketing," you'll get tons of students and beginners. But if your course is an advanced £487 program on "Scaling eCommerce with Paid Ads," those leads are poorly qualified. Your ad's message must align with the person who would actually buy the final product. Your targeting should focus on people whose problems your course actually solves. Are you targeting interests related to direct competitors, specific software your ideal customer uses, or industry leaders they follow?

2. The Landing Page (Middle of Funnel - MoFu): This is the page where they sign up to become a lead. You should check your click-through rate from the ad to the landing page, and then the conversion rate on the landing page itself. If lots of people click the ad but few sign up, the landing page is the problem. Does it clearly communicate the value of what they're getting in exchange for their email? Is the copy persuasive? Is it mobile-friendly and fast-loading? Does it build trust? Any friction here will kill your momentum.

3. The Nurturing Process (The Great Void): This is almost definitely where your main problem lies. What happens the second after someone gives you their email? Do they get a single email with a link and then... silence? Do they get a generic, boring email sequence? You are asking someone to go from a free download to a £487 purchase. That's a huge jump in commitment. You need a bridge to get them from one side to the other.

This bridge is your nurturing sequence. It should be an automated series of emails (and maybe even retargeting ads) designed to:

• Deliver Value: Give them more free, helpful content that proves your expertise.
• Build Trust: Share testimonials, case studies, and your personal story. Show them you're a credible authority.
• Handle Objections: Address common questions and doubts they might have about the course. Why is it worth £487? What results can they expect?
• Create Urgency: Introduce a time-sensitive bonus or a limited-time offer to encourage action.

Without a robust nurturing process, your leads will go cold almost instantly. They'll forget who you are and why they signed up in the first place. You need to stay top-of-mind and systematically build their confidence in your solution until the £487 price tag feels like a bargain, not a barrier. The flowchart below visualises this process and the 'leaks' you need to plug.

You probably should rethink your offer and lead magnet...

Let's get a bit more contrarian here. The issue might be even more fundamental than your email sequence. It could be your entire initial offer – the lead magnet itself.

As I mentioned, an offer that isn't tightly aligned with the paid product will attract the wrong crowd. You need to design a lead magnet that acts as a natural "pre-qualifier." It should solve a small piece of the same problem that your main course solves, giving them a genuine 'aha!' moment and leaving them wanting more. This way, the only people who sign up are those already interested in the ultimate solution you provide.

What does this look like in practice for a digital course?

• Instead of a generic eBook, offer Chapter 1 of the course for free. This gives them a direct taste of the quality and style of your paid content.
• Instead of a simple checklist, host a free live webinar or workshop. Teach them something valuable for 45 minutes that directly relates to your course, and then pitch the full course at the end. This builds massive authority and rapport.
• Instead of a 'resource library', create a free 3-day email mini-course. This automates the value delivery and gets them in the habit of opening your emails and learning from you.

The goal of the offer isn't just to get an email address. It's to start a relationship and prove your value upfront. When you solve a small, real problem for them for free, you earn the right to ask them to pay you to solve the whole thing. I remember one of our most successful course clients generated over $115k in revenue in just six weeks, not because they had cheap leads, but because their initial offer perfectly pre-qualified an audience that was ready and willing to buy their main programme.

Before you spend another pound on ads, you need to be able to answer this question with absolute certainty: "Does my free offer provide so much value that it makes my ideal customer feel almost guilty for not paying for it?" If the answer is no, you need to go back to the drawing board.

You'll need a better way to think about your numbers...

To scale this profitably, you need to understand your numbers inside and out. We already discussed moving past CPL to CPA. The next level is understanding how much you can *afford* to spend to acquire a customer. This is where the concept of Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and your desired ROAS come in.

For a one-off course, your LTV is essentially the course price minus your costs. However, you should also consider potential future purchases. Will you offer other courses? A community? Coaching? For now, let's focus on this single purchase.

Your course price is £487. Let's assume your gross margin is very high, say 90%, since it's a digital product. That's £438.30 in gross margin per sale. A healthy ROAS to aim for is at least 3:1, meaning for every £1 you spend on ads, you get £3 back in revenue. This would give you a target CPA of £487 / 3 = £162.33.

Knowing this number is empowering. It means you can afford to spend up to £162 to get one customer and still hit your goals. Now, let's go back to our first calculator. If your CPL is £4.22, you'd need a lead-to-sale conversion rate of about 2.6% to hit that target CPA (£4.22 / 0.026 = ~£162). Suddenly, you have a clear, mathematical goal for your nurturing sequence: convert at least 2.6% of leads into customers. Use the calculator below to find your own target CPA based on your desired return.

You'll need a better campaign structure...

Finally, let's talk about your Facebook Ads campaign structure. You're getting leads, which means you have data. You have website visitors, and you have a list of leads. You absolutely MUST be using this data for retargeting.

A simple but effective structure separates your campaigns by temperature:

1. ToFu (Top of Funnel - Cold Traffic): This is what you're doing now. You target people based on interests, behaviours, and lookalike audiences who have never heard of you. The goal here is to get them to your landing page and convert them into a lead.
2. MoFu/BoFu (Middle/Bottom of Funnel - Warm/Hot Traffic): This is your retargeting campaign. This is where the sales happen. You need separate ad sets that target:
   • Website Visitors (who didn't become a lead): Show them ads that remind them of the lead magnet and encourage them to sign up. Address potential hesitations.
   • Leads (who haven't purchased): This is your most important audience. They've already shown interest. Now you need to hit them with ads that build trust and drive the sale. Show them student testimonials, case studies, behind-the-scenes content of the course, and ads that directly handle objections about price or time commitment. You should run these ads for at least 14-30 days, as it takes time to build that trust.

Most of your sales, especially for a higher-ticket course, will come from this retargeting campaign. It's not realistic to expect someone to see one ad, download a freebie, and immediately drop £487. The sales process is a journey, and your campaign structure needs to reflect that, guiding them from stranger to lead to customer over time.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a summary table. This is the main advice I have for you to turn things around.

As you can see, turning those leads into sales involves a lot more than just tweaking your ad settings. It requires a strategic approach to your entire sales and marketing funnel. Getting this right can be the difference between a failed campaign and a highly profitable online course business.

This is precisely where expert help can make a significant difference. Instead of spending more months and thousands of pounds trying to figure it all out through trial and error, we can help you diagnose the exact issues, build a high-converting funnel, and implement the strategies we've discussed today.

If you'd like to go over your specific campaign and funnel in more detail, I'd be happy to offer you a free, no-obligation consultation call. We can share screens, look at your setup, and give you a concrete action plan to start getting those sales. Feel free to book a time that works for you if that sounds helpful.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh