How much does outsourced B2B lead generation cost in 2026?
Agency, outsourced SDR, in-house SDR, software or pay-per-meeting: real market prices, hidden costs and a simple way to work out your ROI.
"How much does it cost?" is usually the first question, and the most misleading one. A €800-a-month service can end up costing more than a €2,000 one if it never books a meeting. Here are the prices observed on the market, what they really include, and how to compare them.
Market price ranges
The figures below were observed on the French and wider European market in 2025-2026.
| Model | Observed price | What is usually included |
|---|---|---|
| Cold email agency (subscription) | €750 to €1,500 excl. VAT per month | Targeting, copywriting, sending, follow-ups |
| Outsourced multichannel prospecting | €2,000 to €5,000 excl. VAT per month (up to €10,000) | Email, phone, LinkedIn, dedicated SDR |
| Pay-per-meeting | €200 to €350 per qualified meeting | Appointment setting, often with a minimum commitment |
| Outsourced SDR | €36,000 to €60,000 per year | A dedicated rep, full or part time |
| In-house SDR | €70,000 to €100,000 per year, fully loaded | Salary, tools, data, management |
| Software only | A few dozen to around a hundred euros per user per month | The tool, without the time or expertise |
Sources: price comparisons published in 2025-2026 by Agence Météor, Calltoleads, Scalecity and Seventic (French sources). Prices vary with volume, channels and how complex your target market is.
The hidden costs of doing it in-house
Doing it yourself with a software tool looks cheap. But you need to add:
- data: contact lists to buy or build, then verify;
- infrastructure: several sending domains and inboxes, plus setting them up and warming them up over several weeks;
- time: targeting, copywriting, testing and handling replies, often taken out of selling time;
- the learning curve: your first campaigns mostly teach you what does not work;
- risk: a blacklisted main domain or a non-compliant campaign costs far more than the subscription you saved.
An in-house SDR, meanwhile, often takes several months to become productive, and when they leave, you start again from scratch.
What a Lead Matrix subscription includes
Our prices are public, excluding VAT, with a 3, 6 or 12-month commitment:
| Plan | Monthly price (12-month commitment) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | €710 excl. VAT | Testing automated prospecting on one market |
| Growth | €1,340 excl. VAT | Building a steady flow of meetings |
| Scale | €2,510 excl. VAT | Scaling across several markets or product lines |
The setup fee is waived with a 12-month commitment. Included: targeting with our experts, sending domains and warm-up, writing and sending your sequences, reply sorting, and a real-time dashboard to follow every prospect through to signature. Campaigns can launch within 48 hours. Full details in our pricing section.
How to work out your return on investment
Rather than comparing prices, compare a cost per closed deal:
- Estimate your customer value: average revenue or margin from a customer over their lifetime.
- Estimate your conversion rate from meeting to customer, based on your sales history.
- Divide the monthly cost of the solution by the number of meetings it generates, then by your conversion rate.
Illustrative example: if a customer brings you €15,000 in margin and you close one meeting in five, prospecting only needs to generate a few qualified meetings a month to pay for itself many times over, even at €2,000 a month. Conversely, a cheap service that produces no meetings is still just a cost.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Who does the targeting and copywriting, and how do you sign them off?
- Are the sending domains dedicated, and who owns them?
- Can you follow results in real time, prospect by prospect?
- How long is the commitment, and what happens afterwards?
- How are unsubscribes and GDPR compliance handled in your target countries? (See our article Is B2B cold email legal under GDPR?)
To compare the different approaches beyond price, read agency, software or in-house SDR.
Frequently asked questions
What budget do I need to get started?
For an SME, outsourced email prospecting starts at a few hundred to €1,500 a month. Multichannel set-ups with a dedicated rep are more likely to cost €2,000 to €5,000 a month.
Is pay-per-meeting a better deal?
Pay-per-meeting limits your risk, but often costs more per meeting and encourages quantity over quality. Check how a "qualified" meeting is defined in the contract.
How long before I see results?
Allow a few days to launch campaigns once the domains are ready, then two to four weeks to see a steady flow of replies.
Do the prices include contact data?
Not always: it is one of the first things to check, along with sending domains and tools.