I built a cold email ROI calculator. The numbers are ridiculous
demandmarc · 2026-01-13 · 2,560 views
I built a simple cold email ROI calculator. The numbers are genuinely ridiculous.
Monthly costs: PuzzleInbox 30 inboxes: $135. Sending platform (Instantly): $50. Data (Apollo): $200. Time (10hrs/week at $50/hr): $2,000. Total: about $2,385.
Monthly output: 30 inboxes × 20 emails/day × 22 working days = 13,200 emails. At 4% reply rate = 528 replies. At 50% positive = 264 positive replies. At 40% meeting conversion = 106 meetings.
Cost per meeting: $22.50.
Compare that to: Google Ads cost per B2B meeting: $300-800. LinkedIn Ads: $400-1,000. SDR hire: $6,000-10,000/month salary for maybe 15-20 meetings.
Cold email infrastructure ROI is 10-30x better than any other B2B demand gen channel when done properly. The math does not lie.
Comments (3)
scalingsammy · 2026-01-14
the math checks out but you're being generous with the 4% reply rate. most people are getting 2-3% unless their targeting and copy are dialed in. still, even at 2% the ROI destroys every other channel
budgetsdr · 2026-01-14
$22.50 per meeting is insane when you compare it to the $500+ I was paying per meeting on LinkedIn ads. Switched to cold email 3 months ago and never looking back.
grindgary · 2026-01-15
one thing missing from the calc — time spent on list building, copy iteration, and dealing with bounces. it's more than 10hrs/week if you're doing it right. but yeah the ROI is still way better than paid ads