LinkedIn at Rs.850 to Rs.2,500 a Lead or Google Search for the Same B2B Buyer? The Cost per Accepted Lead, Worked (2026)

A B2B team choosing between LinkedIn and Google Search usually starts from the click price, and the click price points the wrong way. Our LinkedIn ads and B2B lead generation page publishes typical Indian bands of Rs.150 to Rs.650 a click, Rs.850 to Rs.2,500 a Lead Gen Form lead and Rs.1,500 to Rs.4,000 a marketing qualified lead (MQL). Our Google Ads management page publishes Rs.10 to Rs.40 a click for local service searches and Rs.100 to Rs.400 or more for high-ticket categories, and illustrates a 5 percent landing page conversion rate. It publishes no band for B2B queries, so this comparison brackets Google with those two published bands and says so wherever it does. Every figure was read from the live pages on 3 November 2026; the bands are typical market figures, not our results, and the totals are our arithmetic.

What does each channel actually sell you?

The two platforms sell different moments in the same buyer's year. Google Search sells the moment a person types the category, such as the page's own example of a bulk corporate gifting supplier. Intent is high and the lead arrives already shopping, but volume is capped by how many people search. LinkedIn sells a person by job title, seniority and company, whether or not they are shopping this month. Our B2B page puts it in one line: Google captures people already looking, LinkedIn creates demand inside a defined account list and reaches decision-makers who are not searching yet.

What does the cheapest month cost on each channel?

At the bottom of each page's lowest tier, the two channels cost exactly the same before GST. LinkedIn Launch is Rs.30,000 of fee on a minimum of Rs.25,000 of spend; Google Launch is Rs.25,000 of fee on a minimum of Rs.30,000 of spend. Both pages add 18 percent GST to the fee only, because the ad budget is billed by the platform to your own account.

The same bottom line hides a different fee share. At the minimum, the LinkedIn fee is more than the spend, and the B2B page itself describes Rs.25,000 to Rs.50,000 as a test of one offer on one or two audiences, not a lead engine. At the Google minimum, the page warns that a metro Search campaign below Rs.1,000 a day rarely collects the 30 conversions a month Smart Bidding needs to learn.

What does Rs.75,000 a month buy on each?

Rs.75,000 is the floor of the LinkedIn page's serious lead flow band and sits inside the Google Launch band, so it is a fair budget for both. The LinkedIn rows use the page's lead and MQL bands. The Google rows use three click prices from the Google page's two published bands and its 5 percent conversion illustration, because no B2B band is published.

Two things in that table matter more than the spread. First, the rows are not like for like: a LinkedIn MQL has passed qualifying questions and a sales grade, while a Google lead is a raw form fill or call. Second, the Rs.400 row is a trap specific to Google. At that click price Rs.75,000 buys about 9 conversions a month, so Smart Bidding never gets the 30 it needs. To reach 30 conversions at Rs.8,000 each, the account needs about Rs.2,40,000 a month of spend, which is the Google Growth tier at Rs.45,000 of fee. A niche B2B keyword set can be the dearest way to buy a lead and the slowest to learn.

Why is the cheaper click not automatically the cheaper customer?

Because what a business pays for is a customer, and cost per customer is cost per lead divided by the share of leads that become customers. A Rs.2,000 Google lead and a Rs.1,000 LinkedIn lead cost the same per customer if the LinkedIn leads close half as often. Neither of our pages publishes a lead-to-customer rate, so the only honest version of this comparison uses your own CRM.

The B2B page gives one worked warning: 120 LinkedIn leads at Rs.1,200 each sound like success until sales reports that 90 were students, vendors and job seekers. That is Rs.1,44,000 for 30 accepted leads, Rs.4,800 each. The same Rs.1,44,000 on Google at Rs.2,000 a lead buys 72 leads. Google wins only if more than 30 of those 72, about 42 percent, are accepted by sales. Whether that happens depends on how specific your keywords are, which is the whole argument.

Which should a B2B business start with?

Most B2B programmes we plan end up running both, LinkedIn for reach and qualification and Google Search for capture and retargeting. That pairing is built into the B2B Scale tier at Rs.1,20,000 a month for spend above Rs.4 lakh. Below that, the question is which one first, and the answer depends on facts about your market rather than on either platform. Our SaaS and B2B playbook covers the wider plan; the table covers the first channel.

Running both on their lowest tiers before Scale costs two fees and two minimums: Rs.55,000 of fees and Rs.55,000 of minimum spend, Rs.1,10,000 a month before GST and Rs.1,19,900 with it. For the detail on each side, see our LinkedIn ads cost guide, our guide to the first 60 days of a LinkedIn B2B account and our Google Ads management cost guide. Every fee above is also on our digital pricing page.

How do you compare the two channels fairly?

1. Send both channels' leads into the same CRM with source and campaign tagged. The B2B page syncs Lead Gen Forms within minutes; the Google page imports offline conversions from a CRM or a shared sheet.
2. Grade every lead with the same rule, whichever channel it came from. A Google call and a LinkedIn form must face the same acceptance test.
3. Judge each on its own clock: Google at 6 to 8 weeks, LinkedIn at 90 days, because the LinkedIn page says qualified leads settle around week 4 to 6 and pipeline shows by month 3.
4. Compare cost per accepted lead first and cost per opportunity once there are enough opportunities to count. Cost per click is only a diagnostic.
5. Include the fee. At Rs.75,000 of spend the fee adds Rs.35,400 to LinkedIn and Rs.29,500 to Google with GST, which moves every per-lead figure.