Zen Intent · Supplier costs
Total monthly cost for the two services we already pay for, SerpAPI and Hunter, and what adding Apollo would do to that number. Every figure on every slide is tagged with where it came from.
One correction up front. An earlier version of this analysis priced Apollo credits at 3 cents. The reported price is 17 to 20 cents. That is roughly six times higher and it changes the answer, so this deck replaces it.
How to read this
Straight off our own pricing page. The strongest kind of number here, because it is what we actually charge.
Published on the supplier's own pricing or documentation. We can check it in a browser in ten seconds.
Read from the automation that runs our leads. It is how many lookups each lead actually triggers.
Nobody publishes it and we have not measured it. Every one of these is listed again at the end with what it would change.
There are only four assumed numbers in this deck. Three of them barely move the total. The fourth, Apollo's price per credit, moves it enormously, and Apollo does not publish it.
Sanity check first
| Plan page | Price | Credits | Standard leads | Our maths | Intelligence leads | Our maths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $197 | 2,200 | 62 | 2,200 ÷ 35 = 62 | 36 | 2,200 ÷ 60 = 36 |
| Growth | $347 | 4,100 | 117 | 4,100 ÷ 35 = 117 | 68 | 4,100 ÷ 60 = 68 |
| Scale | $697 | 9,300 | 265 | 9,300 ÷ 35 = 265 | 155 | 9,300 ÷ 60 = 155 |
| Enterprise | $1,197 | 17,800 | 508 | 17,800 ÷ 35 = 508 | 296 | 17,800 ÷ 60 = 296 |
All eight lead counts on the page match the credit rules in our settings: 35 credits for a standard lead, 60 for an intelligence lead. The four per credit prices on the page also match price divided by credits. Nothing here is estimated, and that gives us a solid base to build the cost side on.
Same check on the free Welcome Gift: 1,500 credits divided by 60 is exactly 25 enriched leads, and our settings cap a gift request at 25. The two agree.
Step one
| What happens | Who we pay | How many per lead | Where that comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Google Maps for businesses | SerpAPI | 0.05 searches | One search returns 20 businesses vendor and we page through them our setup |
| Pull one business's full details | SerpAPI | 1 search | Runs once for every single lead our setup |
| Look up the company | Hunter | 1 credit | Cost per call not published assumed |
| Find the owner's email | Hunter | 1 credit | 1 credit per company searched vendor |
| Check the email works | Hunter | 0.5 credits | Half a credit per check vendor |
| Look up the person, enriched leads only | Hunter | 1 credit | Cost per call not published assumed |
Per lead, either type. The details lookup is 20 times the search cost.
Company, email, verify.
Adds the person lookup.
Good news buried in the vendor rules: Hunter charges nothing when it finds nothing vendor. So these are worst case figures, which is what we want for choosing a plan.
Step two
Two rules that matter more than the prices. Neither supplier sells overage, so running out mid month stops lead generation until the plan renews. And unused allowance is wiped at renewal vendor, so we buy for our busiest month, not our average one.
This is why the total below is not a price per lead. It is two subscription prices, and it jumps in steps as volume grows.
The answer, today
| Leads a month | SerpAPI | Hunter | Total a month | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searches needed | Plan required | Credits needed | Plan required | Both together | |
| 500 | 525 | Starter $25 | 1,250 | Starter $49 | $74 |
| 1,000 | 1,050 | Developer $75 | 2,500 | Growth $149 | $224 |
| 2,000 | 2,100 | Developer $75 | 5,000 | Growth $149 | $224 |
| 3,700 | 3,885 | Developer $75 | 9,250 | Growth $149 | $224 |
| 5,000 | 5,250 | Production $150 | 12,500 | Scale $299 | $449 |
| 10,000 | 10,500 | Production $150 | 25,000 | Scale $299 | $449 |
All standard leads. Searches are leads × 1.05, credits are leads × 2.5, and the plan is whichever bucket the month fits inside. The highlighted row is the most we can do on Hunter Growth, at 9,250 of its 10,000 credits.
If every lead were an enriched one instead, credits become leads × 3.5, and 3,700 leads would need Hunter Scale at $299, taking the total to $374.
Apollo's rate card
| What Apollo charges | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Basic seat, billed monthly | $65 | Their own error message told us all paid plans include the API vendor |
| Searching for people | free | Search costs nothing, only revealing does vendor |
| Reveal one email | 1 credit | Per successful match, nothing on a miss vendor |
| Reveal one phone number | 8 credits | Eight times an email vendor |
| Price per extra credit | $0.17 to $0.20 | Apollo does not publish this. Reported bulk rates of $170 per 1,000 and $1,700 per 10,000 both give 17 cents assumed |
| Credits included in Basic | 1,000 a year | Plus 75 phone credits a year, expiring at cycle end assumed |
Two things make this expensive in a way the $65 seat hides. A phone number costs eight credits, so $1.36 to $1.60 each. And the included allowance is 1,000 credits a year, while enriching every lead at 3,700 a month would need 44,400 a year, so almost all of it is bought at full rate.
The answer, with Apollo
| How we would use Apollo | Credits a month | Apollo cost | Plus what we pay now | New total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Only fill the contacts Hunter missed, email only | 518 | $153 to $169 | $224 | $377 to $393 |
| Reveal an email on every lead | 3,700 | $694 to $805 | $224 | $918 to $1,029 |
| Reveal an email and a phone on every lead | 33,300 | $5,726 to $6,725 | $224 | $5,950 to $6,949 |
SerpAPI Developer plus Hunter Growth, at 3,700 leads a month.
Only on the leads Hunter could not fill, emails only. Worst case of the range.
Thirty times our current supplier bill, for one field.
All three at 3,700 leads a month. The first row assumes Hunter misses 4 in 10 and Apollo finds 35% of those assumed, which is where the 518 comes from. The other two rows need no such guess, because they enrich every lead.
In proportion
| Option, at 3,700 leads a month | Supplier cost | Share of $10,757 revenue | What that revenue is |
|---|---|---|---|
| What we pay today | $224 | 2.1% | 31 Growth customers at $347 page, which is the most our current Hunter plan supports |
| Plus Apollo, filling missed contacts | $377 to $393 | 3.5 to 3.7% | |
| Plus Apollo, email on every lead | $918 to $1,029 | 8.5 to 9.6% | |
| Plus Apollo, email and phone on every lead | $5,950 to $6,949 | 55 to 65% |
The first two options are affordable and the difference between them is small. The third is not a cost question, it is a different business. Spending 55 to 65 cents of every dollar on one supplier would leave nothing for hosting, salaries or marketing.
If we want direct phone numbers, the way to afford them is to sell them, not to add them to every lead. At 8 credits each they cost us $1.36 to $1.60, so they need their own price.
Worked example
Total either way: $377 to $393 a month, against $224 today. We would be paying 68% to 75% more to our suppliers, and buying about 518 extra reachable contacts a month for it, which works out at 30 to 33 cents each.
Where our plans run out
| When monthly leads pass | We must move to | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard leads | Enriched leads | SerpAPI | Hunter | New total |
| 800 | 571 | Starter $25 | Growth $149 | $174 |
| 952 | 952 | Developer $75 | Growth $149 | $224 |
| 4,000 | 2,857 | Developer $75 | Scale $299 | $374 |
| 4,761 | 4,761 | Production $150 | Scale $299 | $449 |
| 10,000 | 7,142 | Production $150 | quote needed | ask Hunter |
For ops, two numbers to watch each month. Every lead uses 1.05 SerpAPI searches and 2.5 Hunter credits, or 3.5 if it is an enriched lead. Multiply this month's leads and compare against the plan.
Upgrade at 80% used, not at 100%, because there is no overage on either service. Above 10,000 standard leads Hunter has no published plan and we have to ask them for a price.
Every assumption in one place
| Assumed | What we used | If it is wrong | How to settle it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apollo's price per credit | $0.17 to $0.20 | Everything on the Apollo slides moves with it, in direct proportion. At 3 cents the careful option is $81 a month, at 20 cents it is $169 | Ask Apollo for a written quote |
| Hunter's company lookup cost | 1 credit | If it is free we need 1,000 fewer credits a month at 3,700 leads, which does not change any plan | Ask Hunter support |
| Hunter's person lookup cost | 1 credit | Same, and it only applies to enriched leads | Ask Hunter support |
| Hunter misses 4 in 10, Apollo finds 35 of 100 | Used only for the 518 figure | Changes the careful option only. The other two Apollo rows do not use it | Count our own delivered leads, free, then one paid month of Apollo |
Everything else on every slide is either from our own pricing page, from a supplier's published rate card, or read from the automation that runs our leads.
Note the shape of the risk. The three Hunter assumptions move the total by tens of dollars. The Apollo credit price moves it by thousands, and it is the one number we cannot look up.
What we need
Every number behind this is from a pricing page or a rate card.
Affordable, and worth trialling for one month once the questions above are answered.
Not affordable at our revenue. If we want phones, we price them separately.
Question three costs nothing and should happen first, because if Hunter is already filling 8 in 10 contacts then Apollo adds little and the other two questions do not matter.