Cost per Acquisition

Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is a campaign-level metric that measures how much you spend to acquire a single lead or customer from a specific marketing campaign or channel.

Formula

CPA = Total Campaign Spend / Number of Acquisitions from that Campaign

Example: If you spend $10,000 on a Google Ads campaign and it generates 50 leads:

• CPA = $10,000 / 50 = $200 per lead

CPA vs. CAC

• CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
• Scope: Campaign-level
• Focus: Cost-effectiveness of a specific channel or campaign
• Example: Paid search CPA = $100 per lead
• CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
• Scope: Company-level
• Focus: All sales & marketing costs divided by total new customers
• Includes: Ad spend, sales team salaries, tools, overhead, etc.
• Example: Overall CAC = $5,000 per customer, even if paid search CPA is $100 per lead, once you include sales and overhead to convert that lead.

Benchmarks & Interpretation

• CPA varies widely by channel, industry, and target segment.
• The key question is not whether CPA is “high” or “low” in isolation, but whether it is profitable relative to LTV (Customer Lifetime Value).
• A higher CPA can be acceptable if it brings in customers with much higher LTV.

Why CPA Matters

• Enables apples-to-apples comparison of campaign efficiency.