What is CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)?
CPA is the average amount you pay for one conversion: total cost divided by total conversions. 'Acquisition' means whatever you've defined as a conversion, a lead, a sale, a booked call. It is the core efficiency metric for lead-generation accounts and the target Google's Target CPA Smart Bidding strategy optimizes toward.
What to know in practice
- CPA is only as honest as your conversion definition. If you count raw form fills, your 'CPA' hides junk; counting qualified leads or sales gives the number that matters.
- Target CPA bidding needs enough conversion history (Google suggests 30+ in the prior 30 days) before it optimizes reliably.
- A low CPA with low volume can be worse for the business than a higher CPA at scale, optimize for total profit, not the lowest CPA.
- For long sales cycles, in-platform CPA understates true cost until offline conversions are imported from the CRM.
Common misconception
The lowest CPA is not the goal. Pushing CPA too low usually starves volume; the right CPA is the one that maximizes total qualified pipeline within your margin.
Related terms
- Smart Bidding → Paid Media
- Offline Conversions → Paid Media
- Conversion Rate → Analytics