Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost Per Acquisition Definition

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is an online advertising pricing model where an advertiser pays for a specified acquisition – an acquisition could be a sale, a click, an event, a form submission (e.g. newsletter sign-up, registration, making contact etc.)

CPA is – in my opinion – the most important metric in a PPC campaign – definition of PPC. In order to effectively track your online marketing campaign, you need to know what you are paying per acquisition.
Ofcourse there are other very important marketing metrics to look at. Metrics like:

CTR – Click Through Rate
CPC – Cost per Click

 
These metrics are important to any analyses of a campaign.
Why is Cost per Acquisition so important?

Cost Per Acquisition is the sole metric in determining true return on investment.

Even metrics like clicks, reach, visibility etc. – if your campaign is not generating revenue or another tangible gain, it’s not successful.