Cost Per Acquisition

Also called CPA and Cost Per Action

Cost per acquisition (or action): what you pay to get one conversion, whether a signup, lead, or sale, from a campaign. Narrower than CAC, which includes all sales and marketing costs.

CPA = campaign spend / conversions

Why it matters

CPA tells you the efficiency of a specific campaign or channel at driving a specific action. Comparing it to what that action is worth decides whether to scale the channel or kill it.

For example

A campaign spends 1 lakh and generates 200 signups, so the cost per acquisition is 500 rupees per signup.

Related terms

Customer Acquisition Cost Cost Per Click Return on Ad Spend

Go deeper

See how founders actually handle this on Money, pricing and metrics, part of the Starting Up hub.

eChai Partner Brands