CPA calculator

Cost per acquisition — fill in spend, conversions or CPA, get the third.

Calculator

No published CPA rate has been read across the directory yet — that's a gap in what has been checked, not evidence nobody sells it.

See how published rates split out by channel in the buying guides.

What it measures

CPA (cost per acquisition) is what a buyer pays for each completed outcome an ad produces — a sale, a signup, an install — rather than for exposure or clicks. It is the figure a performance-focused buyer ultimately budgets against, because it is the one unit that prices the result rather than a step on the way to it.

Worked example

A campaign spends $4,000 and produces 80 conversions. CPA = $4,000 ÷ 80 = $50 per conversion. Whether that is a good result depends entirely on what one conversion is worth to the buyer, which is outside anything a rate card states.

Questions

Is CPA the same as CPL?

No — a lead (CPL) and a completed sale or install (CPA) are different outcomes, and a seller's rate card should say which one it is pricing. This calculator works the same arithmetic either way; only the label on the outcome changes.

Why is CPA rarely on a published rate card?

Because it depends on the buyer's own funnel, not just the placement — the same ad spot produces a different CPA for two advertisers with different offers and landing pages. Most sellers publish CPM or CPC instead and leave CPA for the buyer to work out.

How does CPA relate to CPC?

CPA = CPC ÷ conversion rate. A $2 CPC placement converting 1 in 40 clicks has a $80 CPA; the same CPC at 1 in 20 halves it to $40 — the conversion rate on the buyer's own site decides which, not anything the seller controls.