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Glossary · Metrics

CPA

Cost Per Acquisition (or Cost Per Action) — The average spend required to generate one conversion, such as a sale, lead, or deposit.

CPA is total spend divided by the number of a defined conversion event, and it is the metric most performance accounts are ultimately managed against, since it ties ad cost directly to the value of the action taken. What counts as 'the action' varies by vertical: a purchase in ecommerce, a form submission in lead gen, an FTD in iGaming, or a rebill signup in nutra.

CPA in isolation is meaningless without knowing the value of the action it produced, which is why performance teams pair it with LTV or AOV to judge profitability rather than optimizing CPA down in a vacuum. An account can have a rising CPA and still be more profitable if average order value or customer lifetime value rose faster.

ExampleA campaign spends $4,000 and drives 80 purchases: CPA = $50.
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