Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is the average amount you pay to generate one specific result from your ads, like a booked consultation, a phone call that turns into a lead, an online purchase, or a completed form.
In plain math, CPA is your total marketing cost for a campaign divided by the number of tracked acquisitions (conversions) that campaign produced. If you spent $1,000 and got 25 tracked bookings, your CPA is $40.
The only “right” CPA is the one that still leaves you profit after you account for your close rate and margins. For example, if your Orlando practice spends money to generate leads (not purchases), your real customer CPA depends on what percent of those leads become patients or clients. That’s why we always define the acquisition first: is it a qualified lead, a scheduled appointment, or a paid customer?
| Metric | What it measures | When it’s useful |
|---|---|---|
| CPA | Cost per conversion you care about (lead, booking, purchase) | When you want to judge profitability and scale |
| CPC | Cost per click | When diagnosing traffic cost, not business results |
| CPL | Cost per lead (a type of CPA) | When your sale happens later by phone or in person |
| ROAS | Revenue divided by ad spend | When you can track purchase value reliably |
In Google Ads, you’ll also see “cost per action” language and automated bidding like Target CPA, where you tell Google the average amount you want to pay per conversion, and the system adjusts bids to try to hit that goal.
What affects CPA most in real accounts: how tight your targeting is (service areas in Central Florida can swing results), how well your keywords match intent, the landing page experience, and whether conversion tracking is counting the right actions. If you’re running Meta ads, you’ll often see the same concept labeled as “cost per result” tied to whatever result you picked (lead, purchase, etc.).
If you want CPA to be a number you can trust, start with two basics: track calls and form submissions correctly, and separate campaigns by offer and location so you can see which ads bring real inquiries. If you’d like help setting up campaigns around profit targets (not vanity clicks), our PPC management work is built around clean conversion tracking and CPA you can actually act on.
If you’re also cleaning up reporting so you can compare paid vs organic results in one place, our FAQ on SEO metrics to track pairs well with CPA because it frames what to measure when the goal is leads and revenue, not just traffic.
