Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

The cost of acquiring one customer through a specific channel or campaign — a narrower, channel-level cousin of CAC.

CPA and CAC are not the same

CPA is usually channel-scoped and counts programme spend. CAC is company-wide and fully loaded, including salaries. Presenting CPA as CAC understates acquisition cost substantially.

It inherits attribution's limits

Channel-level cost depends entirely on the attribution model. Change the model and every CPA changes, without anything about the business changing.

RELATED TERMS

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Marketing spend divided by leads generated. The most immediately available demand-gen metric and the easiest to misread.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

The fully loaded cost of acquiring one new customer: sales and marketing spend for a period divided by new customers acquired from it.

Attribution

The methodology connecting marketing touchpoints to revenue outcomes, so investment can be allocated on evidence rather than on preference.

Learn how to apply this: RevOps 101: Revenue Operations Foundations

Definitions are the vocabulary. The courses are where you learn to operate it, with the interactive audit tools.

See the course