Free marketing calculator

CPA Calculator: Cost per Acquisition

Calculate advertising cost per acquisition from campaign cost and completed actions, with guidance on attribution and conversion quality.

Interactive calculator

Calculate CPA

Display currency

Enter your values and calculate to see the result.

Published by CalcMotive How formulas are reviewedUpdated July 12, 2026Formula v1.0.0Corrections

Revision note: Defined the counted acquisition explicitly and added a volume scenario with total campaign cost held constant.

Formula

CPA = Campaign cost ÷ Acquisitions

CPA calculation

CPA divides campaign cost by completed acquisitions. A $9,000 campaign with 300 acquisitions produces a $30 CPA. This matches the Google Ads definition of average CPA.

An acquisition can be a sale, lead, signup or other defined action. State the action whenever reporting CPA.

CPA is not always CAC

Campaign CPA usually includes media cost and platform-attributed actions. Blended customer acquisition cost can include creative, tools, agencies and payroll, and counts actual new customers. Use the terms deliberately.