CPA is an acronym you may not be familiar with. It stands for Cost Per Acquisition, in effect the amount of money you have paid (or are willing to pay) to acquire a sale, quote or registration via an advertising program.

CPA is primarily used for e-commerce websites, where it is much easier to track your “customers journey” from landing page to checkout confirmation page.

At TFM&A 2010 there was some interesting new ideas surrounding the usage of CPA in AdWords. Traditionally, CPA is used in addition to a normal advertising campaign to help drive potential customers to the site and convert them. Now though, some companies have been looking at using a CPA only approach with managed campaigns.

This is normally handled through an agency who can take the time to apply their knowledge to the situation. This starts with an agreed retainer with the actual costs for the advertisements ultimately coming out of the agencies pocket and an agreed number of acquisitions within a time period. The agency can then take this information and apply it to the campaign, starting off with the AdWords recommended CPA.
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