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Cost Per Acquisition Calculator

Divide spend by acquired customers to get CPA, the metric bids and budgets are optimised against.

About Cost Per Acquisition Calculator

Dividing spend by the number of customers gives the unit economics of the channel. The reciprocal — customers delivered per unit of currency — is shown alongside, because that is the figure to maximise when a budget is fixed. Unit cost is the only number that lets you compare channels with wildly different budgets, and it is the input every bid and budget decision ultimately rests on.

Formula

Cost Per Acquisition

Cost Per Acquisition = Campaign spend ÷ Customers acquired

Campaign spend
Total amount spent in the period
Customers acquired
Countable outcomes delivered for that spend

Worked example

With the default values below, Cost Per Acquisition Calculator returns Cost Per Acquisition of $125.0000. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Campaign spendminimum 0
12,000
Customers acquiredminimum 0
96

Results

Cost Per Acquisition
$125.0000
Customers per Unit of Spend
0.01
Spend per 1,000 customers
$125,000.00
Customers Needed to Justify Spend at Current Rate
96

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Cost Per Acquisition
  3. 3Cost Per Acquisition= 125.0000
  4. 4Customers per Unit of Spend= 0.01
  5. 5Spend per 1,000 customers= 125,000.00
  6. 6Customers Needed to Justify Spend at Current Rate= 96

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
  • This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Cost Per Acquisition calculated?

Cost Per Acquisition = Campaign spend ÷ Customers acquired Dividing spend by the number of customers gives the unit economics of the channel. The reciprocal — customers delivered per unit of currency — is shown alongside, because that is the figure to maximise when a budget is fixed.

Why does Cost Per Acquisition matter?

Unit cost is the only number that lets you compare channels with wildly different budgets, and it is the input every bid and budget decision ultimately rests on.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 2 inputs: Campaign spend, Customers acquired. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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