What is Website Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)?

阅读时间:11 分钟

Website CPA refers to the average cost per acquisition for a new website customer. It includes all your spending on marketing such as ads, website design, and content creation, and then these costs are divided by the number of new customers gained. This is useful in determining how much effort goes into marketing for every customer gained and at what expense.

CPAs will help you analyze the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns and where your marketing campaigns and schemes on a particular channel are insufficient, indicating where the changes in your approach are necessary.

示例: When you spend $2000 on marketing for a month, and earn 20 additional clients from your website, you then have a cost per acquisition of $100 CPA = 2000 / 20.

专家提示:
Take a closer look into the CPA and split it by marketing channels, such as Google Ads, social media, and email, and analyze which brings on more customers at a lesser cost.
要点:
  • Use CPA metrics to track marketing objectives effectively
  • Enhance your site to reduce CPA
  • Merge CPA with customer lifetime value for a more effective assessment of marketing returns
Hocoos 小 logo 解答 网站分析和跟踪

How can businesses use CPA data to inform their marketing strategies?

Here is how businesses utilize CPA data in their marketing campaign:

  • Be strategic: Identify what marketing approaches bring in customers at reasonable costs.

  • Fix campaigns: Adjust your campaigns to reduce the CPA and increase ROI on your marketing spending.

  • Spend wisely: Protect your budget by putting more money into the channels that give you the lowest CPA and the greatest number of customers.

  • Set goals: Leverage CPA statistics to define pragmatic goals of how many customers you wish to acquire.
专家提示: 
Consider breaking down your CPA data by customer profiles or product categories so you can analyze them more closely.

What is a good CPA?

Determining an ideal CPA can be challenging because it is subjective and depends on various factors, such as:

  • 您的行业

  • Campaign goals

  • Customer lifetime value. 

Generally, a good CPA should be lower than the expected revenue generated from each customer. 

专家提示:
Your CPA can be compared to your customer lifetime value (CLTV). As a rough benchmark, your CLTV should at minimum be at least three times your CPA.

Are there typical CPA benchmarks by industry?

There are no universal answers, however, there are specific CPA benchmarks for different industries. It is fair to assume that a clothing retailer would have a lower CPA goal than a software engineer selling high-end subscription packages. Why? Because the value of a conversion (a sale) is different.

Resources like WordStream, Store Growers, and AdClicks analyze and compile data from various industries. They classify it using several factors such as:

  • Industry: Do you operate in e-commerce, B2B, or elsewhere?

  • Network: Different campaign types, such as Search, Display, and Shopping have their own CPA benchmarks.

  • Location: Prices and competition differ by region.

These benchmarks serve as references, not a rule set in stone. Defining your CPA goals will depend on the singularities of your business, profit margins, and campaign strategies. Nevertheless, these benchmarks can serve as a reference point for comparison when entering the marketing industry, regardless of the chosen niche.

How can I improve (lower) my website’s CPA?

Evaluate the following practices and consider their influence on your website and marketing efforts:

  • Focus on website flow: Prioritizing a user-friendly interface with clear CTAs may affect 转化率 of website visitors.

  • Communicate to your target audience: Focus your marketing to capture the attention of those most likely to respond positively.

  • Deliver compelling ads: While designing captivating and engaging ads, consider the potential impact they will have on users’ decisions on clicks and acquisition.

  • Try retargeting: Show ads to people who visited your site before but did not complete a purchase; the goal is to bring them back and increase the chances of them becoming buyers.

  • Test everything: Tweak 你的网站 and promotional materials and find out which one is more suitable for your business needs.
专家提示: 
Employ A/B testing tools to conduct controlled tests of different components of your site and marketing activities.

What are some common challenges in measuring CPA accurately?

Here is how you can overcome the complexity of measuring CPA accurately:

  • Determining where the credit belongs: Understanding the specific marketing activity that led to the acquisition of a new customer can be complex, particularly when the customer has engaged with your brand through different channels.

  • Tracking data consistently: Keep in mind that each platform performs distinct ways of recording data, which may lead to different retrieval processes and generate a fuzzy picture.

  • Delayed conversions: Sometimes people don’t become customers right away but return eventually and make a purchase in another opportunity. This may be harder to link them to a specific campaign but does not exclude the effectiveness of past campaigns.

  • Indirect expenses: Account expenses like website hosting and employee wages. These can significantly impact your effective CPA.
专家提示:
Utilize a strong marketing analytics platform to consolidate your data and enhance attribution accuracy.

What are some of the limitations of CPA as a metric?

While the CPA provides essential insights on customer acquisition costs, it may overlook the CLTV, and attribution is likely to pose a challenge. A low CPA does not automatically translate to success, therefore, it is best practiced alongside other performance indicators.

专家提示: 
Utilize CPA alongside additional metrics, including CLTV, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction, to gain a more integrated assessment of your marketing output.

总结

The website CPA serves as an indicator that tells you how much you are spending to sell a product to a new client on your platform. Because of the importance of CPA in determining the trajectory of your marketing efforts, it is proper to monitor and improve it. Just remember to consider other factors, like customer value over time.

目录

准备好开启您的小型企业之旅了吗?

重要考虑事项: 我们的专家团队提供的信息旨在帮助您大致了解网站创建流程和可用功能。请务必注意,此信息不能替代根据您的具体需求和目标量身定制的专业建议。
阅读我们的 Answers 内容的编辑标准。
我们的目标是帮助您创建一个出色的网站。如果您在构建过程中有任何疑问或需要指导,请随时 联系我们 我们很乐意提供帮助并为您指明正确的方向。