CPA Calculator (2026 benchmarks)
Calculate your cost per acquisition — what you pay for each conversion — and benchmark it against 2026 industry medians. CPA varies wildly by vertical: ecommerce averages $28, SaaS hits $150, and legal services climb past $200. Use the right benchmark or you'll think you're broken when you're actually doing fine.
How CPA is calculated
CPA is the most direct measurement of acquisition efficiency in paid media. Unlike ROAS (which depends on order value), CPA is a clean per-action cost — useful for lead-gen businesses where every conversion has roughly equivalent value. The metric trap: CPA only matters relative to customer LTV. A $200 CPA is brutal for a $50 product, fantastic for a $5,000 SaaS contract. Always pair CPA with LTV before judging it.
# CPA — Cost Per Acquisition CPA = ad_spend / conversions # Example: $8,500 spend, 145 conversions → 8500 / 145 = $58.62 CPA
2026 CPA benchmarks by industry
Industry matters more than any other variable. A $150 CPA in ecommerce is a fire alarm; a $150 CPA in SaaS is a Tuesday. Don't compare across verticals — compare against your own median and ask whether you're trending toward it or away from it.