Cost Per Action
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Cost Per Action or CPA (as it is often initialized to) is a phrase often used in online advertising and online marketing circles.
CPA is considered the optimal form of buying online advertising from a direct response advertiser's point of view. An advertiser only pays for the ad when an action has occurred. An action can be a product being purchased, a form being filled, etc. (The desired action to be performed is determined by the advertiser.) Google has incorporated this model into their Google AdSense [1] offering while eBay has recently announced a similar pricing called AdContext.
A related term, eCPA or effective Cost Per Action, is used to measure the effectiveness of advertising inventory purchased (by the advertiser) via a CPC, CPM, or CPT basis.
The CPA can be determined by different factors, depending where the online advertising inventory is being purchased.
[edit] CPA as "Cost Per Acquisition"
CPA is sometimes referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition", which has to do with the fact that most CPA offers by advertisers are about acquiring something (mostly new customers, prospects or leads). Using the term "Cost Per Acquisition" instead of "Cost Per Action" is not incorrect. It is actually more specific. "Cost Per Acquisition" is included in "Cost Per Action", but not all "Cost Per Action" offers can be referred to as "Cost Per Acquisition".
Other common forms, of charging for advertising, include:
[edit] See also
- Internet marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- CTR - Click-through rate
- CPM - Cost Per Mille
- eCPM - Effective Cost Per Mille
- CPT - Cost per thousand
- CPI - Cost Per Impression
- PPC - Pay per click
- CPA - Cost Per Action
- CPC - Cost Per Click
- eCPA - effective Cost Per Action
- CPT
- Cost per Conversion
- VPA - Cost Per Action variation that transparently balances incentives between vendors and consumers