CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
CPA is the average amount you pay for one conversion: total cost divided by total conversions. 'Acquisition' means whatever you've defined as a conversion, a lead, a sale, a booked call. It is the core efficiency metric for lead-generation accounts and the target Google's Target CPA Smart Bidding strategy optimizes toward.
In depth
CPA is only as honest as your conversion definition. If you count raw form fills, your 'CPA' hides junk; counting qualified leads or sales gives the number that matters.
Target CPA bidding needs enough conversion history (Google suggests 30+ in the prior 30 days) before it optimizes reliably.
A low CPA with low volume can be worse for the business than a higher CPA at scale, optimize for total profit, not the lowest CPA.
For long sales cycles, in-platform CPA understates true cost until offline conversions are imported from the CRM.
Common misconception
The lowest CPA is not the goal. Pushing CPA too low usually starves volume; the right CPA is the one that maximizes total qualified pipeline within your margin.
Source: Google Ads Help — About Target CPA bidding
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