costperaction

Cost per action (CPA) is a pricing model and performance metric used in online advertising in which an advertiser pays only when a user completes a predefined action. Actions can include purchases, lead submissions, signups, downloads, or app installs. CPA programs typically involve advertisers working with publishers or affiliates who drive traffic and receive a payout for each qualified action. Tracking across devices and channels is essential and is accomplished through conversion pixels, mobile SDKs, or server-to-server integrations. Attribution windows determine which actions count toward payment.

The advertiser’s effective CPA is calculated as the total campaign spend divided by the number of actions attributed. Publishers are paid a predetermined payout per action, or a percentage of the sale, depending on the network terms. Many platforms also offer target CPA bidding, where campaigns aim to achieve a desired cost per action.

Benefits of CPA include a performance-based focus, clearer ROI, and risk transfer from advertiser to publisher for the defined actions. It can scale campaigns efficiently when high-quality actions are available. However, CPA also presents challenges such as fraud risk, inflated or misattributed conversions, and reliance on robust tracking and attribution systems. Delayed or multi-touch conversions can complicate measurement, and the quality of actions may vary with traffic sources.

In practice, CPA differs from other pricing models like cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM) by prioritizing results over impressions or clicks. It is widely used in affiliate marketing and performance advertising where actions can be clearly defined and measured.