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22nd April 2022
CPA stands for cost per acquisition. It is the cost to acquire a new customer.
It is typically used to work out the sales and marketing cost within the company, but it can also be used in a BPO, call centre or contact centre environment.
It gives a guide about how expensive it is to acquire a new customer. It also allows you to compare the cost of gaining new customers with that of retaining existing customers – which is particularly useful in a call centre. It is typically said that it is 5 times cheaper to retain a customer than it is to recruit a new one.
The formula is
| CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) = | Total Sales and Marketing Costs |
| Number of New Customers |
It can also be broken down into a more granular level.
So, to get the CPA, divide the total cost of your campaign by the number of conversions.
There is no “industry standard” for CPA as it depends very much on your sector and your type of business.
Another similar metric is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which is the financial benefit that is derived from a customer’s lifetime interactions with your company.
For more great articles on customer value, read these next:
Robyn Coppell has worked as Digital Content Manager for Call Center Helper since 2021. After University her first job was in a contact centre and has stayed in this space ever since.
She has experience of contact centre operational management, software systems, css and php coding. She edits a lot of the guest content that is published on Call Centre Helper.
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24th September 2025
From Insight to Impact: The Next Era of CX and AI Leadership – Webinar
