What Do CPC, CPL, & CPA Mean In Marketing?

If you don’t work in digital marketing and advertising, there’s a lot of lingo being thrown around that you may not be familiar with. But, if you’re a business owner, there are some terms you should know just so you can better understand what an agency or in-house ads team may be telling you. Three very common terms involved in advertising, specifically for a search campaign, are CPC, CPL, and CPA. 

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What Does CPC Mean?

CPC is the abbreviation for Cost Per Click, a common metric used to show whether or not advertisements are being clicked on. A campaign being run with a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of a certain CPC is likely for brand awareness and general website traffic. A low CPC means you have more people clicking on your advertisement, and in turn have higher traffic. CPC-focused campaigns are ideal for visibility and early parts of an advertising strategy and campaign. 

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What is a CPA in Marketing?

You may know a CPA to be the abbreviation for a Certified Public Accountant, but in marketing we’re talking about something else. For us, CPA stands for cost per action or cost per acquisition, a different KPI than cost per click. A CPA-focused campaign is geared toward getting leads, aka actions, and helping reach a specific conversion or action goal. A campaign utilizing CPA as their main metric for effectiveness can help make sure advertising costs are worthwhile, since you’ll see direct acquisitions. 

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What is CPL?

Similar to and almost interchangeable with CPA, CPL means cost per lead. Oftentimes a lead generation campaign is more focused on CPL to ensure that the ads are finding the right customers and spending adequately. This is similar to CPA because a lead can also be an action depending on the campaign. Cost per lead is a more common metric used in marketing than CPA because lead volume, quality, and, of course, cost are used to determine if a campaign is effective or not. 

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Now, instead of asking your agency or team “What is cost per click?” or “Why should I care about the CPA and CPL?” you can better understand your advertising campaigns and KPIs!