Free calculator
CPA calculator
Enter what you spent and the orders it brought in. You get CPA, the CPA for new customers only, and how it compares with the most an order lets you pay.
Results Example figures. Change any field.
CPA
New-customer CPA (nCPA)
Break-even CPA
Gross profit per order after CPA
The formula
How it’s calculated.
CPA = ad spend ÷ orders
Worked example
$10,000 of ad spend bringing in 200 orders is a CPA of 10,000 ÷ 200 = $50. If 120 of those buyers were new, new-customer CPA is 10,000 ÷ 120 = $83.33. An $80 order at a 55% gross margin leaves $44 before ads, so at a $50 CPA the first order loses $6.
Making budget decisions on nCPA →CPA and new-customer CPA. Only one of them measures growth.
Platform CPA counts every purchase, including returning customers who might have bought anyway. New-customer CPA (nCPA) divides spend by first-time buyers only, so it shows what growth costs.
When returning buyers make up a large share of attributed orders, CPA looks healthy while nCPA climbs. Upstack Signal adds new-customer CPA and ROAS as columns inside Meta Ads Manager, where you set budgets.
Set up new-customer CPA in Meta Ads Manager →What a good CPA is.
One below your break-even CPA: your average order value times your gross margin. Above it, the first order loses money.
That can still work if customers reorder, so compare CPA with what a customer is worth over time before you cut a campaign that looks expensive.
Calculate lifetime value →More calculators
Related calculators.
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CAC calculator
Paid and fully loaded CAC, and how many orders it takes to earn it back.
CAC = (ad spend + other acquisition costs) ÷ new customers
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Break-even ROAS calculator
The ROAS and CPA where ads stop losing money, and the targets that leave a profit.
Break-even ROAS = order value ÷ (order value − product, shipping and fee costs)
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ROAS calculator
Return on ad spend, your break-even ROAS, and the gap between platform and Shopify revenue.
ROAS = revenue from ads ÷ ad spend
Questions
CPA questions.
How do you calculate CPA?
Divide ad spend by the number of orders, or other conversions, it produced. $10,000 for 200 orders is $50 per order.
What is the difference between CPA and CAC?
CPA is ad spend per conversion, and a conversion can be any order, new or returning. CAC is the full cost of winning one new customer, usually including agency, creative and tool costs as well as ads.
What is new-customer CPA (nCPA)?
Ad spend divided by first-time customers only. It takes repeat buyers out of the count, so it shows what new growth costs. It is always at least as high as CPA.
What is a good CPA for e-commerce?
There is no single number. A good CPA is below your break-even CPA, which is your average order value times your gross margin. An $80 order at a 55% margin can carry a CPA of up to $44 before the first order loses money.
Get these numbers from your own store.
Upstack Attribution reports ROAS, MER, new-customer CAC, LTV and CM1 to CM4, reconciled against the revenue in Shopify.
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