Let me tell you a classic. I was working on a project where the marketing team had one daily ritual: “Hey, what’s our CPA today?”

Every morning, like clockwork, came the numbers:

• Meta: CPA = $32.0.

• Google Ads: $48.0.

• Bing: $55.0.

Easy call, right? Meta stays. Google gets squeezed. Bing gets the boot. Victory dance all around.

Until someone — probably by accident — opened the CRM.

Turns out, 80% of Meta leads were total junk. Meanwhile, those “expensive” leads from Google and Bing? Yeah, they were quietly paying the bills.

So what did we actually optimize? We saved money by killing revenue. Brilliant.

Look — CPA isn’t evil. It’s just misunderstood.

Judging campaigns solely by CPA is like judging a restaurant by how cheap the bill is… while ignoring the fact you just got food poisoning.

When you only look at CPA, here’s what you’re missing:

• Lead quality. Some people buy. Others just came for the free download and vanished.

• LTV. One customer buys once. Another becomes a loyal fan. Same CPA, totally different economics.

• Creative and landing page effects. Sometimes it’s not the channel — it’s that cursed banner or weird headline.

• Channel combos. That “too expensive” source? Might be the secret sauce in a high-converting funnel.

How I evaluate channels:

• A lead ≠ a customer. I tag paying users in CRM, and I calculate the actual cost per real client. No fairy tales. Real ROAS.

• I look at LTV. A $50 CPA that brings in $2,000? Yes, please. A $30 CPA for a one-time $50 order? Meh.

• I break it down: audience + creative + landing page. Same channel, different mix — and it’s a totally different business.

• If the sales cycle is long — I go full detective mode: MQLs, SQLs, funnel stages. Because big decisions don’t live at the top of the form.

Bottom line?

If you’re chasing low CPA like it’s a badge of honor, don’t be surprised when your revenue graph starts resembling a ski slope.

CPA is a useful tool. But use it without context — and you’ll:

• Celebrate cheap leads that never buy.

• Pause your most profitable campaigns because they “look expensive”.

• Make confident decisions that slowly strangle your business.

What to do instead:

• Integrate CRM with your analytics — always.

• Look at actual revenue, not just form fills.

• Analyze full bundles: channel + targeting + offer.

• Build cohorts by acquisition date, lead date, and first purchase.

Stop worshipping cheap traffic. Start doubling down on what actually grows your business.

If you work with GA4 to BigQuery exports, be sure to check out my SQL cheat sheet.