Definition eCPA in online advertising

eCPA is effective cost per action or acquisition in online advertising. This definition also applies to eCPO and eCPL, it's just a matter of the definition of what you measure (actions, acquisitions, orders or leads).

While CPA is the actual price for each action or acquisition when buying actions or acquisitions, eCPA is a calculated metric that tells you what the CPA would have been if you bought actions or acquisitions instead of impressions, clicks etc.

The term CPA is often used instead of eCPA in the everyday language.

In this case it is actually an eCPA of 1000 USD, not a CPA:
- When I was going through the reports for our last CPM campaign I realized that it gave a CPA of 1000 USD.

See also the definition of CPA and the article about buying methods in online advertising.

I also recommended using the CPM calculator to make sure you get your numbers right.