CPA benchmarks for ecommerce in 2026: what should you pay per acquisition?

Cost per acquisition (CPA) is the metric that determines whether your ad spend is making or losing money. But 'what's a good CPA?' is meaningless without context — your product margin, order value and repeat purchase rate all decide what 'good' looks like for you. Here are the 2026 UK benchmarks, and how to use them.

Average CPA by platform (UK ecommerce, 2026)

Based on aggregated data from UK ecommerce advertisers: Google Search Ads average £15–£45 CPA (higher for competitive niches, lower for branded search). Meta Ads average £8–£25 CPA (strongest for impulse and visual products). TikTok Ads average £5–£18 CPA (cheapest for under-35 audiences). Google Shopping averages £12–£35 CPA (product-dependent). LinkedIn Ads average £40–£120 CPA (rarely viable for B2C ecommerce, but relevant for high-ticket B2B).

CPA by product category

CPA varies enormously by what you sell. Fashion and apparel: £8–£20 CPA on Meta, £15–£30 on Google. Health and beauty: £6–£15 on TikTok, £10–£22 on Meta. Home and furniture (high AOV): £25–£60 across platforms. Electronics: £20–£50 (longer consideration cycle). Subscription products: £15–£40 (higher CPA justified by recurring revenue).

The CPA profitability formula

Your CPA is profitable when it's below your maximum CPA — the most you can spend to acquire a customer and still hit your target margin. Maximum CPA = Average order value × Gross margin × Target ROAS inverse. Example: £50 AOV, 60% margin, targeting 3x ROAS (so you keep 1/3 of revenue as profit before ads). Max CPA = £50 × 0.60 × 0.33 = £9.90. If your actual CPA is £7, you're profitable. If it's £12, you're losing money on every sale.

When a high CPA is actually fine

If your customers repeat-purchase, your first-order CPA can be higher than your margin allows and you'll still be profitable over time. A £30 CPA on a £40 first order with 60% margin looks like a loss — but if that customer buys 3 more times in a year, the LTV is £160 and that £30 CPA is a bargain. This is why subscription and consumable brands can afford CPAs that would bankrupt a one-off purchase brand.

How to lower your CPA in 2026

The three levers that actually move CPA: creative (better hooks and UGC-style content can cut CPA 20–40%), audience exclusions (excluding past purchasers and irrelevant segments typically saves 10–15%), and landing page speed (improving mobile load time from 5s to under 2s can lift conversion rate 30–50%, directly lowering CPA). Most brands chase audience targeting when creative and landing page are the bigger levers.

Benchmarking CPA across platforms

You can't lower CPA if you can't see it side by side across every platform. If your Meta CPA is £9 and your Google CPA is £28, the answer isn't to pause Google — it might be to shift 15% of budget from Google to Meta and let Google focus on branded and high-intent terms only. AdPulse auto-calculates CPA per platform in one dashboard, so you can see where to reallocate. Start free.