How to Optimise Cost-Per-Acquisition Across Channels

In the competitive Australian business landscape, it’s not just about how many leads you get, but what you pay for them. Optimising your Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) ensures that your marketing budget is working as hard as possible, allowing you to scale your business without eroding your profit margins.

Why CPA Optimisation Matters

For most Brisbane small businesses, marketing budgets aren't infinite. If you are spending $50 to acquire a customer who only spends $60, your business isn't sustainable once you factor in GST, overheads, and wages. By lowering your CPA, you effectively increase your profit on every sale and gain the ability to outbid your competitors for the best digital real estate.

Prerequisites

Before you begin this guide, ensure you have the following in place:

• Active Ad Accounts: Access to Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, or LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
• Conversion Tracking: A working Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup or platform-specific pixels (like the Meta Pixel) installed on your site.
• A Defined Lead Value: An understanding of what a customer is actually worth to your business (Lifetime Value).
• Historical Data: At least 30 days of data to identify trends.

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Step 1: Define Your Target CPA (tCPA)

Before you can optimise, you need a benchmark. Calculate your "Break-even CPA" by subtracting your COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and business overheads from your average order value.

Step 2: Audit Your Tracking Accuracy

You cannot optimise what you cannot measure. Go into your Google Ads or Meta Events Manager.

• What you should see: A list of events (e.g., "Form Submission", "Purchase", "Phone Call Click") with a green "Active" status and recent activity timestamps.
• The Check: Cross-reference your ad platform conversions with your actual CRM or inbox leads. If the ad platform says you had 20 leads but you only received 10, your tracking is double-counting, and your CPA data is fake.

Step 3: Identify the "Bleeding" Campaigns

Open your primary ad dashboard and sort your campaigns by "Cost". Look for campaigns that have spent more than 2x your Target CPA without a single conversion.

Step 4: Optimise Your Keyword Match Types (Google Ads)

If you are using "Broad Match" keywords in Google Ads, you are likely paying for irrelevant traffic.

• Action: Change high-spend, low-conversion broad keywords to "Phrase Match" or "Exact Match".
• Screenshot Description: In the Google Ads 'Keywords' tab, look at the 'Match Type' column. Click the pencil icon next to a keyword to change it from 'Broad' to 'Phrase'.

Step 5: Implement a Negative Keyword List

Review your "Search Terms" report. Are you a premium Brisbane plumber paying for clicks on "cheap DIY plumbing"?

• Action: Select these irrelevant terms and click "Add as Negative Keyword". This prevents your ads from showing for those terms again, instantly lowering your CPA by eliminating wasted spend.

Step 6: Refine Your Geographic Targeting

Many Australian businesses accidentally target the whole country when their service area is local.

• Action: Go to 'Location' settings. If you’re a local Brisbane business, ensure you aren't paying for clicks in Sydney or Perth. Even within Brisbane, you might find that certain postcodes (e.g., 4000 vs 4500) convert at a much higher CPA. Shift your budget to the high-performing suburbs.

Step 7: Optimise Ad Creative for Click-Through Rate (CTR)

On platforms like Meta and LinkedIn, a low CTR leads to a higher CPA because the platform penalises unengaging ads.

• Action: A/B test your imagery. Try one "Professional" shot and one "Real-life/Behind the scenes" shot. Often, authentic photos of your Brisbane team will outperform stock photos, leading to higher engagement and lower costs.

Step 8: Improve the Landing Page Experience

CPA isn't just an ad problem; it’s often a website problem. If your ad is great but your website is slow or confusing, your CPA will skyrocket.

• The Test: Use Google PageSpeed Insights. If your mobile load time is over 3 seconds, you are losing money.
• The Fix: Ensure your CTA (Call to Action) is "Above the Fold" (visible without scrolling) and includes a local Australian phone number or a simple contact form.

Step 9: Leverage Automated Bidding Strategies

Once you have at least 30 conversions in a month, switch from "Manual CPC" to "Target CPA" (Google) or "Cost Cap" (Meta).

• Why: These AI-driven strategies use thousands of signals (time of day, user intent, device) to bid more aggressively for users likely to convert and ignore those who won't.

Step 10: Review Your Time-of-Day Settings

Check your "Ad Schedule" report. If you are a B2B company, you might find your CPA triples on Saturdays and Sundays.

• Action: Set bid adjustments to decrease spend by 50-100% during low-converting hours (e.g., 12 AM to 5 AM) and reinvest that money into the peak conversion times (e.g., 8 AM to 11 AM).

Step 11: Implement Remarketing

It is almost always cheaper to convert someone who already knows you than a complete stranger.

• Action: Create a "Remarketing Audience" of people who visited your site but didn't contact you. Run a specific "Offer" ad to them (e.g., "Still need help with your Brisbane renovation? Get a free quote today"). Remarketing CPAs are typically 30-50% lower than cold traffic CPAs.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

• The "Set and Forget" Mentality: CPA optimisation is an ongoing process. Markets change, and competitors enter the fray.
• Ignoring Mobile Users: Over 70% of Australian web traffic is mobile. If your form is hard to fill out on an iPhone, your CPA will be massive.
• Focusing Only on Top-of-Funnel: Don't just chase clicks; chase the right clicks. High traffic with zero conversions is the fastest way to blow a budget.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

• CPA is suddenly spiking: Check your "Change History". Did you make a major change recently? Also, check for new competitors in the "Auction Insights" report.
• No data in ad platforms: Your tracking pixel might be broken. Use the "Meta Pixel Helper" or "Tag Assistant" Chrome extensions to verify that tags are firing correctly.
• High CTR but zero conversions: Your ad is promising something your landing page isn't delivering. Ensure the message on the ad matches the headline on the page.

Next Steps

• Audit your current CPA: Calculate your current costs for the last 30 days.
• Clean your data: Fix any tracking issues immediately.
• Trim the fat: Pause the 20% of keywords or ads responsible for 80% of the wasted spend.

If you find the technical side of ad optimisation overwhelming, the team at Local Marketing Group is here to help. We specialise in helping Australian businesses squeeze every cent of value out of their digital spend.