What is a good CPA?
There is no universal good CPA. Search-ads industry averages run from about $27 (arts and entertainment) to $132 (legal) in the 2026 survey. A good CPA sits below your break-even ceiling with headroom to spare, and below your vertical's average is the market test.
Market rate
The vertical spread
All bars from one survey, 2026 surveyLocaliQ · 2026 survey, search campaigns only. The line is the overall average, $66.69. A $70 CPA is above-market for pets and below-market for attorneys; the label "good" belongs to the vertical, not the number.
Your ceiling
The only universal test
Break-even CPA = AOV × gross margin × (1 + repeat orders). An $80 AOV at 60% margin with half a repeat order per customer supports $80 × 0.60 × 1.5 = $72. Below-median spend that still exceeds your ceiling is bad; above-median spend under a high-LTV ceiling is fine. Legal proves the point: $132 average acquisitions clear easily against four-figure case values. Run yours on the break-even page or the calculator's break-even mode.
Above median
When a high CPA is still right
- High LTV: repeat rate and retention raise the ceiling; see the ecommerce AOV framing and finance LTV math.
- Scale pressure: pushing volume past your natural demand pool raises marginal CPA. Paying above median deliberately to hit a growth target is a choice, not a failure.
- Mix shift: brand campaigns report cheap CPAs, prospecting expensive ones. Judge each layer against its own job; the blend is on blended CPA.
Per-vertical detail: legal, ecommerce, SaaS, healthcare.