Internet Advertising
Banner ads and pay-per-click (PPC) ads are two of the primary ways to advertise online. Banner ads run on sites such as Realtor.com, and they are usually billed by the number of impressions. PPC ads are the types of ads typically offered by search engines, such as Google and Yahoo, and you bid on how much you are willing to pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
There are several key metrics used in measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. Two of these are cost-per-lead (CPL) and cost-per-acquisition (CPA). Cost per lead is how much you spend on advertising to generate a new lead, and cost per acquisition is how much you spend on advertising to acquire a new deal.
You generally want to keep your cost per lead low, but that isn't the whole story when it comes to evaluating the campaign. If both the lead cost and lead quality are high, your acquisition cost may still be low because you are converting a higher percentage of leads into new deals. It is important to generate quality leads also because it enables you to use your time more efficiently.