Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
CAC divides your total sales and marketing spend for a period by the number of new customers acquired in that same period. It's a fundamental efficiency metric: rising CAC over time (holding channels constant) usually signals market saturation or declining ad performance.
Compare CAC against CLV (see our CLV Calculator) — spending more to acquire a customer than they'll ever be worth is unsustainable, no matter how good the growth-rate headline looks.
- Formula: CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend ÷ Number of New Customers Acquired.
- Include ALL acquisition costs: ad spend, sales team salaries/commissions, marketing tools, and content production — not just ad spend alone, or CAC will be understated.
- Track by channel: blended CAC across all channels hides which specific channels are efficient vs. wasteful — calculate CAC per channel when possible.
What counts as "marketing spend" for this calculation?
Ideally all costs involved in acquiring customers: ad spend, salaries for marketing/sales staff, tools/software, agency fees, and content costs — a narrower "ad spend only" number will understate true CAC.
What's a healthy CAC?
There's no universal number — it only makes sense relative to CLV. A common target is CLV at least 3x CAC, though this varies by business model and how quickly you need to recoup the cost (payback period).
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
CAC divides your total sales and marketing spend for a period by the number of new customers acquired in that same period. It's a fundamental efficiency metric: rising CAC over time (holding channels constant) usually signals market saturation or declining ad performance.
Compare CAC against CLV (see our CLV Calculator) — spending more to acquire a customer than they'll ever be worth is unsustainable, no matter how good the growth-rate headline looks.
- Formula: CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend ÷ Number of New Customers Acquired.
- Include ALL acquisition costs: ad spend, sales team salaries/commissions, marketing tools, and content production — not just ad spend alone, or CAC will be understated.
- Track by channel: blended CAC across all channels hides which specific channels are efficient vs. wasteful — calculate CAC per channel when possible.
What counts as "marketing spend" for this calculation?
Ideally all costs involved in acquiring customers: ad spend, salaries for marketing/sales staff, tools/software, agency fees, and content costs — a narrower "ad spend only" number will understate true CAC.
What's a healthy CAC?
There's no universal number — it only makes sense relative to CLV. A common target is CLV at least 3x CAC, though this varies by business model and how quickly you need to recoup the cost (payback period).