Business Metrics
Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator
Calculate how much your business spends to acquire each new customer using marketing spend, sales spend, and customers acquired.
Acquisition Inputs
Enter your marketing costs, sales costs, and the number of new customers acquired during the same period.
Results
Customer Acquisition Cost
$150.00
Total Acquisition Spend
$15,000.00
Marketing Cost / Customer
$100.00
Sales Cost / Customer
$50.00
Continue the workflow
Carry this budget and customer target into the Marketing & Customer Growth Kit’s campaign planner to model leads, conversion, and customer economics together.
How CAC is calculated
Customer acquisition cost is calculated by dividing total marketing and sales spending by the number of new customers acquired.
CAC = (Marketing Spend + Sales Spend) ÷ New Customers
Example: if a business spends $15,000 on marketing and sales and acquires 100 new customers, its customer acquisition cost is $150 per customer.
CAC is most useful when compared with customer revenue, gross margin, customer lifetime value, and the time required to recover acquisition costs.
Next step
Connect sales metrics to a revenue plan
Bring revenue growth, order value, conversion, acquisition cost, and customer value into a shared planning workflow.
01
Calculate
Start with a focused business question and get a clear estimate.
02
Compare
Move from one answer to multiple assumptions and scenarios.
03
Plan
Save useful scenarios in your workspace and build on them later.
What is Customer Acquisition Cost?
Customer Acquisition Cost, commonly called CAC, measures the average amount a business spends to acquire a new customer. It can include marketing and sales costs associated with acquiring customers during a particular period.
How to Calculate CAC
A simple CAC calculation divides total customer acquisition spending by the number of new customers acquired.
CAC and Customer Lifetime Value
CAC becomes more informative when viewed alongside Customer Lifetime Value. CAC measures the cost of acquiring a customer, while LTV estimates the economic value generated over the customer relationship.
CAC Example
If a business spends $10,000 on marketing, $5,000 on sales, and acquires 100 new customers, total acquisition spending is $15,000 and CAC is $150 per customer.
Related Business Metrics
Frequently Asked Questions
What does CAC stand for?
CAC stands for Customer Acquisition Cost, the average amount spent to acquire a new customer.
What costs should be included in CAC?
Depending on the business, CAC can include marketing, advertising, sales, and other customer-acquisition expenses.
Why compare CAC with LTV?
Comparing acquisition cost with customer lifetime value provides a way to examine the relationship between the resources required to acquire customers and the economic value those customers generate.