Acquisition Costs
Results
CAC Calculator Guide
Customer acquisition cost is what you pay, all in, to win one new customer. This CAC calculator works it out and compares it against lifetime value — because CAC on its own tells you almost nothing.
CAC = (Sales spend + Marketing spend) ÷ New customers acquired
$50,000 total spend for 250 new customers is a CAC of $200.
Count Everything, Not Just Ads
This is where most CAC figures go wrong. A real CAC includes ad spend, salaries for sales and marketing staff, commissions, agency retainers, software, and content production. If someone reports a $40 CAC that only counts the ad bill, they've measured cost per sale from ads — not CAC.
CAC Only Means Something Next to LTV
A $200 CAC is superb if a customer is worth $2,000 and disastrous if they're worth $150. The number to watch is the ratio.
LTV:CAC of 3:1 is the widely used healthy benchmark. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer. Around 1–2:1 is thin. Above 5:1 usually means you're under-investing in growth — you could spend more and still profit.
Work out the other half with our customer lifetime value calculator.
Payback Period: The Cash Flow Question
LTV:CAC ignores when the money arrives, and that difference can kill a business that looks healthy on paper.
If a customer pays $50 a month and cost $200 to acquire, you're square after four months. Everything after that is profit — but you funded those four months out of pocket. Grow fast enough with a long payback and you can run out of cash while every individual customer is profitable. That's how businesses die with a great LTV:CAC ratio.
Blended vs Paid CAC
Blended CAC divides total spend by all new customers, including the ones who found you organically. It flatters paid channels by hiding behind word of mouth. Paid CAC — paid spend divided by paid-acquired customers — is the honest number for judging whether ads work.
Lowering It
Improve conversion rate so the same spend produces more customers. Fix targeting so you stop paying for people who never buy. Build organic and referral channels, which have a near-zero marginal CAC. And raise retention — a customer who stays longer raises LTV, which makes a higher CAC affordable.
Need a Calculator We Don't Have Yet?
Can't find the calculator you need? We'll build it. Submit your request and we'll evaluate it for our growing collection.
Request Calculator