Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

What is CAC?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the average sales and marketing spend required to win one new customer in a period. Founders and GTM leaders use it to judge whether growth spend is producing customers efficiently.

Formula

Version v1. See methodology and the public formula repo for sources and change history.

Worked example

Using the default example inputs (Sales and marketing spend: $120,000; New customers acquired: 24), CAC equals $5,000 (Blended CAC). Lower CAC creates more room for warm-introduction and channel experiments.

What good looks like

Healthy B2B SaaS teams track CAC by channel and motion, not only blended. Lower CAC is not always better if it signals under-investment in durable channels. Compare CAC to payback and LTV:CAC before changing spend.

Directional guidance only, not a cohort benchmark claim. Premium cohort bands appear when sample thresholds are met for your profile.

FAQ

What is CAC?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the average sales and marketing spend required to win one new customer in a period. Founders and GTM leaders use it to judge whether growth spend is producing customers efficiently.

What is the CAC formula?

CAC = Sales and marketing spend / New customers acquired

Should CAC include salaries?

Yes for a fully loaded view: include sales and marketing payroll, programs, tools, and agency spend tied to acquisition in the same period as new customers.

Blended vs channel CAC?

This calculator uses blended CAC. Segment by channel in your CRM or finance stack when diagnosing efficiency.

How often should we recalculate CAC?

Monthly or quarterly for operating reviews; align the period for spend and new customers so the ratio is comparable board to board.