Enter your numbers to see the result and what it means.
How this calculator works
Enter the total cost of acquiring customers in a period — media, agency or staff cost, tools, and sales effort where relevant — and the number of new customers. The result is your CAC.
The formula
CAC = Total customer acquisition cost ÷ New customers. Count only genuinely new customers; including repeat purchases flatters the figure considerably.
Worked example
Spend $45,000 all in and win 90 new customers, and your CAC is $500.
How to read your result
CAC only means something next to what a customer is worth. Compare it to gross profit per customer for a single-purchase business, or to lifetime gross profit where people buy repeatedly. If CAC exceeds the profit a customer generates, growth is making the problem bigger.
Questions
Should I include salaries in CAC?
Include the proportion of marketing and sales salaries attributable to winning new customers. Excluding them produces a number that looks good and is not true.
What is a healthy ratio?
Many subscription businesses aim for lifetime value at roughly three times CAC, but that convention comes from SaaS. The only universal rule is that a customer must be worth more than they cost.
How often should I recalculate?
Monthly if you spend consistently, quarterly otherwise. CAC drifts as competition and conversion rates change.
Proof this works
250+ leads in two months from a standing start.
If you would rather we handled it
We work out where the growth actually is before anyone spends money on media.
Want the numbers behind your numbers?
We will review your advertising, website and tracking, then show you where the biggest gain is. No obligation.