🎯 Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator

Enter your total sales and marketing spend for a period, and how many new customers it brought in, to find your CAC.

Total Sales & Marketing Spend ($)

New Customers Acquired

Average Customer Value ($, optional)

How the CAC figure is worked out

One division, plus a second one if you fill in the optional value box:

CAC = total sales & marketing spend / new customers acquired
value : CAC ratio = average customer value / CAC

The defaults are $15,000 of spend and 120 new customers, so CAC is $125.00. An average customer value of $250 makes the ratio 2.00 : 1. The tool calls 3:1 or better healthy, treats 1:1 to 3:1 as acquisition cost that is high relative to customer value, and warns outright below 1:1.

What belongs in each box

Spend is the whole cost of acquiring: ad spend, agency retainers, sales and marketing payroll, commissions, tooling. Leaving payroll out is the usual reason a reported CAC looks impressively low.
New customers means first-time buyers. Counting renewals or every account that paid you inflates the denominator and collapses the CAC.
Use one period for both. Spend in March that converts in May makes March look expensive and May look free.

The ratio compares CAC with revenue, not profit. At a 40% gross margin a $250 customer contributes $100, so a $125 CAC loses $25 per customer while the ratio still reads 2.00 : 1. Enter margin per customer, not revenue, if you want that line to mean anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good customer acquisition cost?

No dollar figure is good on its own. A $125 CAC is comfortable if a customer contributes $400 in margin and ruinous if they contribute $80. Judge it against margin per customer and how long the payback takes.

Does CAC include salaries?

In the standard definition, yes: loaded sales and marketing payroll, commissions, agency fees, ad spend and software. Some teams quote a paid-media-only CAC instead, which is fine as long as they say so.

What is the difference between blended and paid CAC?

Blended CAC divides all spend by all new customers, including those who came through word of mouth. Paid CAC divides paid spend by the customers attributed to it. Blended is always lower, and it falls as organic growth rises even when your ads get worse.