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CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

The fully-loaded cost to acquire one new customer.

Customer Success

Definition

Customer Acquisition Cost is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of customers acquired in that period. It includes rep salaries, marketing program costs, ad spend, events, and tooling. CAC is always analyzed alongside LTV.

Key points

  • Formula: (Sales + Marketing spend) / New customers acquired
  • Include rep salaries, marketing tools, advertising, events, content production
  • LTV:CAC ratio should be ≥3:1 for a healthy business
  • Blended CAC vs paid CAC: paid CAC isolates paid channels
Example

$300k sales + marketing in Q1, acquired 60 new customers. Blended CAC = $5,000.

Related terms

LTV (Customer Lifetime Value)CAC Payback PeriodConversion Rate

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CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): Formula & LTV:CAC Ratio | KamoCRM | KamoCRM