CAC calculator: customer acquisition cost and payback
This CAC calculator works out what it costs you to win one new customer, and how many months of gross profit it takes to earn that back. Enter what you spent on sales and marketing in a period and how many customers you won in the same period.
How CAC is calculated
Customer acquisition cost is everything you spent to win new customers in a period, divided by the number of new customers you won in that same period:
CAC = (marketing spend + sales spend) ÷ new customersInclude the full cost: ad spend, agencies, content, events and tools on the marketing side, and salaries, commission and software for the people who sell. Leaving out salaries is the most common reason a CAC looks better than it is.
CAC payback
CAC on its own does not tell you whether it is too high. Payback does: how many months of gross profit from one customer it takes to cover what you paid to win them.
CAC payback (months) = CAC ÷ (revenue per customer per month × gross margin)Use gross profit, not revenue. A customer paying 250 a month at a 75% margin brings in 187.50 a month you can actually use, so a CAC of 600 pays back in 3.2 months.
Getting a CAC you can trust
Match the periods: spend in a quarter against customers won in that quarter, or shift the window if your sales cycle is long. Count only new customers, not renewals or upsells. And calculate it per channel as well as blended, because one cheap channel can hide an expensive one.
Doing this by hand every month from the ad platforms, the CRM and the accounting package is exactly the work a live dashboard removes. See the SaaS metrics dashboard example or how I build live data dashboards.
CAC calculator: questions answered
Need this number live, every month? Ask me, I reply within a few hours on working days.
What is customer acquisition cost (CAC)?
Customer acquisition cost is the average amount you spend on sales and marketing to win one new customer. You add up all sales and marketing costs for a period and divide by the number of new customers won in that period. It is one of the core numbers for any business that grows by spending on acquisition.
What should be included in CAC?
Include every cost of winning new customers: paid ads, agencies, content, events, marketing and sales tools, and the salaries and commission of the people in marketing and sales. Exclude costs of serving existing customers, such as account management for renewals, or your CAC will look higher than it really is.
What is a good CAC payback period?
A CAC payback under 12 months is often quoted as healthy for B2B subscription businesses, and the shorter the better for cash. The right number depends on how long customers stay and how much cash you have, so compare payback with your average customer lifetime rather than with a single benchmark.
What is the difference between blended and paid CAC?
Blended CAC divides all sales and marketing spend by all new customers, including those who found you through referrals or search. Paid CAC divides only paid acquisition spend by the customers that paid channels brought in. Blended CAC flatters a business with strong word of mouth, so look at both.
Is my data stored when I use this calculator?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. The numbers you type are not sent to a server, not stored and not tracked. Close the page and they are gone.