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Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost of acquiring one new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses. Combined with Lifetime Value (LTV), CAC determines whether your business model is viable. The industry benchmark for healthy SaaS: LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher, with CAC payback period under 18 months.

Coûts marketing et ventes

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$
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Clients et revenus

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$

Coût par client (CAC)

Dépenses totales d'acquisition
Nouveaux clients

What is a Good CAC for Your Industry?

Customer acquisition cost varies dramatically by industry, business model, and sales cycle. The only meaningful benchmark is comparing your CAC to your customer lifetime value (LTV). A healthy business typically maintains an LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher — meaning each customer is worth at least 3x what it cost to acquire them.

SaaS (B2B) $200 – $2,000+
E-commerce $10 – $120
Freelance / Agence $50 – $500
Services financiers $175 – $1,200
Santé $100 – $500

Comment réduire le coût d'acquisition client

Investissez dans le SEO et le marketing de contenu

Organic traffic acquired through SEO has near-zero incremental CAC at scale. A blog post that ranks on Google can bring in customers for years without ongoing ad spend.

Créer un programme de parrainage

Referred customers typically have a 16%+ higher lifetime value and cost a fraction of paid channels. A well-designed referral program can dramatically lower your blended CAC.

Améliorez les taux de conversion avant d'augmenter les dépenses pub

If your landing page converts at 2% and you improve it to 4%, you instantly cut your CAC in half without changing your ad budget. Always optimize conversion before scaling spend.

Concentrez-vous sur vos canaux les plus convertissants

Track CAC by channel (Google Ads, social, email, organic) and reallocate budget toward the channels with the lowest CAC and highest LTV customers.

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À propos de Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost of acquiring one new customer, including all marketing and sales expenses. Combined with Lifetime Value (LTV), CAC determines whether your business model is viable. The industry benchmark for healthy SaaS: LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher, with CAC payback period under 18 months.

Comment l'utiliser

  1. Enter total marketing spend (all channels) for a period.
  2. Enter total sales costs: salaries, commissions, tools, overhead.
  3. Enter the number of new customers acquired in the same period.
  4. See blended CAC, CAC by channel (if broken out), and LTV:CAC ratio if you enter LTV.

Formule et méthodologie

CAC = (Total marketing spend + Total sales spend) ÷ New customers acquired. Blended CAC includes all channels. Channel CAC = channel-specific spend ÷ customers from that channel. LTV:CAC ratio = Customer LTV ÷ CAC. CAC payback period = CAC ÷ (ARPU × gross margin %). Target: payback < 12–18 months.

Cas d'usage courants

  • Evaluating whether a marketing channel is profitable
  • VC due diligence: calculating unit economics for fundraising
  • Budget allocation: doubling down on low-CAC channels
  • Pricing: if CAC is $500 and monthly price is $20, payback is 25 months — too long
  • Sales team ROI: cost per customer from inside vs field sales

Questions fréquentes

Below 1: you're losing money on every customer. 1–3: sustainable but thin — little room for error. 3–5: healthy for most industries. Above 5: strong unit economics, often means you're underinvesting in growth. For SaaS, 3:1 is the target minimum. For e-commerce: 3:1+. For enterprise SaaS: 5:1+ is common due to high ACV but also high CAC.
Yes — fully-loaded CAC includes the salaries and benefits of everyone in marketing and sales, plus tools, agency fees, ad spend, and allocated overhead. Many startups underreport CAC by excluding salaries, which inflates the LTV:CAC ratio and misleads investors. A marketing team spending $50K/month in salaries to acquire 100 customers adds $500/customer to CAC before any ad spend.

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