Customer acquisition

CAC Calculator

Estimate customer acquisition cost and payback period from marketing, sales and new customer inputs.

Customer acquisition

CAC Calculator

Use this to check whether acquisition spend makes sense before scaling a paid channel, outbound motion or launch campaign.

Marketing spend$10000Ads, content, sponsorships, tools and campaign costs.Sales spend$4000Sales tools, commissions, contractors or SDR cost.New customers180New paying customers acquired in the same period.Monthly ARPU$79Average monthly revenue per new customer.Gross margin78%Revenue left after direct delivery costs.

How to use this calculator

Start with conservative inputs, copy the result, then test a best-case and worst-case version. For production decisions, compare the estimate against actual accounting, analytics and payment data.

Formula

Customer acquisition cost measures how much it costs to win one new customer. Payback adds context by estimating how many months of gross profit are needed to recover that acquisition cost.

Formula

CAC = (marketing spend + sales spend) / new customers. Payback = CAC / monthly gross profit per customer.

Example

Launch campaign acquisition cost

A campaign spends $10,000 on marketing and $4,000 on sales support to acquire 180 new customers.

Marketing spend: $10,000
Sales spend: $4,000
New customers: 180
Monthly ARPU: $79

The example produces a CAC of about $78 and a payback period near 1.3 months at 78% gross margin.

FAQ

Should salaries be included in CAC?

Include salaries or contractor costs when they are directly tied to acquisition. Excluding them can make CAC look artificially low.

What is a good CAC payback period?

It depends on cash flow and retention. Shorter payback is safer, especially for early-stage products with limited cash.

Should returning customers count as new customers?

No. CAC is normally calculated using newly acquired paying customers for the period being measured.

Important limits

CAC can look better or worse depending on attribution windows and which costs are included.
Compare CAC against retention and LTV before scaling acquisition spend.