Calculate your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) to understand how much you spend to acquire a new customer or lead. Essential for marketing budget optimization.
A CAC/CPA calculator computes Customer Acquisition Cost (total marketing spend divided by new customers) and Cost Per Acquisition (campaign-specific acquisition cost), helping businesses understand how much they spend to acquire each customer. Tracks marketing investment efficiency, compares channel performance, sets customer acquisition budgets, and determines whether acquisition costs allow profitable business operation. Essential for marketers proving ROI, founders evaluating business model viability, and growth teams optimizing marketing mix across paid ads, content marketing, SEO, and other channels.
Know exactly how much acquiring each customer costs to determine if your business model is sustainable—if CAC is $100 but customer lifetime value is only $90, you lose money on every sale. Compare marketing channel efficiency by calculating CAC per channel (email $15, Facebook $45, Google $78) to optimize budget allocation toward most cost-effective channels. Set realistic marketing budgets by working backward from customer value and desired margins—if customer worth $300 with 50% margin, can afford $50-75 CAC while remaining profitable. Make data-driven decisions about when to scale marketing spending versus optimize conversion funnels to reduce CAC. Impress investors by demonstrating capital efficiency and clear understanding of unit economics.
Enter total marketing and sales costs for period (ad spend, salaries, software tools, agency fees) and number of new customers acquired in that period. CAC = Total Costs / New Customers. For profitable business, ensure CAC is significantly lower than customer lifetime value—aim for 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio or better. Calculate by channel by isolating costs and acquisitions per source (Facebook spend $5000, 50 customers = $100 CAC; Email spend $500, 100 customers = $5 CAC). Track CAC trend over time—increasing CAC may indicate market saturation, decreasing ad effectiveness, or rising competition. Benchmark against industry standards: SaaS $100-500, ecommerce $10-100, B2B services $500-5000 typical.
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Common questions about cac / cpa calculator (customer acquisition cost)