Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
Written by Thierno Sadou Diallo, formula verified per our methodology • Last checked on 9/9/2026
Customer acquisition cost is calculated with total marketing spend ÷ number of new customers. For €5,000 spent and 100 new customers acquired, the CAC is €50 per customer.
Explanation
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) measures how much it costs a business on average to acquire a new customer, by relating all acquisition-related spending (advertising, sales team salaries, marketing tools, content) to the number of new customers actually acquired over the same period. A rigorously calculated CAC must include every expense genuinely committed to acquisition, not just the direct advertising budget: sales and marketing team salaries, the software tools used, and the cost of producing marketing content are all part of the complete calculation, even though they're sometimes left out of simplified calculations that count only pure ad spend. CAC only makes sense once compared with the value a customer brings over their entire relationship with the business (customer lifetime value, or LTV): a €50 CAC stays profitable if a customer brings in €500 on average over their lifetime, but would be problematic if that value didn't exceed €60. A benchmark frequently cited by venture capital investors for a healthy business is an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1, though this threshold varies by industry and business model — see our LTV:CAC ratio calculator to compute this ratio directly. This calculator complements our CPM and CPC advertising calculator, which measures revenue generated per euro spent rather than a cost per customer acquired — two complementary angles on the efficiency of the same acquisition strategy.
Example: €5,000 spent for 100 new customers
Inputs
Total spend: €5,000. New customers: 100.
Calculation
CAC = 5,000 ÷ 100 = €50 per customer.
Result
Each new customer cost €50 on average to acquire.
Frequently asked questions
What expenses should be included in the CAC calculation?
A rigorous calculation includes all acquisition-related expenses: direct advertising budget, but also sales and marketing team salaries, software tools used for prospecting or advertising, and the cost of producing marketing content. A calculation that counts only pure ad spend generally underestimates the real cost of acquiring a customer.
How do I know if my CAC is too high?
CAC alone isn't enough to answer this: it needs to be compared with customer lifetime value (LTV), the total revenue a customer generates on average over their entire relationship with the business. An LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1 is a benchmark often cited as a sign of healthy economics, though this threshold varies by industry and business model.
Is CAC the same across all acquisition channels?
No, generally not: acquisition cost often varies significantly from one channel to another (paid advertising, organic search, word of mouth, partnerships). Calculating a separate CAC for each channel, rather than a single average global CAC, helps identify the most profitable channels and reallocate the marketing budget accordingly.