Analytics & Attribution
What is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)?
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the fully-loaded cost of acquiring one new paying customer, including sales and marketing spend, salaries, and tools, divided by the number of customers acquired in that period.
Who Is It For?
CAC is calculated by RevOps or finance, and watched closely by CMOs since it’s one of the clearest signals of whether growth spend is sustainable.
How Is It Used?
CAC is used to judge whether the cost of winning a customer makes sense relative to the revenue that customer generates over time.
- Include all sales and marketing costs, not just ad spend, for an accurate fully-loaded number
- Compare CAC to Average Contract Value and CAC payback period to judge unit economics
- Segment CAC by channel and customer segment, since efficiency varies significantly
- Track CAC trends over time as channels mature or saturate
Related Terms & Concepts
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a healthy CAC payback period?
Many B2B SaaS benchmarks target CAC payback under 12-18 months, though this varies by growth stage and how the business is funded.
How is CAC different from CPA?
CAC is the broader, fully-loaded cost of acquiring a paying customer across all sales and marketing spend; CPA usually refers to a narrower cost within one channel or campaign, such as cost per lead or per sign-up.
