Marketing & Finance
CAC Calculator
Customer acquisition cost overall and by channel, so you know where new customers are cheap and where they are not.
- Time: 10 minutes
- With: Marketing, growth and finance
- You get: Blended CAC and a ranking of channels by cost per customer
How to use this worksheet
- Pick a period and count only spend and customers from that period.
- Enter total marketing and sales spend and the number of new paying customers.
- Add your channels with the spend and customers each brought. Attribute carefully: customers often touch more than one channel.
- Compare the channels, then check each one against customer lifetime value before cutting anything.
Overall
Spend and customers for the same period.
Channels
One row per acquisition channel.
Prompts
Ask yourself
- Which channel brings the customers who stay longest?
- How are customers that touch several channels attributed?
Write down where the numbers come from and what would change them.
Prompts and example
Example
Period: Q1. Content spend includes freelancer fees.
Results
Before you finish
- Spend includes salaries and tools, not only ad spend.
- Customers are new paying customers, not leads.
- CAC is compared to lifetime value.
About CAC
CAC = (marketing + sales spend) / new customers in the same period. Blended CAC averages over all channels, which hides big differences between them.
Low CAC is only good if the customers are good. Always compare with lifetime value and with payback time on the acquisition cost.
Recommended reading
Werbung / Ad: Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
- Hacking GrowthSean Ellis & Morgan Brown
Practical framework for reducing customer acquisition costs through systematic testing and optimization.