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Customer Acquisition Cost illustration

Marketing · Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost

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Use customer acquisition cost to see how much you spend on marketing and sales to bring in each new customer, so you can judge whether a channel pays off.

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Interactive workbench

Paid campaign

Marketing & Sales SpendNew Customers Acquired

$8,000 of spend to win 40 customers is a $200 acquisition cost.

Step 1 of 3

Variables and units

  • Marketing & Sales Spend

    Total marketing and sales spend for the period.

    currency

  • New Customers Acquired

    Customers won during the same period.

    count

Common mistakes

  • Leaving salaries and tool costs out of spend.
  • Counting leads instead of paying customers.

Step-by-step example

Paid campaign

  1. 1. Start with the example inputs

    • Marketing & Sales Spend$8,000
    • New Customers Acquired40

  2. 2. Apply the formula

    Marketing & Sales SpendNew Customers Acquired

  3. 3. Run the numbers

    $200.00

    $8,000 of spend to win 40 customers is a $200 acquisition cost.

What this result means

$200.00 is what one new customer costs to win across marketing and sales. It only means something next to customer value — a common health check is lifetime value of at least three times CAC. Rising CAC at flat conversion usually signals channel saturation.