Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator
Work out what each new customer truly costs you, across paid ads, agencies, tools and creative.
About this tool
Blended CAC, paid CAC and new-customer CAC each tell a different story. Drop in your spend by channel and your customer counts to see all three, and benchmark against your gross margin and LTV.
What counts as marketing spend?
Everything that touches acquisition. Paid ad spend is obvious. Add agency retainers, creative production, influencer fees, marketing software, the share of salary for in-house marketers, attribution and analytics tooling. The fully-loaded number is the one that matters.
Why blended > platform-reported
Platform CAC always looks better than reality because each platform claims credit for the same conversion. Blended CAC (total spend ÷ total new customers) is the only honest number — and the one your bank account actually feels.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as marketing spend in CAC? +
Everything that touches acquisition: paid ad spend, agency retainers, freelancer fees, marketing tool subscriptions (Klaviyo, Triple Whale, Northbeam), creative and content production, influencer payments, the share of in-house marketing salaries. The fully-loaded number is the one that matters.
Blended CAC vs Paid CAC vs Fully-Loaded CAC, which should I use? +
Blended CAC (total spend ÷ total new customers) is the honest number your bank account sees. Paid CAC (ad spend ÷ paid customers) is what platforms report. Fully-loaded paid CAC divides total spend by only the paid customers, exposing how dependent you are on paid acquisition.
How do I know if my CAC is too high? +
Compare it to your contribution LTV, see the LTV:CAC Ratio calculator. The simplest rule: if your LTV:CAC is below 3:1, your CAC is too high (or your LTV too low) to grow sustainably.
Should I include organic / SEO traffic in CAC? +
If you have meaningful organic acquisition, separate it. Pure organic costs are content production + SEO tools, those go into blended CAC, but the customers acquired organically count in the total. This usually makes blended CAC look healthier than paid CAC alone.
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