CAC - Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) are the marketing and sales expenditures associated with acquiring a new customer.

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Written by Ryan
Updated over a week ago

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) can be set in relation to Lifetime Value which enables you to optimize the return on marketing and advertising investments. It can also be calculated separately for different marketing channels to compare their associated costs in order to focus on the right channels.

Include

Don't Include

  • Marketing spending

  • Sales spending

  • Users of trial accounts before they migrate to paid accounts

Atlas

Cost Per Acquisition

Abbreviation

CAC

Unit

Currency (Euro, Dollar, YEN...)

Calculation

CAC can be calculated by adding up all marketing and sales expenditures of a period and dividing the sum by the number of acquired customers of the period.

Note: The time until marketing and sales expenses trigger, a sale has to be taken into account. If the sales cycle is longer, it is advisable to undertake the calculation for a longer period of time e.g. a quarter or a year.

Σ marketing & sales spending

÷ Σ of acquired customers

_______________________

CAC

In the first quarter of 2018, a company had marketing and sales expenses of 10.000 € and acquired 400 new customers.

10.000 €

÷ 400

_______

25 €

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