Free customer economics tool

Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

Calculate the true cost to acquire one customer after marketing, sales labor, software, commissions, onboarding and overhead.

Simple calculator

Add your acquisition costs

Updates live

Measurement period

Paid advertising and media

Sales and marketing labor

Include wages, payroll burden and contractor time tied to acquisition. Agency, software and creative

Commissions, onboarding and other costs

New customers acquired

customers

New leads generated

leads

Optional, used for cost per lead and conversion rate. Gross profit from a new customer's first purchase

Target acquisition cost per customer

The maximum fully loaded CAC you would prefer not to exceed.

True CACTotal customer-acquisition spending divided by the number of new customers acquired during the same period.

Acquisition result

CAC snapshot

Fully loaded cost per customer $304 Across 125 new customers

Target CAC$350

Within target

$46 below targetPer month

Total acquisition cost$38,000

Marketing-only CAC$184

Cost per lead$38

Lead-to-customer rate12.5%

First-purchase profit after CAC$146

Customers needed at target109

Cost mix$38,000 total

Paid media$18,000

Labor$12,000

Agency, tools and creative$5,000

Other acquisition costs$3,000

Advanced calculator

Build a fully loaded CAC model

Updates live

Marketing acquisition costs

Include every marketing expense used to create demand and generate leads.

Paid media

Agency and contractors

Marketing payroll

Software and data

Creative and content

Events and sponsorships

Discounts and acquisition incentives

Sales, onboarding and overhead

Add costs that basic ad-spend CAC calculations often leave out.

Sales payroll

Commissions and referral fees

Onboarding cost per new customer

Allocated acquisition overhead

Other acquisition costs

Funnel performance

Use customer counts from the same period as the costs above.

Leads generated

leads

Qualified leads

qualified

New customers acquired

customers

Customer economics and targets

Estimate whether the acquired customer value supports the cost.

Initial revenue per customer

Initial gross margin

Monthly recurring revenue

Recurring gross margin

Expected customer lifetime

months

Target CAC

Target LTV-to-CAC ratio

Target CAC payback

months

Advanced result

Customer economics

Fully loaded customer acquisition cost $340 Marketing, sales, onboarding and overhead

LTV-to-CAC8.2×Above 3.0× target

CAC paybackImmediateWithin 12-month target

Total acquisition cost$42,500

Marketing CAC$256

Sales CAC$60

Cost per lead$43

Lead conversion12.5%

Qualified-lead conversion31.3%

Estimated gross-profit LTV$2,790

Maximum viable CAC$930

Acquisition budget headroom$73,750

Customers needed at target CAC137

Fully loaded cost allocation$42,500 total

Paid media$18,000

Marketing operations$14,000

Sales$7,500

Onboarding$5,000

Overhead and other$2,500

Customer-volume sensitivity

See how acquisition efficiency changes when the same fixed costs produce more or fewer customers.

Scenario	Customers	Fully loaded CAC	LTV:CAC	Payback	Signal

Use a complete number

Costs that belong in customer acquisition cost

A basic ad-spend calculation can make acquisition look cheaper than it really is. A fully loaded CAC includes the resources required to turn attention into a paying customer.

Marketing

Advertising, agencies, software, data, creative, content, events, discounts and the payroll used to generate demand.

Sales

Sales payroll, commissions, referral fees, demos, proposals and the labor used to convert qualified opportunities.

Activation

Onboarding, implementation, account setup and other costs required before a new customer becomes productive or profitable.

This calculator is a planning tool. Use costs and customer counts from the same time period, and apply one consistent attribution method when comparing periods or channels.