Calculate SaaS customer acquisition cost from sales spend, marketing spend, and new customers acquired. This CAC calculator estimates acquisition efficiency, payback pressure, and whether growth spend is sustainable.
Enter sales expense, marketing expense, new customers acquired, and ARPU. Include campaign spend, sales tools, commissions, SDR cost, and agency fees where relevant.
The calculator estimates CAC and simple payback based on revenue per customer.
CAC shows how much it costs to acquire one customer. Lower CAC and shorter payback make growth more efficient, especially when paired with strong LTV and retention.
For more accurate SaaS payback, use gross margin-adjusted ARPU rather than revenue alone.
With $28,000 sales expense, $42,000 marketing expense, and 140 new customers, CAC is $500. At $95 ARPU, simple payback is 5.3 months.
Add sales and marketing acquisition expenses, then divide by the number of new customers acquired.
Shorter payback is better. Many SaaS teams prefer payback under 12 months, though benchmarks vary by segment and sales motion.
Yes, sales compensation and acquisition-related marketing expenses should be included when calculating fully loaded CAC.
If acquisition spend is fixed, increasing new customers lowers CAC. Divide total acquisition cost by your target CAC to estimate needed customers.
CAC should be evaluated against LTV. A higher LTV:CAC ratio means acquisition spend is more likely to be sustainable.
| Metric | Use |
|---|---|
| CAC | Average cost to acquire one new customer. |
| Total acquisition cost | Sales plus marketing acquisition spend. |
| Payback | Months needed to recover acquisition cost from ARPU. |
| Efficiency signal | Whether spending can scale sustainably. |