CAC (customer acquisition cost): what it is and how to calculate it
FLYDE Glossary · November 9, 2026 · 4 min read
CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is what it costs you on average to win a new customer. It is calculated by dividing what you spent on marketing and sales to acquire customers by the number of new customers you won in that period.
How to calculate CAC
An example. An online store spends €30,000 in a quarter on advertising, agency fees and the share of the team focused on acquisition, and wins 1,200 new customers. Its CAC is 30,000 ÷ 1,200 = €25.
Calculate your CAC
What to include
- Media: search, social, affiliates, sponsorships.
- People: the share of marketing and sales salaries devoted to winning new customers.
- Tools and agencies used for acquisition.
The key is to count only genuinely new customers. If a customer who already bought in store makes their first online purchase and you count them as new, CAC comes out lower than it is and campaigns look better than they are.
CAC, CPA and CPL are not the same
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| CPL (cost per lead) | What it costs to get an interested contact |
| CPA (cost per acquisition) | What each conversion costs, whether or not it comes from a new customer |
| CAC | What each new customer costs, including all acquisition costs |
Always read CAC next to CLV
A €25 CAC is good or bad depending on what that customer brings. That is why it is compared with customer lifetime value (CLV). A common benchmark is a CLV at least three times CAC, with the investment paid back in under 12 months. If the customers you acquire never buy again, no CAC is low enough.
Five ways to reduce CAC
- Stop paying to acquire people who are already customers: exclude your current customers from acquisition campaigns.
- Invest in the channels that bring customers who repeat, not just those with the cheapest first order.
- Look for people similar to your best customers instead of broad audiences.
- Improve website and first-order conversion, which spreads the same spend across more customers.
- Measure incrementality: some of the customers credited to a campaign would have bought anyway.
CAC in FLYDE
With every customer source unified, FLYDE tells genuinely new customers apart from those who were already buying in another channel, and lets you build audiences of current customers to exclude from acquisition campaigns. With the incrementality module you know how many of the customers a campaign brought in were really down to it.
Frequently asked questions
What does CAC stand for? Customer acquisition cost: what it costs on average to win a new customer.
What is the CAC formula? CAC = acquisition spend in a period ÷ new customers won in that period. Spend includes media, the share of the team focused on acquisition, tools and agencies.
What is a good CAC? It depends on what each customer is worth. The most common benchmark is a customer lifetime value (CLV) at least three times CAC, with the cost recovered in under a year.
What is the difference between CAC and CPA? CPA measures the cost of each conversion, whether from a new or an existing customer; CAC counts only new customers and includes all acquisition costs, not just media.