Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) calculator

See how much you spend to get each new customer, and whether that price is sustainable for your business.

What this calculator does

This tool divides your monthly marketing spend by the number of new customers you got, which gives you a cost per customer. If you also enter how much a customer is worth to you, it tells you whether that cost is healthy, tight, or losing you money.

The rule of thumb is simple: a customer should be worth at least 3 times what you paid to get them.

Why this number matters

A lot of small business owners look at total ad spend and ask if it is too much. That is the wrong question. The real question is whether each new customer is worth more than what you paid to bring them in.

A $5,000 monthly ad budget is brilliant if it brings in 200 customers worth $300 each. The same $5,000 is a disaster if it only brings in 10 customers worth $80 each. Same spend, opposite outcome.

What to do next

If your number looks unhealthy, you have two ways to fix it. Either spend less per new customer, or make each customer worth more.

For most small businesses, making customers worth more is the easier and more lasting fix. The biggest lever is keeping past customers around longer with friendly, regular contact. A free email tool like Minutemailer is one of the simplest ways to do that. You can also try the repeat customer rate calculator to see how much one bump in returning customers would be worth.