← The FP&A libraryPractice · 17 questions →
Unit economics & SaaS
Customer acquisition cost
Total sales and marketing spend in a period divided by the new customers won in it. What it costs to buy a customer.
Owned by: AnalystTest band: Analyst
The formula
CAC = Sales & marketing spend ÷ New customers
In practice
Fully load it: salaries, tools, agencies, not just ad spend. And lag it — this quarter's customers were bought with last quarter's marketing.
The kind of thing the test asks
- Q1 sales and marketing spend was $150k and 50 customers signed. Fully loaded CAC is…
More in unit economics & saas
Knowing the method is half of it. Wauvel runs it on your QuickBooks, every day.
$99/mo, everything included. Free for 14 days, no card.