CAC is what you spend on sales and marketing to win one new customer. Enter your costs and new customers for the answer, then check how many months it takes to earn that cost back.
Your CAC
$500.00
You spent $50,000 to win 100 new customers.
Ads, tools, agencies and marketing pay.
Sales pay, commission and tools.
Sample numbers shown. Type over them with yours.
Is that CAC worth paying? Check your LTV:CAC ratio
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Add up your sales and marketing costs for a period, then divide by the new customers you won in that period. Include ad spend, tools, agencies and salaries. $30,000 of marketing and $20,000 of sales costs with 100 new customers gives a CAC of $500. Use a quarter or more of data.
A hypothetical SaaS company spends $30,000 on marketing and $20,000 on sales in a quarter and wins 100 customers. Each customer pays $100 a month, and gross margin is 80%.
A payback of about six months is a strong result for a SaaS company, as long as customers stay well beyond it.
A good CAC is one you earn back fast enough to fund growth, so judge it against customer value. First Page Sage reports a combined average of $243 for B2B SaaS and $87 for ecommerce. The 2026 Aleph and Benchmarkit report puts median CAC payback at 16 months.
| Segment | Benchmark |
|---|---|
| B2B SaaS, combined CACOrganic $205, paid $357. First Page Sage | $243 |
| Ecommerce, combined CACFirst Page Sage | $87 |
| IT and managed services, combined CACFirst Page Sage | $464 |
| Business consulting, combined CACFirst Page Sage | $544 |
| Financial services, combined CACFirst Page Sage | $798 |
| Fintech SaaS, CACFirst Page Sage | $1,450 |
| CAC payback, B2B SaaSMedian. Top quartile 6 months or fewer. Aleph and Benchmarkit | 16 months |
| New customer CAC ratio, B2B SaaSSales and marketing spend per $1 of new ARR. Aleph and Benchmarkit | $1.63 |
| Blended CAC ratio, B2B SaaSSales and marketing spend per $1 of new ARR. Aleph and Benchmarkit | $1.30 |
| Cost per acquisition on Meta, ecommerceMedian. Triple Whale | $38.99 |
| Cost per acquisition on Google Ads, ecommerceMedian. Triple Whale | $28.14 |
First Page Sage’s figures come from its own clients and research, and lean towards SEO and paid search because that’s its business. They leave out email, events and direct mail, so a fully loaded CAC will often run higher.
Customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the average you spend on sales and marketing to win one new customer. It’s usually worked out for a month, quarter or year. Teams compare it with what a customer is worth, because a business only grows profitably when customers earn back more than they cost.
Include everything you spend to win new customers: ad spend, agency fees, sales and marketing salaries, commission, and the tools those teams use. Leave out the cost of serving existing customers. If you count only ad spend, you get a paid cost per acquisition, which looks far better than your real CAC.
CPA is the cost of one conversion on a channel, and that conversion might be a lead, a sign-up or a sale. CAC is the cost of one new paying customer across all sales and marketing. A $40 CPA for leads can sit behind a $500 CAC once sales costs and close rates are counted.
Blended CAC divides all sales and marketing costs by all new customers, including those who found you through search or referrals. Paid CAC counts only customers from paid channels against paid costs. Blended usually looks lower, so track both. A falling blended figure can hide paid channels that are getting more expensive.
The usual rule of thumb is 3:1 or better. David Skok writes that the best SaaS businesses sit above 3, and the 2026 Aleph and Benchmarkit report puts the B2B SaaS median at 4.1x. Use the lifetime value calculator to find yours from your CAC.
A trustworthy CAC needs ad spend, CRM deals and payroll in one place. Our data warehouse work joins them up at a fixed price.
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