CAC Calculator — Customer Acquisition Cost by Channel

CAC is the total cost of acquiring one new paying customer. Formula: CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend / Number of New Customers Acquired (in the same period). Include: ad spend, sales team salaries, marketing tools, agency fees, events, and content production costs. Exclude: customer success costs (those are for retention, not acquisition).

CAC benchmarks vary by market segment. Consumer SaaS CAC is typically ₹500-₹5,000. SMB SaaS: ₹5,000-₹50,000. Enterprise SaaS: ₹50,000-₹5,00,000+. The key metric is LTV:CAC ratio (should be > 3:1) and CAC payback period (should be under 12-18 months). Absolute CAC numbers without LTV context are not meaningful.

CAC Payback Period = CAC / (ARPU × Gross Margin %). It is the number of months needed to recover the cost of acquiring one customer from their gross profit contribution. Example: CAC ₹10,000, ARPU ₹1,000, margin 80%. Payback = 10,000 / (1,000 × 0.80) = 12.5 months. Under 12 months is excellent.