Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) Calculator

Understanding how much it costs to acquire each customer is critical for sustainable business growth. This CAC calculator template provides a comprehensive framework for tracking marketing spend, measuring channel performance, and calculating customer acquisition cost across all your advertising channels.

Whether you're analyzing paid search, social media, content marketing, email campaigns, or referral programs, this customer acquisition cost calculator gives you the insights needed to optimize your marketing budget.

How to use this template

This CAC template is designed for immediate use with minimal setup required. Start by entering your monthly advertising costs for each marketing channel in the first table. Then, input the number of customers acquired through each channel in the second table. The template automatically calculates your cost per customer acquisition for each channel, giving you instant visibility into which marketing efforts deliver the best returns.

The cohort revenue data table allows you to track customer lifetime value (LTV) by monitoring revenue retention across monthly cohorts. This enables sophisticated ltv cac calculation that reveals whether your acquisition costs are justified by long-term customer value.

Three interactive visualizations bring your data to life: a channel-by-channel CAC comparison chart, an LTV to CAC ratio analysis, and an average CAC comparison view. These charts update automatically as you modify your data, providing real-time insights without manual chart configuration.

Best practices: Update your data monthly to track trends over time. Pay special attention to channels where CAC is rising faster than LTV—these may need optimization or reallocation of budget. A healthy LTV to CAC ratio typically ranges from 3:1 to 5:1.

Who benefits from this template

This tool is ideal for marketing managers, startup founders, growth teams, and CFOs who need to justify marketing expenditures and demonstrate ROI. Digital marketing agencies can use it to provide clients with transparent reporting on campaign effectiveness.

Real-world applications include: SaaS companies identifying CAC payback calculation periods to understand when customers become profitable; e-commerce businesses comparing acquisition costs across Facebook, Google Ads, and influencer partnerships; B2B companies analyzing which lead generation channels deliver the highest-quality customers; and startups presenting investor-ready metrics demonstrating efficient growth.

Why choose this template

Unlike static spreadsheets, this template leverages automated calculations and dynamic visualizations that save hours of manual work. The multi-channel approach ensures you're not just calculating CAC in aggregate, but understanding the nuances of each marketing channel's performance. The cohort analysis functionality provides deeper insights into customer behavior patterns and revenue sustainability.

Get started today

Stop guessing which marketing channels drive profitable growth. Duplicate this free cost per customer acquisition calculator template now and gain immediate clarity on your marketing efficiency. With pre-built formulas and visualization tools, you'll understand how to calculate customer acquisition cost accurately and make data-driven decisions that improve your bottom line. Start tracking, analyzing, and optimizing your customer acquisition strategy today.