Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator
Fully loaded, not media-only.
Customer acquisition cost
$47.12
$34.62 counting media alone
Media-only CAC is the number teams quote; fully loaded CAC is the number that has to be paid. The gap here is $12.50 per customer — real money that salaries and software consumed regardless of which line it sits on.
How the Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator works
Media-only CAC is the number teams quote; fully loaded CAC is the number that has to be paid. Salaries, tools and agency fees are all spent to acquire customers, and leaving them out understates the true cost by a third or more in most businesses.
Not financial advice. Marketplace fees change, and they vary by country, plan and seller status. Every rate here is an editable default, not a quoted price — check the platform's current fee schedule before you price a product against it. This is not tax or business advice.
Frequently asked questions
How is CAC calculated?
All sales and marketing cost in a period divided by new customers acquired in that period. Fully loaded means advertising plus salaries, tools, agencies and creative production.
Should I use media-only or fully loaded?
Fully loaded for business decisions and media-only for channel optimisation. Confusing the two is how businesses conclude they are profitable at a CAC that does not cover their marketing team.
What counts as a new customer?
A first-time purchaser. Counting returning customers as acquisitions is the most common way CAC gets understated, and it happens automatically in platforms that measure conversions rather than customers.
What is a good CAC?
There is no absolute answer — it depends on lifetime value and payback period. Below first-order contribution means growth funds itself; anything above needs working capital.