Cost per Trial Started: Track Trial Acquisition Cost

Cost per Trial Started measures the average advertising spend required to generate one free trial start.

Formula

Cost per Trial Started = Channel Spend ÷ Trial Started Events

Formula Components

Metric	Definition
Channel Spend	Total advertising spend across channels
Trial Started	Total trial start events

Metadata
Type	Currency
Data Source	Upstack Pixel
Aggregation	Ratio

Example

Your SaaS spent $20,000 on ads and generated 500 trial starts this month.

Channel	Spend	Trials Started	Cost per Trial
Google Ads	$10,000	220	$45.45
Facebook	$6,000	180	$33.33
LinkedIn	$4,000	100	$40.00
Total	$20,000	500	$40.00

How It Works

This metric divides your total channel spend by the number of trial starts. For product-led growth companies, this is a key efficiency metric that feeds into your overall customer acquisition cost when combined with trial-to-paid conversion rates.

When to Use

Scenario	Action
CAC calculation	Calculate full acquisition cost with conversion
Channel optimization	Find most efficient trial sources
PLG efficiency	Measure product-led acquisition cost
Budget planning	Project spend for trial targets

Metric	Relationship
Trial Started	Count of trial starts
Trial Started Value	Value of trial starts
Cost per Trial Converted	Full conversion cost

See all Conversions metrics →