CAC: Customer Acquisition Cost

The average cost to acquire a new customer, calculated by dividing total ad spend by the number of new customers.

Formula

Customer Acquisition Cost = Total Ad Spend ÷ New Customers

Formula Components

Metric	Definition
Blended Spend	Sum of advertising costs across all connected ad platforms
New Customers	Count of unique first-time buyers in the period

Metadata
Type	Currency
Data Source	Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, Shopify
Aggregation	Ratio

Example

Your store acquired 312 new customers in January with a total ad spend of $15,600:

Metric	Value
Total Ad Spend	$15,600
New Customers	312
CAC	$50.00

A $50 CAC means you spend $50 on average to acquire each new customer.

How It Works

CAC divides your total advertising spend by the number of unique new customers acquired during the period. Unlike CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), which measures cost per order, CAC focuses specifically on customer-level acquisition—counting each person once regardless of how many orders they place.

When to Use

Scenario	Action
Evaluating acquisition efficiency	Compare CAC to customer lifetime value (LTV)
Budget planning	Set target CAC based on first-order margins
Channel comparison	Identify which platforms acquire customers most efficiently
Profitability analysis	Ensure CAC stays below first-order profit to maintain healthy unit economics

Metric	Relationship
LTV	Customer lifetime value—compare to CAC for payback analysis
Blended CPA	Cost per conversion (orders, not customers)
New Customers	Denominator for CAC calculation
Blended Spend	Numerator for CAC calculation

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Performance ROAS

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​Formula

​Formula Components

​Example

​How It Works

​When to Use

​Related Metrics

Formula

Formula Components

Example

How It Works

When to Use

Related Metrics