Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The total cost of sales and marketing required to acquire a new customer, including salaries, advertising, tools, and overhead.
What is Customer Acquisition Cost?
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total expense of winning a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing costs — salaries, advertising, tools, events, and overhead — divided by the number of new customers acquired.
Formula
CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Spend ÷ New Customers Acquired
SaaS Benchmarks
| Segment | Typical CAC | CAC Payback |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | $10K-50K+ | 12-18 months |
| Mid-market | $5K-15K | 6-12 months |
| SMB/PLG | $500-5K | 3-6 months |
Reducing CAC
- Improve conversion rates — Optimize your sales funnel
- Content marketing — Drive organic traffic that converts
- Product-led growth — Let the product sell itself through free trials
- Customer referrals — Leverage happy customers for introductions
- Retain more customers — Lower churn means you need fewer new logos
CAC and Customer Success
Customer success reduces effective CAC by:
- Increasing retention (fewer replacement customers needed)
- Driving referrals (lower-cost acquisition channel)
- Enabling case studies (social proof that accelerates deals)
Ready to make your CS team proactive?
Successifier is made by Successifier AB in Sweden. Book a call with our team at successifier.se to talk Customer Success and AI — or see Supportifier, our AI customer service platform.
Already a customer? Log in
Get hands-on help from the team behind Successifier
Successifier is made by Successifier AB in Sweden. We work with customers through successifier.se and our AI customer service platform Supportifier.
Customer Success & AI consulting
Need help with churn, health scores, onboarding or expansion? The Successifier team helps companies set up Customer Success and put AI agents to work.
Supportifier — AI customer service platform
Help center, AI chat, a shared inbox with AI reply drafts and a knowledge base — built by the same team as Successifier.