CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total cost to acquire a customer. For more accurate CAC, include costs like salaries, tools, outsourcing, and other acquisition-related overhead.
Definition
The total cost to acquire a customer. For more accurate CAC, include costs like salaries, tools, outsourcing, and other acquisition-related overhead.
More context
CAC is the cost required to acquire one customer (or a consistently defined conversion). Strategic Growth Hacking treats CAC as a decision metric: if CAC is rising without corresponding value, acquisition scale becomes a trap.
Why it matters
CAC determines whether growth compounds profitably or compounds losses.
How to use it
Define the acquisition outcome clearly, include relevant overhead costs, and review CAC alongside retention/revenue to avoid false positives.
Common pitfalls
Comparing CAC across channels with inconsistent definitions, or excluding real costs like labor and tools.
Related terms
- Blended CAC — Customer acquisition cost calculated in a blended way (not per-channel attribution), often used when attribution is incomplete.
- Acquisition Profitability — A way to understand whether your acquisition investment is economically sound (what you get back vs. what you spend).
- CRM — Customer relationship management system. Often the source of truth for leads and conversions (and useful for “combined conversions”).
- Combined Conversions — A combined view of conversions (often from your CRM) used as a reliable signal when channel-level attribution is noisy.