CAC Audit Calculator

Enter sales and marketing spend by channel, new customers acquired per channel, and optional customer quality metrics. CAC Audit breaks blended customer acquisition cost by channel and flags channels where CAC exceeds LTV supportable levels. Blended CAC hides paid social inefficiency subsidized by organic brand search. Channel audit exposes where marginal customer costs exceed LTV supportable levels. Paid search CAC often rises nonlinearly after exhausting high intent keywords forcing broader match types with lower conversion rate at margin. Reallocate budget from highest channel CAC toward lowest after audit unless strategic reason exists to subsidize brand awareness channel with poor near term unit economics. Shift budget from highest marginal CAC channel toward lowest after audit unless strategic brand spend justifies temporary unit economic loss. Enter total marketing, sales, and tool spend plus new customer count for the period. Blended CAC is total acquisition cost divided by customers acquired. Add channel rows to see which source delivers cheapest customers.

Review CAC per channel, blended CAC, best and worst channel ranking, and spend efficiency score. Include fully loaded S and M salaries not just ad spend for honest CAC. Fully loaded S and M includes sales salaries, commissions, events, and tooling not only ad spend. Content marketing CAC amortizes over long tail traffic months requiring longer attribution window than paid social seven day click. Match spend period to conversion period when measuring channel CAC to avoid understating CAC for long sales cycle enterprise channels compared to paid social. Fully loaded S and M denominator includes sales and marketing salaries not only paid media invoice totals. Enterprise channel CAC requires matching long sales cycle spend period to customer acquisition period to avoid understated CAC calculation bias. Paid search marginal CAC often exceeds blended average when best keywords exhausted forcing broader match types with lower conversion rate quality. Marketing spend allocation by channel without last touch attribution audit over credits branded search to paid ads inflating paid CAC and undervaluing content investment. Sales salary and commission loaded into CAC should use new customer count not total meetings booked to avoid dividing by inflated denominator. Free trial conversion window defines when spend counts toward CAC numerator versus brand awareness bucket in finance committee reporting standards. Partner referral fees and marketplace take rates belong in CAC when channel is paid acquisition not organic word of mouth growth loop. SaaS benchmarks target LTV to CAC above 3 and payback under 12 months for healthy unit economics. Enter ARPU and gross margin so payback months compute automatically.

When best keywords exhausted forcing broader match types with lower conversion rate quality. Marketing spend allocation by channel without last touch attribution audit over credits branded search to paid ads inflating paid CAC and undervaluing content investment. Sales salary and commission loaded into CAC should use new customer count not total meetings booked to avoid dividing by inflated denominator. Free trial conversion window defines when spend counts toward CAC numerator versus brand awareness bucket in finance committee reporting standards. Partner referral fees and marketplace take rates belong in CAC when channel is paid acquisition not organic word of mouth growth loop. SaaS benchmarks target LTV to CAC above 3 and payback under 12 months for healthy unit economics. Enter ARPU and gross margin so payback months compute automatically.

Use CAC Audit Calculator whenever inputs change: after market moves, new contributions, or revised personal assumptions. Bookmark the page for quick reruns without installing software.

Enter sales and marketing spend by channel, new customers acquired per channel, and optional customer quality metrics. Enter the sample inputs described in How it works to reproduce the scenario step by step.

Adjust one input at a time to see sensitivity. CAC Audit Calculator updates instantly so you can stress test optimistic and conservative assumptions before acting.

Reach for CAC Audit Calculator when break marketing spend, tool costs, and wages into true customer acquisition cost. It suits quick what if analysis before trades, allocation changes, or plan updates.

Pair with related tools when the decision spans taxes, liquidity, or multi year projections beyond what one formula captures.

Copying outputs without checking input units or stale market prices is a frequent error with CAC Audit Calculator. Confirm tickers, percentages, and dates before acting.

Running a single baseline scenario ignores tail risks. Stress test with conservative inputs and compare against related tools listed below when the decision is material.

Channel CAC equals channel spend divided by channel new customers. Blended CAC equals total spend divided by total new customers. Last touch attribution assumed. Multi touch models differ. Last touch attribution. Multi touch models allocate credit differently. Pause scaling on channel where marginal CAC exceeds one third of LTV until creative or targeting improves conversion rate. Fully loaded CAC includes marketing tools subscriptions allocated by headcount and creative production amortized over campaign flight dates matching spend to customer acquisition period under matching principle in finance policy documentation. Educational estimates only not personalized advice consult qualified professional before major financial decisions. Educational estimates only not personalized advice consult qualified professional before major financial decisions. Educational estimates only not personalized advice consult qualified professional before major financial decisions. Uses simplified gross margin on ARPU. Expansion revenue and annual prepay discounts are not modeled. CAC Audit Calculator does not replace personalized advice. Fees, slippage, account specific rules, and behavioral constraints may change real world outcomes.

Check sustainability with LTV CAC Ratio and growth efficiency with Rule of 40 on portfolios. Use those calculators when cac audit calculator alone does not capture the full decision.

Internal links on portfolios.tools help you chain calculators: run CAC Audit Calculator first, then validate edge cases with a specialized tool from the related section below.