Growth calculator

CAC Calculator

Calculate fully loaded customer acquisition cost by combining media spend, allocated shared costs, and acquisition-specific expenses.

Inputs

Defaults are visible and can be changed before calculation.

Inline validation messages appear here when a value needs to be corrected.

Currency *Applies to acquisition cost, CAC, and category outputs.New customers *Number of newly acquired customers in the measured period.Ad spend *Paid media spend for the period.Sales payrollShared sales payroll before acquisition allocation.Marketing payrollShared marketing payroll before acquisition allocation.Software and toolsShared acquisition software and tools before allocation.Shared cost allocation ratePercentage of shared costs attributable to acquisition, such as 75%.Agency feesAcquisition-specific agency fees.Content productionAcquisition-specific content production costs.Creative productionAcquisition-specific creative production costs.Affiliate commissionsAffiliate, partner, or referral commissions.Events and sponsorshipsEvents, sponsorships, or field marketing attributed to acquisition.Other acquisition costsOther acquisition-specific costs not listed above.

Results

Results are deterministic scenario outputs, not guarantees.

Enter values and calculate to see the summary, supporting metrics, warnings, and interpretation.

Interpretation

Deterministic interpretation rules will explain what the modeled result means once a calculation is available.

Detailed breakdown

Intermediate calculation rows will appear here after calculation.

Formula

Shared costs

sharedCosts = salesPayroll + marketingPayroll + softwareAndTools

Allocated shared costs

allocatedSharedCosts = sharedCosts × allocationRate

Total acquisition cost

totalAcquisitionCost = adSpend + allocatedSharedCosts + agencyFees + contentProduction + creativeProduction + affiliateCommissions + eventsAndSponsorships + otherAcquisitionCosts

Fully loaded CAC

cac = totalAcquisitionCost / newCustomers

Media-only CAC difference

percentageDifference = (cac - mediaOnlyCAC) / mediaOnlyCAC

Assumptions

All costs and customers are measured for the same acquisition period.
Shared sales, marketing, and software costs are multiplied by the visible allocation rate before inclusion.
The calculator separates raw numeric values from formatted display values.
Outputs are deterministic calculations, not forecasts or guarantees.

Worked example

Example: fully loaded CAC

If $50,000 in ad spend acquires 100 customers and $55,000 of shared costs are allocated at 75%, total acquisition cost is $108,250 and fully loaded CAC is $1,082.50.

FAQ

Why is fully loaded CAC higher than media-only CAC?

Fully loaded CAC includes allocated payroll, tools, production, agency, affiliate, event, and other acquisition costs in addition to ad spend.

How should I choose the allocation rate?

Use the share of shared costs that reasonably supports acquisition activity during the measured period. The calculator does not infer this value automatically.

Does this calculator judge whether CAC is good or bad?

No. It identifies acquisition cost structure and divergence from media-only CAC. Acceptable CAC depends on gross margin, payback, retention, and growth strategy.

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