Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

Divide sales and marketing spend by new customers won to get the cost of acquiring one customer.

About Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator

Dividing spend by the number of customers gives the unit economics of the channel. The reciprocal — customers delivered per unit of currency — is shown alongside, because that is the figure to maximise when a budget is fixed. Unit cost is the only number that lets you compare channels with wildly different budgets, and it is the input every bid and budget decision ultimately rests on.

Formula

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost = Sales and marketing spend ÷ New customers acquired

Sales and marketing spend: Total amount spent in the period
New customers acquired: Countable outcomes delivered for that spend

Worked example

With the default values below, Customer Acquisition Cost Calculator returns Customer Acquisition Cost of $500.0000. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Sales and marketing spendminimum 0: 120,000
New customers acquiredminimum 0: 240

Results

Customer Acquisition Cost: $500.0000
Customers per Unit of Spend: 0.00
Spend per 1,000 customers: $500,000.00
Customers Needed to Justify Spend at Current Rate: 240

Step by step

1Values used
2Customer Acquisition Cost
3Customer Acquisition Cost= 500.0000
4Customers per Unit of Spend= 0.00
5Spend per 1,000 customers= 500,000.00
6Customers Needed to Justify Spend at Current Rate= 240

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 2 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Customer Acquisition Cost calculated?

Customer Acquisition Cost = Sales and marketing spend ÷ New customers acquired Dividing spend by the number of customers gives the unit economics of the channel. The reciprocal — customers delivered per unit of currency — is shown alongside, because that is the figure to maximise when a budget is fixed.

Why does Customer Acquisition Cost matter?

Unit cost is the only number that lets you compare channels with wildly different budgets, and it is the input every bid and budget decision ultimately rests on.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 2 inputs: Sales and marketing spend, New customers acquired. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.