What is customer acquisition cost (CAC)?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend it takes to win one new customer. The formula is CAC = total spend / new customers acquired. Spend $12,000 to acquire 150 customers and your CAC is $80.

CAC only means something next to LTV

A CAC is neither good nor bad in isolation. It only makes sense against what a customer is worth, which is their lifetime value. That relationship is the LTV:CAC ratio. A common rule of thumb is 3:1, meaning a customer should be worth about three times what it cost to acquire them. Below 1:1 you lose money on every customer; far above 3:1 you may be under-investing in growth. Our CAC calculator works out both.

Why accurate attribution matters

CAC by channel falls apart if you cannot tell which spend produced which customers. When tracking misses conversions, campaigns look more expensive than they are, and you cut the wrong ones. Trakt ties each customer back to the campaign that won them, so your CAC by channel reflects reality rather than the fraction the browser managed to report.