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CAC (customer acquisition cost)

| Article: 5 min read | Analytics

CAC (customer acquisition cost) is the amount a store spends to get one new customer: all marketing and sales costs for a period divided by the number of customers who bought for the first time in that period.

In plain words

CAC is the total cost of acquiring one customer: all the spending on sales, marketing and related activities that turn a prospective buyer into someone who paid. It includes advertising, the salaries of marketing and sales staff, their commissions and bonuses, and overhead (Corporate Finance Institute).

The key word is "new." Customers who came back a second time do not go into the denominator: they have already been acquired. Otherwise CAC would look lower than it is, especially in stores with a large share of repeat purchases.

Formula

CAC = acquisition costs for the period ÷ number of new customers for the same period

What to include in costs

Costs usually include:

  • advertising (search, social networks, offline);
  • salaries of marketing staff, freelancers and contractors;
  • marketing tools (CRM, analytics, email);
  • discounts and promo codes;
  • content creation;
  • sales costs that support marketing.

The point is to count the full cost: Corporate Finance Institute separately names salespeople's commissions and bonuses and overhead (CFI).

For a Ukrainian store, add: payment to an agency or a paid-social specialist, a marketplace commission (Rozetka, Prom) if you calculate CAC for that channel, and a promo code for the first order.

Blended and paid CAC

  • Blended CAC is all costs across all new customers, including those who came from search or by referral.
  • Paid CAC is only the ad spend on customers from paid channels, ideally separately for each channel.

In a June 2026 article, the agency Crealytics warns that if you report only blended CAC and do not break it down by channel, marketing efficiency looks better than it is. Organic customers are not free either: behind them are brand, content and SEO, whose costs rarely get into the denominator. Another trap is lag: if the purchase decision takes 60 to 90 days, one quarter's spend produces the next quarter's customers, and CAC over a short period is distorted. The agency advises calculating new-customer CAC (nCAC) alongside the blended figure and showing CAC by channel separately (Crealytics, 2026). This is the agency's opinion, not a study, and its examples are about B2B.

The AI channel in CAC

Shoppers increasingly arrive from AI assistants' answers. According to Adobe Analytics (as reported by Digital Commerce 360 on September 3, 2026), in the US traffic to e-commerce sites from AI sources grew 62% year over year in July 2026, and shoppers from AI generated 53% more revenue per visit. At the same time, AI referrals have not yet overtaken regular search in volume (Digital Commerce 360, 2026). For CAC this means: track such visits as a separate source (in GA4 you can see it by the referrer), otherwise customers from AI will "dissolve" among organic and understate its cost. There is no Ukrainian data on the AI channel's share.

Example (illustrative numbers)

The numbers are made up for the example. A sports nutrition store in one month:

Cost

Amount, UAH

Google Ads

120,000

Meta (Facebook, Instagram)

80,000

Marketer's salary

40,000

Tools (email, analytics)

10,000

First-order discount

15,000

Total

265,000

New customers: 400, of whom 320 came from ads.

  • Blended CAC: 265,000 ÷ 400 = ≈ 663 UAH
  • Paid CAC: 200,000 ÷ 320 = 625 UAH

CAC, CPA and CPO: what is the difference

  • CAC is the cost of a new customer. It is calculated per person who bought for the first time.
  • CPA (cost per action) is the cost of any target action: leads, sign-ups, add to cart, purchase. It depends on which action you set up in the ad account.
  • CPO (cost per order) is the cost of an order, new or repeat.

In the example above, if there were 700 orders in the month (new and repeat), CPO from ads = 200,000 ÷ 700 ≈ 286 UAH. It is lower than CAC because some orders come from regular customers. For stores with payment on receipt, calculate CPO from orders that were picked up, otherwise it will be understated.

Payback period

Payback period is the time it takes for revenue from a new customer to cover the cost of acquiring them (Corporate Finance Institute).

Payback period (months) = CAC ÷ gross profit from the customer per month

Continuing the example. Average order 1,500 UAH, margin 35%, so 525 UAH is left from one order. The first order covers 525 of the 663 UAH CAC. If the customer makes a second order on average after three months, the cost pays back in the fourth month. Until the customer buys again, the store finances them out of its own money. This matters for working capital: the longer the payback period, the more cash you need to grow.

How different sources see it

  • Simple explanations give the formula and a broad list of costs (CFI).
  • The LTV : CAC ratio. Blogs often cite a 3 : 1 benchmark. There is no primary research behind that number, and CFI does not give it in its CAC article. Treat it as a guideline, not a norm, and look at it together with the payback period.
  • Crealytics (2026) advises separating blended CAC, nCAC and CAC by channel.

Common mistakes

  • Counting only the ad budget. Without salaries, tools and discounts, CAC is understated.
  • Dividing by all orders. That is CPO, not CAC.
  • Using the average CAC across all channels. Good search can "cover" a loss-making paid social channel.
  • Ignoring unclaimed parcels. A customer who did not pick up the parcel is not yet a customer.
  • Comparing CAC with first-order revenue rather than margin.

FAQ

What is CAC in plain words? How much one new buyer costs you: all marketing costs for the month divided by the number of people who bought for the first time.

How do you calculate CAC? Add up advertising, marketing staff, tools and discount costs for the period and divide by the number of new customers for the same period.

How is CAC different from CPA? CAC is the cost of a new customer, CPA is the cost of any action you chose as the goal (leads, sign-ups or purchases).

What CAC is considered normal? There is no universal norm, and the popular "3 : 1" is only a guideline from blogs. Compare CAC with the margin a customer brings over their lifetime (LTV) and with the payback period.

Sources

Want to check this on your store?

Google Ads / Meta Ads

Advertising that pays off: Google and Meta campaigns with transparent sales analytics.

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