Fully Loaded CAC Calculator
Your real cost to acquire a customer once salaries, tools, agencies, and creative are added to ad spend.
Example scenario—not a forecast or verified benchmark. Enable JavaScript to edit inputs, view charts, save locally and export your analysis.
Example inputs
- Paid media / ad spend
- 240,000
- Sales team salaries + benefits
- 260,000
- Marketing team salaries + benefits
- 90,000
- Commissions and bonuses on new business
- 60,000
- Agency and contractor fees
- 48,000
- Sales & marketing software
- 24,000
- Creative, content, and production
- 18,000
- Events, travel, sponsorships, other
- 20,000
- New customers won per year
- 300
- Average first-year revenue per new customer
- 6,000
- Gross margin
- 50
- Target CAC payback
- 12
Example results
Fully loaded CAC is $2,533, 3.2x the $800 ad-only figure, paying back in 10.1 months against a 12-month target.
- Fully loaded CAC
- $2,533
- Ad-only CAC
- $800
- CAC payback
- 10.1 mo
- Max CAC at target payback
- $3,000
- Hidden acquisition cost (non-ad)
- $520,000
- Total annual acquisition cost
- $760,000
- First-year gross profit ÷ CAC
- 1.18x
- Customers needed to hit target with current spend
- 254
What stands out
True CAC is 3.2x your ad-only CAC ($2,533 vs $800)
$520K a year of acquisition cost never shows up in ad dashboards. Decisions made on $800 CAC will overspend.
CAC payback is 10.1 months vs your 12-month target
You have room to spend up to $3,000 per customer and still hit target.
People costs are 54% of acquisition spend
Sales productivity (deals per rep, close rate) moves CAC more than ad optimization does.
Next actions
- Report fully loaded CAC ($2,533) monthly alongside ad CAC so channel decisions reflect the true cost.
- Attack the largest bucket first: Sales salaries is $867 of every customer's acquisition cost.
- You are inside target payback: test a 15-20% spend increase on the best channel and track whether CAC holds.
Model assumptions & limitations
- Includes only costs tied to winning new customers; account management and retention costs should be excluded.
- Payback = fully loaded CAC ÷ monthly gross profit from a new customer's first year.
- Target payback of 12 months is your input; acceptable payback depends on cash position and retention.
- Costs and customers are for the same 12-month period; long sales cycles can shift customers across periods.