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Find out what it really costs you to win one customer — and whether that’s sustainable against their lifetime value.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total you spend on marketing and sales divided by the number of new customers it brought in. It’s one of the most important numbers a small business can know, because if it costs you more to win a customer than that customer is worth, growth quietly loses money no matter how busy you look.
Enter your total marketing and sales spend for a period — ad budgets, tools, and any sales labor — and the number of new customers you gained in that same period. The calculator returns your CAC per customer. If you also enter your average customer lifetime value, it shows the LTV:CAC ratio, the single healthiest way to judge whether your acquisition is working.
The formula is CAC = total acquisition spend ÷ new customers. A widely used rule of thumb is that lifetime value should be at least three times CAC (an LTV:CAC of 3:1 or better); below 1:1 you’re losing money on every new customer. If your CAC is too high, look at conversion rate, targeting, and which channels actually produce paying customers.
Worked example: say you spent $3,000 last month across ads, tools and sales time, and it brought in 30 new customers. Your CAC is $3,000 ÷ 30 = $100 per customer. If an average customer is worth $600 to you over their lifetime, your LTV:CAC is 600 ÷ 100 = 6:1 — well above the 3:1 target, so you can comfortably spend more to grow. But if costs crept up and CAC hit $250, that ratio falls to 2.4:1: still profitable, but a signal to tighten targeting or improve how many leads actually convert before you scale spend.
StandupCRM ties ad spend to captured leads and closed jobs for repair shops so your CAC is measured, not guessed — this tool gets you the quick number.
Divide your total marketing and sales spend by the number of new customers acquired in the same period.
Ad budgets, marketing tools and any sales labor tied to winning customers during the period.
Many businesses target 3:1 or higher — lifetime value at least three times acquisition cost.
There is no universal dollar figure — a good CAC is one comfortably below what a customer is worth to you. Judge it against lifetime value (aim for an LTV:CAC of 3:1 or better) rather than a fixed target.
Improve your conversion rate so more leads become customers, cut spend on channels that don’t produce paying jobs, ask happy customers for referrals, and follow up with new leads faster before they go cold.
Yes, free with no signup.
StandupCRM gives repair shops Google Ads landing pages, lead capture, and a CRM dashboard — plus free tools like this to bring customers in.
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