Metrics
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Quick definition
Fully-loaded cost to acquire one new customer.
CAC = (Sales + Marketing spend) / New customers acquired. Fully-loaded CAC includes salaries, benefits, tools, and allocated overhead — not just ad spend. Investors evaluate CAC alongside payback period and LTV.
Related metrics terms
ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)
Annualized value of your subscription revenue at a point in time.
MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)
Monthly equivalent of ARR, useful for month-over-month tracking.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
Revenue from your existing customer base 12 months later, including expansion and churn.
Gross Revenue Retention (GRR)
NRR without upsell — what you keep before expansion.
See this in action
Insights and tools where CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) shows up.
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