A-Z Popular Blog Top Search »
Marketing
 Advertisements
Marketing Guides
Marketing Metrics
top   »  marketing   »  marketing metrics   »  customer acquisition cost

What is Customer Acquisition Cost?

 , updated on
Customer acquisition cost are the total business expenditures a company incurs to make a sale to a new customer. It is calculated using comprehensive costs such as advertising, marketing, sales commissions and the cost of retail locations.
Any expenditures that are involved in convincing a new customer to buy can be included in customer acquisition cost. Customer acquisition cost is typically measured at the margin, meaning that it's calculated as the cost to add one additional customer. It is also occasionally calculated as an average for all sales in a financial period.
Customer acquisition costs tend to rise with time as you acquire a larger customer base. This is the reason that it's measured at the margin, your first customer is typically cheaper to acquire than your millionth customer.
Overview: Customer Acquisition Cost
Type
Business Cost
Definition
The total expenditure required to make a sale to a new customer.
Also Known As
CAC
Related Concepts
Marginal Cost
Unit Cost
Cost Of Revenue

Marketing Metrics

This is the complete list of articles we have written about marketing metrics.
Brand Awareness
Brand Recognition
Churn Rate
Conversion Rate
Cost Per Lead
Acquisition Cost
Experience Score
Lifetime Value
Customer Metrics
Penetration Rate
Market Share
Recency
Wallet Share
More ...
If you enjoyed this page, please consider bookmarking Simplicable.
 
Cite »

Marketing Metrics

A list of common ways to measure marketing results.

Business Metrics

A list of common business metrics.

Data-Driven Marketing

A definition of data-driven marketing with examples.

Customer Loyalty

The common types of loyal customer.

Recency

A definition of recency with examples for sales, marketing and advertising.

Active Users

The common types of active user metric.

Active Customer

An overview of active customers as a marketing metric.

Marketing Benchmarks

The definition of marketing benchmark with examples.

Cost Per Lead

The formula for cost per lead with calculation examples.

Marketing Efficiency

An overview of marketing efficiency with calculation examples.

Top

Simplicable is a modern encyclopedia that has been updated daily since 2010.

Business Theory

A list of interesting business theories.

Knowledge Work

A definition of knowledge work with examples.

Office Politics

A list of social processes, absurdities and strategies related to office politics.

Product Development

A guide to product development.

Types Of Knowledge

The differences between types of knowledge.

Trough Of Sorrow

An overview of the trough of sorrow.

Business Models

A list of common business models.

Marketing

A list of key marketing strategies.

Competitive Advantage

A few sources of competitive advantage for businesses.

Trending

The most popular articles on Simplicable in the past day.

New Articles

Recent posts or updates on Simplicable.
Site Map
Engineering
Governance
Government
History
Humans
Industries
Influencing
Information
Information Technology
Infrastructure
Life
Management
Marketing
Materials
Metrics
Motivation
Nature
Organizational Culture
Philosophy
Problem Solving
Productivity
Quality
Risk
Sales
More ...
© 2010-2023 Simplicable. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of materials found on this site, in any form, without explicit permission is prohibited.

View credits & copyrights or citation information for this page.

Home About     Privacy Policy     Cookies Terms of Use     Contact Us Search


Cookies help us deliver our services. You have choices regarding these cookies. Please visit our privacy policy, cookie policy and consent tool to learn more.


Copyright 2002-2024 Simplicable. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or translated. Report violations here.