CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
CAC is the total sales and marketing cost of winning a new customer, divided by the number of customers won, a core measure of how efficiently a motion grows revenue.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost of winning a new customer: all sales and marketing spend over a period, divided by the number of customers acquired in that period. It is usually read against two other figures. Compared to customer lifetime value, it shows whether each customer is worth more than it cost to win. Compared across channels, it shows which routes to market are efficient and which are not.
Why it matters for outbound
Outbound is an investment, and CAC is how that investment is judged. A motion can produce pipeline and still be a poor use of money if each customer costs more than it returns. For enterprise programs the calculation is nuanced, because larger deals justify higher acquisition cost and longer sales cycles defer the payback. The discipline outbound brings, sharp ICP targeting and rising conversion rate, is precisely what keeps CAC in check as volume grows.
How it works
CAC is straightforward to compute and revealing to compare.
- Sum sales and marketing costs for a period, including the outbound program.
- Divide by net new customers won in that same window.
- Read it against lifetime value and by channel to see where growth is efficient.
Tighter targeting and better conversion lower CAC over time. We track acquisition economics alongside the pipeline coverage math in our reporting and RevOps service.
From definitions to pipeline
Outword turns outbound theory into a running motion. Book a call to see what that looks like for your team.