Metrics
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Customer acquisition cost is the total sales and marketing spend needed to win one new customer, a core measure of how efficiently a company grows.
Why it matters
CAC tells you what growth actually costs. If it climbs above what a customer is worth over their lifetime, growth loses money. Watching it keeps spend disciplined and shows which channels bring customers efficiently and which just burn budget. It is one of the clearest signals of whether a go-to-market motion is working.
How it works in practice
CAC is the total sales and marketing cost over a period divided by the number of new customers won in that period. The costs include salaries, tools, and ad spend, not just media. Teams compare CAC against customer lifetime value to check the ratio is healthy, and break it down by channel to see where acquisition is cheapest.
Common mistakes
A common mistake is leaving costs out of the calculation, such as salaries or tooling, which flatters the number. Another is reading CAC without lifetime value, so an apparently high cost looks alarming when the customer is very valuable. A third is judging a new channel on early CAC before it has had time to settle.
How hubsell approaches it
hubsell lowers the data and tooling drag on CAC by replacing several tools with one and sourcing contacts that are correct today, so less spend is wasted on bounces and switching between systems.