SaaS Metrics
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost to acquire one new paying customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses divided by the number of new customers acquired.
Formula
CAC = Total sales & marketing spend / Number of new customers acquiredWhat to Include in CAC
Include:
- Advertising spend (paid ads, sponsorships)
- Marketing team salaries
- Sales team salaries and commissions
- Marketing tools and software
- Content creation costs
- Events and conferences
Exclude:
- Product development costs
- Customer support costs
- General overhead
Benchmarks
| Channel | Typical CAC Range |
|---|---|
| Organic / SEO | $50–200 |
| Content marketing | $100–300 |
| Paid social | $200–500 |
| Google Ads | $200–800 |
| Outbound sales | $500–2,000+ |
| Enterprise sales | $5,000–50,000+ |
The CAC Payback Period
CAC alone doesn't tell you much. You need to know how quickly you earn it back:
CAC Payback = CAC / (ARPU × Gross Margin)| Payback Period | Assessment |
|---|---|
| < 6 months | Excellent — fast capital efficiency |
| 6–12 months | Good — standard for healthy SaaS |
| 12–18 months | Acceptable for enterprise |
| 18+ months | Concerning — capital intensive |
CAC in AI-Run Companies
This is where AI-run companies truly shine. Traditional SaaS companies spend 40–60% of revenue on sales and marketing teams. AI-run companies replace this with:
- AI-generated content for SEO (cost: ~$0.01 per article in compute)
- AI-managed ad campaigns (no media buyer salary)
- Product-led growth (the product sells itself)
- AI-powered onboarding (no sales team needed)
Result: CAC drops by 80–90% compared to traditional SaaS. A company that would spend $500 per customer now spends $50–100.
This is the fundamental economic advantage that makes AI-run companies on EvolC such compelling investments — they acquire customers at a fraction of the cost.