Blended CAC (blended customer acquisition cost) is the average total cost to acquire a customer across all acquisition channels, calculated by dividing combined sales and marketing spend by the number of customers acquired in the same period. It provides a single, all-in view of acquisition efficiency that includes inbound, outbound, paid, organic, partners, and product-led motions.
How Blended CAC Is Calculated
A common formula is:
- Blended CAC = (Total sales + marketing acquisition costs) ÷ (Number of new customers acquired)
Costs often included:
- Sales expenses: sales salaries, commissions, bonuses, benefits, sales tools, enablement, travel
- Marketing expenses: paid media, content, events, marketing tools, agency fees, marketing staff costs
- Shared acquisition costs: attribution tooling, data enrichment, SDR programs, partner program costs
Some companies adjust blended CAC by excluding brand spend, including only fully loaded costs, or aligning spend timing with customer start dates.
Blended CAC vs Paid CAC
Blended CAC is different from channel-specific acquisition costs:
- Paid CAC: cost per customer acquired from paid channels only (for example, paid search or paid social)
- Blended CAC: includes all channels, including “free” sources like organic search and referrals that still have staffing and tooling costs
- Sales-only CAC: focuses on sales spend divided by new customers, often used in outbound-heavy motions
Blended CAC is useful for executive-level tracking, while channel CAC is better for optimizing specific programs.
Why Blended CAC Matters in Modern Revenue Operations
Blended CAC helps teams evaluate efficiency across mixed go-to-market strategies:
- Tracks overall acquisition efficiency: captures shifts between channels as strategies change
- Supports planning and budgeting: ties spend levels to customer growth targets
- Improves unit economics: paired with LTV, gross margin, and payback period
- Informs automation and AI investment: shows whether tooling that improves targeting, routing, and conversion reduces total acquisition costs
- Reduces attribution bias: does not rely on perfect multi-touch attribution to be useful
For subscription businesses, blended CAC is commonly tracked alongside CAC payback and net revenue retention.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between blended CAC and CAC payback?
Blended CAC is the acquisition cost per customer. CAC payback is how long it takes gross profit from the customer to recover that cost.
Should salaries be included in blended CAC?
Often yes, especially for a fully loaded view. Teams should document what is included so comparisons over time stay consistent.
Can blended CAC go up while the business is healthy?
Yes. It can rise during expansion into new markets, heavier investment in growth, longer sales cycles, or changes in customer mix.
How does product-led growth affect blended CAC?
PLG can reduce sales-heavy acquisition costs for smaller customers, but it can also add costs like onboarding, support, and lifecycle marketing that still count in blended CAC.
What are common mistakes when calculating blended CAC?
Mismatching spend timing with customer counts, excluding major costs like compensation or tools, and mixing new customers with expansion revenue.
