Work out what it really costs you to win a new client.
Customer acquisition cost calculator
Plug in your numbers - it updates as you type.
The average cost of winning a new client, including sales and marketing time and spend. Compared against lifetime value to check that growth is profitable.
For example, if an agency spends $20,000 on marketing and business-development time in a quarter and signs four new clients, its CAC is $5,000 per client. Set against a client worth $108,000 in lifetime value, that is a healthy ratio.
Why it matters to agencies: CAC tells you whether new business is actually paying off: if it costs more to win a client than they are worth, growth quietly loses money. Knowing your CAC lets you invest confidently in the channels that bring profitable clients and cut the ones that do not.
CAC = total sales & marketing cost ÷ new clients won in the period
Include the cost of time spent pitching, not just ad spend.
There is no fixed target - judge CAC against lifetime value, aiming for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1.
The average cost of winning a new client, including sales and marketing time and spend. Compared against lifetime value to check that growth is profitable.
Divide everything spent on sales and marketing in a period - including pitching time - by the number of new clients won.
There is no fixed number; what matters is the ratio to lifetime value, with LTV ideally at least three times CAC.
CAC is what it costs to win a client; LTV is what that client is worth over time. Profitable growth needs LTV comfortably above CAC.
Forge builds your metrics dashboard and looks after it - tracking customer acquisition cost (cac) live for your whole agency, built around the tools you already use. No spreadsheets, no code on your side.