Marketing analytics
Customer acquisition cost.
Enter what you spent to win new customers and how many you won. See your CAC, your paid-only CAC and, with an order value and margin, how many orders it takes to recover it.
CAC = total acquisition cost / new customers. $10,000 of ads, tools and creative that brings in 200 new customers is a CAC of $50.
Your numbers
Result
Worked example
Ad spend is $8,000 and other costs are $2,000, so total acquisition cost is $10,000. With 200 new customers, CAC = $10,000 / 200 = $50; ads alone give a paid-only CAC of $40. On an $80 order at a 30% gross margin, gross profit is $24, so the first order leaves -$26 and it takes about 2.08 orders to earn the CAC back.
How it works
CAC = total acquisition cost / new customers. Shopify describes adding up all the costs of acquiring new customers in a period and dividing by the new first-time customers in that period. Its list of costs includes advertising fees, marketing software, staff salaries, content creation, discounts and sales costs.
Paid-only CAC = ad spend / new customers. Many dashboards show this narrower figure. The gap between it and full CAC is the cost of everything else you spend to win customers.
Orders to recover CAC = CAC / (order value x gross margin). This is plain arithmetic on your inputs. It counts only gross profit from repeat orders at the same value and ignores how many customers actually reorder.
Use the same period and the same definition of a new customer for cost and count, or the ratio is meaningless. Count only first-time customers.
Sources and basis (opened 2026-10-15): Customer Acquisition Cost: How To Calculate and Lower It - Shopify. Everything else is arithmetic on your inputs.
Inputs are user-entered figures. Results are planning estimates, not financial advice or a forecast of future performance. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or stored.
FAQ
How do I calculate CAC?
Add up everything you spent to acquire customers in a period, then divide by the number of new customers won in that period. $10,000 and 200 new customers gives $50.
What should I include in CAC?
Shopify lists advertising fees, marketing tools, marketing staff, content, discounts and sales costs. Paid-only CAC counts ad spend alone, so label which one you are quoting.
What is a good CAC?
There is no universal number. A CAC is only good relative to the gross profit a customer brings back, so compare it with lifetime value or payback rather than with other stores.
Should returning customers count as new customers?
No. Count only first-time customers, otherwise repeat buyers who did not need acquiring make CAC look lower than it is.