Define the cost and new-customer denominator
A demo is an intermediate action; a new paying customer is a different outcome. Name which sales and marketing costs are included and how the time period relates to the sales cycle. Mixing one month’s spending with another month’s customers can produce a tidy number that hides the timing assumption.
Illustrative SaaS calculation: a team allocates USD 12,000 of acquisition spending to a defined cohort, records 60 demo requests and identifies 12 new paying customers under its chosen method. The cost is USD 200 per demo and USD 1,000 per new customer. Those figures answer different questions. The example is arithmetic, not a benchmark or a claim about what a software business should spend.
Separate cost per enquiry from cost per acquired customer
CAC depends on cost allocation, new-customer rules, attribution and timing. It does not show gross margin, retention or payback on its own. A lower CAC can also coincide with fewer suitable customers; a generic target cannot resolve the business’s economics.
Next, agree the customer definition and included costs with the people responsible for sales and finance. Keep the calculation method visible beside the result and compare like-for-like cohorts before changing channel spending.
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Reference: Stripe: CAC in SaaS. Checked November 4, 2026.