CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC measures what it actually costs a business: a radio station, a media agency, a SaaS platform: to sign up one new paying customer. The calculation divides total fully-loaded sales and marketing spend by the number of new customers won in the same period. If a station spent €100,000 on sales salaries, tools, travel, and marketing in a quarter and signed 20 new advertisers, its CAC is €5,000.

CAC is the denominator in every unit-economics model: LTV-to-CAC ratio, CAC payback period, marketing ROI. A business with a CAC that approaches or exceeds the average customer's lifetime value is structurally unprofitable. For broadcast stations, reducing CAC by automating prospecting and lead generation is the fastest path to expanding margin: which is why platforms like Spotwise frame their value proposition explicitly around CAC reduction.