CAC
Customer Acquisition Cost: (marketing + sales) ÷ new customers — the metric that tells whether the business model is sustainable.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is how much you spend to acquire a new customer. Formula: CAC = (Marketing + Vendas) ÷ Novos clientes. It's the metric that tells you whether your business model is sustainable: high CAC kills a good company.
How to calculate CAC correctly
In the numerator, include all that leaves the cash register to capture/convert:
- Paid ads (Meta Ads, Google Ads, TikTok).
- Commercial team salaries + benefits.
- Tools (CRM, automation, email marketing).
- Commissions paid to seller for closed sale.
- Events, materials, gifts.
- Internal content production hours.
In the denominator, count only customers new (no repurchase).
CAC vs LTV: the golden rule
For healthy business, LTV ≥ 3 × CAC. If a customer is worth R$1,000 over its lifetime, the maximum acceptable CAC is R$333. Above that, you are paying to have a customer — it may work in financed hypergrowth, but it will not sustain without investment.
Why WhatsApp reduces CAC
Ad Standard meta → landing page → form → hold → contact = click-to-customer conversion: 1-3%. Click-to-WhatsApp + qualifying bot → human attendant = conversion: 4-10%. Result: CAC drops 30-50% compared to standard flow.
Brazilian CAC benchmarks
| Segment | Typical CAC |
|---|---|
| Low ticket e-commerce (up to R$ 200) | R$ 25-80 |
| E-commerce average ticket (R$ 200-1,000) | R$80-250 |
| B2B SaaS (up to R$200/month) | R$ 200-800 |
| Professional services (consulting) | R$500-3,000 |
| Course/infoproduct (ticket R$500-3,000) | R$ 150-600 |
See: LTV, Click-to-WhatsApp Ads.