CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): how much it really costs you to acquire a customer

Getting attention is hard.

In today's marketing, it's not enough to just track clicks or impressions. The key question is: How much does it cost you for a person to become a paying customer?

The answer is given by the metric CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) – the cost of acquiring a customer. And this is where it becomes clear how much UGC content can change the results.

What is CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) expresses the total costs you incur to acquire one new customer.

The calculation includes all marketing and sales costs, e.g., advertisements, agencies, content creation, commissions, discounts, emails, etc.

Formula:

CAC = total sales and marketing costs / number of new customers

Example: If you spend €10,000 per month on marketing and acquire 500 new customers, your CAC = €20. This means that each new customer costs you 20 euros.

Why is CAC so important

CAC is a metric that reveals whether your marketing is truly making money or just consuming the budget. It shows how much you need to invest to acquire a customer, and thus how effective your strategy is.

If you have a high CAC, your marketing is expensive. If it's low, your marketing is efficient.

Tracking CAC helps you:

determine the optimal marketing budget,

compare channel performance (Meta Ads, Google, TikTok),

find out which content brings the most customers,

and decide where to invest more and where less.

What are the average CACs by industry Business Type Average CAC Excellent CAC Fashion / accessory e-shop €20 – €50 €10 – €25 Cosmetics and drugstore €15 – €40 €8 – €20 Nutritional supplements €25 – €60 €15 – €30 Services and subscription models €40 – €100 €25 – €50 Luxury and premium brands €80 – €200 €50 – €100

UGC campaigns can reduce CAC by an average of 25–50%, because they have a higher CTR, better engagement and appear more trustworthy than traditional advertising.

How to reduce CAC without cutting the budget

Improve conversion rate (CR) Better page = more purchases from the same number of clicks.

Use UGC videos Authentic content reduces resistance and increases trust → more customers from the same budget.

Optimize target audiences Show ads only to relevant people.

Improve CTA (Call to Action) Clear call to action increases clicks and conversions.

A/B test ads Different variations of texts, thumbnails, and UGC videos will show what has the lowest CAC.

Improve retention (CLV) Loyal customers reduce the need for constant acquisition.

CAC can be reduced not only through the budget, but with higher quality content that people genuinely watch and trust.

Why UGC reduces CAC

UGC (User Generated Content) ads act as recommendations, not ads. The viewer identifies with the creator and feels that the product is recommended by a real person, not a brand.

This has several effects:

higher CTR (Click-Through Rate) → more clicks, same budget,

lower CPC (Cost per Click) → algorithm rewards engaging ads,

higher conversion (CR) → more purchases from the same visits,

and thus lower CAC.

UGC ads are therefore ideal if you want to acquire customers more cheaply, but not at the expense of quality.

How UGC.sk helps brands reduce CAC

At UGC.sk, we help brands create authentic, high-performing UGC videos, which reduce acquisition costs and increase ad ROI.

Our service includes:

selecting suitable creators according to the target group,

creating natural videos with high engagement,

testing various formats for Meta, TikTok, and YouTube,

performance analysis and recommendations for CAC optimization.

The result is a lower cost per customer, a higher number of conversions, and better ROAS.

CAC, CLV, and ROAS – three pillars of effective marketing Metric What it measures Goal CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) How much it costs to acquire a customer Reduce CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) How much a customer brings over time Increase ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) Ad return Maximize

Successful marketing means low CAC, high CLV, and growing ROAS. And that's exactly what UGC content brings – cheaper acquisition, more loyal customers, and higher profit.

Conclusion: CAC shows how much trust costs you

Every brand knows how much it pays for advertising. Few of them know how much one customer costs them.

If you want this amount to decrease, you must gain not just clicks – but trust.

And you best gain that through UGC videos from real people, which sell naturally, not aggressively.

At UGC.sk, we will help you create campaigns that reduce CAC and simultaneously increase performance, trust, and sales.

Because in today's marketing, it holds true: the cheapest customer is the one who came through trust.