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Table Table 2 Growth that compounds

Which four distinct CAC definitions serve four opposing capital decisions?

ViewOperating numerator and denominatorDecision it can informMain risk
Blended CACAll declared acquisition cost divided by all new customers in the portfolio cohortPortfolio budget and overall acquisition burdenMix changes can improve the average without improving any route
Paid CACDeclared paid-media cost and associated paid activity divided by customers counted under the paid boundaryPaid program screeningIt can exclude sales, onboarding, organic overlap, or customers not captured by the attribution rule
Fully Loaded CACAll declared acquisition and activation costs divided by the defined new-customer cohortCash, capacity, and operating-model decisionsAllocation of shared people and platform costs can look more objective than it is
Incremental CACAdditional cost caused by the intervention divided by additional customers relative to a counterfactualScale, pause, or reallocate an interventionWithout a credible comparison, the label is only an aspiration

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Reference & Evidence

Source: Table from this essay. Sources and interpretation are given in the article.

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