IFO4
Loading...The total sales and marketing investment required to acquire one new customer over a defined cohort window, computed as the relevant spend divided by net new customers in the period. CAC is the load-bearing input to LTV-CAC and to payback period, and is the federation-recognised single most important top-of-funnel efficiency measure for SaaS and subscription businesses. The federation requires CAC to be reported on a fully loaded basis with sales, marketing, partner, and onboarding cost included, and on a cohort basis where mix shifts are material under UFMS-001:3.2.
A coinage of late twentieth century direct marketing literature; the SaaS sense crystallised with the venture capital diligence frameworks of the 2000s.
Federation members publish fully loaded CAC quarterly with cohort breakouts where material. Onboarding cost is included by default. Misstatement of CAC by exclusion of relevant cost is a Tier-1 conduct violation under TGS-002:2.3 and admissible federation evidence requires reconciliation to the GL.
@misc{ifo4_glossary_cac,
title = {{Customer Acquisition Cost}},
author = {{IFO4 Federation Editorial Board}},
howpublished = {{IFO4 Federation Glossary, slug \texttt{cac}}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://ifo4.org/glossary/cac},
note = {Category: Unit Economics; key: CustomerAcquisitionCost}
}Federation members and accredited practitioners may challenge any entry under TGS-002:1.7. Filed challenges are routed to the editorial board, triaged into the revision register, and resolved in writing on the public docket. The slug remains stable through any revision.