How do I calculate CAC, and what's the difference between blended CAC and new-customer CAC?
The short answer
Blended CAC divides all acquisition spend by every new customer (including organic, referral and repeat-driven traffic); new-customer paid CAC divides only paid spend by the first-time buyers it brought in. Report both, but make scaling decisions on paid/new CAC, because blended quietly hides how inefficient your ads really are the moment you push budget. The number that matters is your marginal CAC: what the next ₹1 lakh of spend costs, not the average of your cheapest early customers.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
3 resources3 link-checked
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📄 Article
✓ Link checkedFreeIntermediate
Why we picked it
The definitive D2C-specific breakdown of the CAC you should actually track: new-customer CAC vs blended CAC, why the gap matters, and when to use each. From 1-800-D2C, one of the most respected operator resource hubs in the space.
Why we picked it
A crisp, numbers-driven walkthrough of how the same month can show a ₹42 blended CAC and a ₹70 paid CAC - and why confusing the two wrecks your scaling decisions. Great companion piece that makes the blended-vs-paid distinction concrete.
Why we picked it
The canonical investor's-eye view of why LTV:CAC drives valuation, and why 3:1 became the rule of thumb. Read it to understand what a growth-stage investor is really testing when they poke at your unit economics.
