Affordable Acquisition Cost Calculator

Read the example.

A new customer contributes $200 before acquisition. Keeping 20% leaves an acquisition ceiling of $160 per customer and $40 retained contribution.

If 25% of qualified leads become customers, a qualified lead has a $40 ceiling. If 60% of inquiries qualify, that becomes $24 per inquiry. If 5% of clicks become inquiries, the click ceiling is $1.20.

These are conditional expected-value ceilings, not market prices, recommended bids or guaranteed returns.

The method

Rates become decimals: 25% = 0.25. Zero conversion means zero affordable spend at that stage under these assumptions.

Keep the cost definition consistent.

• Allocate production, media, management, tools and acquisition labor consistently. The customer ceiling is an all-in allowance, not automatically a media budget.
• Contribution is revenue less variable fulfillment costs. It is not revenue and not final business profit.
• Use the same periods and definitions across the funnel; account for conversion delays.
• The model excludes lifetime value, overhead, financing, capacity and cash timing.
• Assumed average rates can change with scale. Test them against actual aggregate results.

A useful resource to share

Once published, feel free to link to this tool. Linking is voluntary; free use and downloads never require a backlink.

Want help testing the assumptions? Explore Rock’s media planning.