Don't Forget to Allocate Your CAC

In episode #330, Ben explains one of the most common and costly SaaS finance mistakes: failing to allocate CAC between new and existing customers. This oversight leads to misleading KPI’s, inaccurate CAC payback, flawed LTV to CAC ratios, and unreliable unit economics. Ben walks through exactly how to allocate CAC the right way, how to segment sales and marketing expenses, and why this matters for accurate revenue efficiency metrics and due diligence. Key Topics Covered Why fully burdened sales and marketing expenses are required for accurate CAC The danger of pushing all sales and marketing expenses into CAC without allocation How to allocate CAC between new customer acquisition and expansion How to segment sales teams (hunters vs. farmers) and avoid co-mingled headcount Allocating marketing spend based on acquisition channels Typical allocation benchmarks for sales (60-80% to new) and marketing (80-90% to new) Why accurate CAC is essential for CAC payback, LTV to CAC, and cost of ARR How the Cost of ARR provides a blended benchmark without requiring allocation Using allocation methods for businesses with multiple product lines or motions What You’ll Learn How to correctly calculate CAC using fully burdened sales and marketing expenses How to evaluate marketing economics and sales efficiency with proper allocation Why unallocated CAC leads to distorted financial strategy and misleading KPI’s How CAC allocation flows into CAC payback period, LTV to CAC, and ARR efficiency How to build a repeatable, defensible go-to-market metrics framework that withstands due diligence   Who This Episode Is For SaaS founders scaling beyond early customer acquisition CFOs, FP&A leaders, and finance teams who own KPI modeling Operators who need accurate CAC, CAC payback, and LTV calculations Investors or advisors assessing revenue efficiency and go-to-market economics Related Resources SaaS Metrics Foundation course covering CAC, LTV, ARR, and unit economics: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/the-saas-metrics-foundation Coaching resources on building an accurate, SaaS-specific chart of accounts: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/saas-cfo-coaching