Restaurant Customer Acquisition Cost
CAC = (marketing + sales costs) / new customers
Gather recipe sheets, supplier invoices and stock counts. Include ingredients, service labour, and facility overhead. The starting figures are examples. Replace them with your own records.
Formula and worked example
CAC = (marketing + sales costs) / new customers
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Marketing spend | 3,000 |
| Sales labour and software | 1,000 |
| New paying customers | 20 |
| Calculated result | 200 per customer |
Choose reliable inputs
Track purchased quantities, usable yield, labour and waste before deciding on a selling price. For this restaurant calculation, use recipe sheets, supplier invoices and stock counts and a consistent definition of one cover.
- Ingredients: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Service labour: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
- Facility overhead: include the portion belonging to this cover or reporting period, and record where the value came from.
Use the same currency for every money input. Do not mix weekly costs with monthly revenue, or count the same expense in both an itemised cost and allocated overhead.
Should sales labour be included in acquisition cost?
A media-only cost per acquisition excludes proposal and selling work. Report the included cost categories so comparisons remain meaningful.
Use aligned periods and an explicit definition of new paying customer.
What if this input changes?
If marketing spend rises by 10%, this example changes by 15 per customer. This shows the effect of one change; it does not predict what will happen.
Open the calculator, save your baseline, then change the input supported by the least reliable estimate in your records. Compare both scenarios before committing to a price or capacity promise.