Start with these five checks.
- Freeze included costs and acquired-customer definition.
- Reconcile platform conversions with CRM and revenue.
- Separate media price, traffic and funnel conversion.
- Compare cohort margin, retention and payback.
- Check attribution changes and duplicated credit.
Ask for only what can change the answer.
- SpendMedia, agency, tools and labor
- ExposureImpression, click and auction cost
- FunnelLead, opportunity and purchase events
- IdentityDeduped customer and source
- EconomicsMargin, retention and payback
- ExperimentHoldout, geo or incrementality design
Test one reversible move.
Choose one high-spend channel and one supported leak. Run a bounded holdout or randomized change to targeting, creative or landing flow, then reconcile acquired customers to retained contribution margin. Roll back if apparent CAC improvement comes from missing attribution, lower-quality customers or displaced organic demand.
A decision your team can use.
- 01A reconciled CAC definition
- 02Channel and funnel decomposition
- 03Cohort unit economics
- 04An incrementality test
Common questions.
What costs belong in CAC?
State the decision boundary and include all acquisition costs relevant to it; keep paid-media CPA separate.
Why not trust platform CAC?
Platforms use different attribution windows and can claim the same customer.
Should the worst channel be cut immediately?
Not before incrementality, customer quality and cross-channel effects are understood.