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Patient acquisition cost (CAC) calculator

Enter ad spend, other acquisition costs and new paying patients to get blended CAC, paid-only CAC and the share of CAC that goes on creative and other costs.

Leave empty for 0.

Patients who paid after approval, not intake completes.

My numbers

Save your own numbers once and reuse them in every calculator. They stay in this browser; nothing is sent to us.

Which numbers are saved?
  • First-order revenue per patient (AOV): not saved
  • Medication / product cost per order (COGS): not saved
  • Clinician consult cost per patient: not saved
  • Pharmacy dispensing / fulfillment fee: not saved
  • Shipping per order: not saved
  • Payment processing: not saved
  • Refund + chargeback rate: not saved
  • Monthly churn: not saved
  • Patient acquisition cost (CAC): not saved
  • Monthly ad spend: not saved

Patient acquisition cost

Enter your numbers to see the result.

Free tool by Telehealth Media · telehealthmedia.com

Compare CAC with what a patient is worth in the lifetime value calculator.

How it works

Customer acquisition cost, or patient acquisition cost in telehealth, is what you spend to win one new paying patient.

  • Blended CAC = (ad spend + creative, agency and tool costs) / new paying patients
  • Paid-only CAC = ad spend / new paying patients
  • Creative and other costs share = other costs / (ad spend + other costs) x 100

Blended CAC is the honest number for planning, because ads do not run without creative, tools and people. Paid-only CAC is useful for comparing channels.

Count only patients who paid after a clinician approved them. Intake completes are not patients yet: some will be declined and some will not pay.

Worked example

In one month a brand spent 50,000 USD on ads and 12,000 USD on creative, agency and tools, and gained 410 new paying patients.

Worked example
StepCalculationResult
Blended CAC(50,000 USD + 12,000 USD) / 410151.22 USD
Paid-only CAC50,000 USD / 410121.95 USD
Creative and other share12,000 / 62,000 x 10019.4%

These numbers illustrate the formula; enter your own.

Telehealth notes

  • Use the same period for spend and patients, and allow for the lag between a click and a first fill.
  • CAC on its own does not tell you whether it is too high. Compare it with lifetime gross profit per patient, and look at how many months it takes to pay back.
  • A rising CAC on steady spend is often a creative problem: the best ads have tired and nothing new has replaced them.
  • Creative is usually a small share of CAC compared with ad spend, but it decides how efficient the ad spend is.

Questions

How do you calculate customer acquisition cost?

Add up everything you spent to win new customers in a period, then divide by the number of new paying customers in that period.

Should CAC include creative and agency costs?

For planning, yes. The blended number shows the real cost of a patient. Paid-only CAC is useful for comparing channels with each other.

Why not count intake completes as new patients?

Because not every completed intake becomes a paying patient. Some are declined by the clinician and some never pay.

Are my numbers stored?

No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is sent to us.