Our team performed an analysis of the primary customer acquisition cost trends for this year. We examined trends for customer acquisition costs based on which channels are producing the best average ROI, which ad platforms are increasing their costs, and where companies are allocating their advertising budget.
These are the trends we report on:
- Average paid & organic CAC by industry
- Average ROI by advertising channel
- Ad platform average CAC
- Advertising budget allocation trends
Organic channels include SEO, email marketing, referrals, and other channels where advertising dollars are spent on the system, not ad impressions or clicks. On the other hand, paid channels include any channels where advertising dollars are spent on the system (Google Ads, Meta Ads, etc.).
Average Paid & Organic CAC by Industry Trends
This table lists the average paid & organic CAC by industry followed by the change from 2023.
Industry Organic CAC Change from 2023 Paid CAC Change from 2023
Accounting $579.33 +4% 🔺 $1,738.00 +8% 🔺
Healthcare $365.62 +3% 🔺 $593.19 +5% 🔺
Retail $41.36 +2% 🔺 $226.38 +7% 🔺
Automotive $457.23 +5% 🔺 $903.86 +1% 🔺
Hotels $70.60 +2% 🔺 $158.42 +6% 🔺
Fintech $618.16 +6% 🔺 $955.34 +12% 🔺
Insurance $121.98 +3% 🔺 $182.97 +4% 🔺
Financial Services $1,068.10 +4% 🔺 $1,751.50 +9% 🔺
Real Estate $1,832.54 +7% 🔺 $2,830.62 +15% 🔺
Legal $740.06 +4% 🔺 $1,073.83 +6% 🔺
Gyms $318.18 +3% 🔺 $556.81 +8% 🔺
Banking $648.62 +5% 🔺 $1,205.35 +10% 🔺
Software $1,522.39 +6% 🔺 $2,174.86 +12% 🔺
Lawn Care $107.15 +2% 🔺 $151.70 +3% 🔺
Restaurants $54.81 +2% 🔺 $106.71 +4% 🔺
Wealth Management $11,833.82 +8% 🔺 $17,767.67 +12% 🔺
Change From 2023 Explanation: Uncertainty in the US economy heading into the 2024 election has spared no industry from rising customer acquisition costs, as consumers and companies alike take on a more reserved outlook in their cash outlays. This has affected some industries more than others, as this disproportionately affects industries with more expensive products or services.
Average ROI by Advertising Channel Trends
The following table breaks down the average ROI by advertising channel, with the change from 2023.
Advertising Channel Average Time to Break Even Average ROI (3 Year Average) Change from 2023
Email 7 months 261% 3% 🔼
LinkedIn 5 months 229% 5% 🔼
Organic Social Media 8 months 206% 2% 🔼
Meta Ads 3 months 87% -4% 🔻
Google Ads 4 months 36% -3% 🔻
SEO 6 - 8 months 748% 6% 🔼
ROI is calculated by taking the net profit from the campaign and dividing it by total marketing costs.
Change from 2023 Explanation: While paid advertising costs have decreased slightly, our studies show that ROI is still peaking for organic channels. Consumers from organic channels are more apt to purchase and often have a higher LTV than their paid advertising equivalents.
Average CAC by Advertising Channel Trends
In this section, we’ve taken the average CAC by ad platform and compared it to 2023.
Advertising Channel Average CAC Change from 2023
Email $1,028.72 2% 🔺
LinkedIn $1,488.54 4% 🔺
Organic Social Media $1,642.68 1% 🔺
Meta Ads $2,117.37 -3% 🔽
Google Ads $1,952.73 -2% 🔽
SEO $1,185.15 3% 🔺
Change From 2023 Explanation: As customer acquisition costs rise across the board, companies are shifting their focus to organic advertising channels, which are beginning to become more competitive. Because of this shift in the economics of advertising, bidding prices have decreased for both Meta Ads and Google Ads, contributing to a slightly lower CAC. For SEO, the 3% rise may be a bit misleading in that it does not mean that it costs 3% to acquire a lead from SEO for all companies, it means that companies using low-quality SEO providers have lost rankings and traffic, while those using premium providers are acquiring more leads than ever.
Advertising Budget Allocation Trends
The following tables give the average advertising budget allocation trends from our study of small, mid-market, and enterprise-level companies (digital channels only).
Advertising Channel Small Companies (Up to $10 Million Annual Revenue) Mid-Market Companies (Between $10 Million and $1 Billion Annually) Enterprise Companies (Over $1 Billion Annually)
SEO 25% 20% 15%
Paid Search 20% 30% 35%
Social Media Ads 30% 25% 20%
Organic Social Media 10% 10% 10%
Email Marketing 10% 5% 5%
Content Marketing 5% 10% 15%
Small Companies Distribution:
Mid-Market Companies Distribution:
Enterprise Companies Distribution:
Further Reading & Next Steps
If you are interested in further data on this topic, we recommend the following further reading that we sourced the data in this compilation from:
- Customer Acquisition Cost Metrics (Focus Digital)
- Customer Acquisition Cost by Industry (First Page Sage)
- Average Sales Call Conversion Rate by Industry (Focus Digital)
- Digital Marketing ROI Statistics (First Page Sage)
If you have any questions or would like a copy of this report, contact us here.