CAC benchmarks by channel, H1 2026
Anonymized, composite CAC benchmarks across 60 brands by acquisition channel, industry, and region — with the three findings every growth leader should be ready to defend in Q3.
Composite, anonymized benchmarks across 60 brands · H1 2026 (Jan–Jun) · read by channel, industry & region.
What the 60-brand panel tells us about CAC in H1 2026.
Owned channels still win by 3–8x
Blended organic (SEO + content) and lifecycle email remain the lowest-CAC acquisition paths in the panel — roughly 3–8x cheaper than paid social and 10–30x cheaper than LinkedIn in B2B segments. The brands with the healthiest unit economics treat paid as a scaler on top of an owned base, not the foundation.
B2B CAC is structurally higher — and LinkedIn is the outlier
Within SaaS and B2B services, LinkedIn CAC runs 4–9x the equivalent Paid Search CAC for the same segment. Blended B2B CAC is ~2.4x blended DTC CAC. Teams that survive the math lean on founder-led + community + webinars to pull the blended number down before they scale paid.
Region shifts the curve more than channel choice
Paid-social CAC in MENA runs 15–30% below North American equivalents; Western EU sits ~5% below NA; APAC is most efficient on influencer/UGC. The cheapest channel in one region is frequently mid-pack in another — so benchmarks must be read by region, not by channel alone.
Blended new-customer CAC by channel (interquartile range, USD).
| Channel | CAC low | CAC high | LTV:CAC |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO / Content (organic) | $8 | $45 | 5.2–9.1x |
| Email / Lifecycle | $3 | $18 | 8.0–14x |
| Referral / Word-of-mouth | $10 | $40 | 6.0–11x |
| Influencer / UGC | $15 | $70 | 2.8–5.5x |
| TikTok | $12 | $48 | 2.5–4.8x |
| Affiliate | $20 | $60 | 3.0–5.0x |
| Meta Paid Social | $18 | $95 | 1.8–3.6x |
| Paid Search | $40 | $220 | 1.6–3.2x |
| Programmatic / Display | $25 | $85 | 1.4–2.6x |
| LinkedIn (B2B) | $90 | $410 | 1.1–2.2x |
Full by-industry and by-region tables, plus methodology and LTV:CAC detail, are in the gated PDF below.
Get the full 60-brand CAC benchmark report (PDF)
10 channels · 6 industry segments · 4 regions · LTV:CAC multiples · reconciliation methodology. We'll send it to your inbox and the H2 2026 wave when it closes.
- 01Composite of anonymized, blended new-customer CAC across 60 brands in the BAZventures client + network panel, H1 2026.
- 02Ranges report the interquartile band (25th–75th percentile) unless stated otherwise. Medians and outliers are excluded by design to avoid skewing on a few heavily-funded outliers.
- 03CAC = fully-loaded new-customer acquisition cost: media + creative + tooling + attributed labor, net of returns, divided by net-new customers in the window.
- 04Attribution is server-side reconciled against a single source of truth (warehouse) weekly; platform-reported CAC was adjusted down 5–20% where it exceeded reconciled figures.
- 05No individual brand is named and no single client's data is exposed. Segment labels (e.g. “SaaS brands $2M–$10M ARR”) are the only granularity published.
Suggested pitch angles
This study is built to be cited. Pull quotes for Digiday, MarketingProfs, and trade press:
“Across 60 brands in H1 2026, owned channels (SEO + lifecycle email) acquired customers 3–8x cheaper than paid social — and LinkedIn CAC ran 4–9x Paid Search in B2B segments.”
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