How to Measure Your ROAS & CAC

Courtney Randall is a dynamic business coach, seasoned sales strategist, and catalyst for growth. As CEO of OmniChrono and co‑founder of the Local Business Academy, she leverages over a decade of hands‑on experience to empower entrepreneurs and small business owners with practical systems, clarity, and accountability

You’re pouring $10,000+ a month into marketing, but you’re still not sure what’s actually working. Sound familiar?

Your agency occasionally sends an update, something vague like “You’re doing well on Google” but you’re not getting clear, actionable reports. Or worse, they hand you a 20-page PDF filled with marketing jargon you don’t have time to decode.

You’ve got a CRM, but it’s not set up to support your growth. No lead tags. No dropdowns on your forms to guide the customer journey. No automations to follow up or move leads through your pipeline. Meanwhile, you or someone on your team is juggling social media, and your agency is running ads on YouTube and Google—yet you still don’t know what’s converting.

When someone asks, “Where do your customers come from?” you say, “Mostly referrals.” And you might be right. But without tracking, there’s no way to confirm—or capitalize on—what’s actually driving growth.

So now you’re left wondering…
Is that $10K+ a month building your future?
Or is it just disappearing into the void?

If this hits close to home, you’re not alone. And the good news? A few small changes could help you close more sales, reclaim your time, and make every dollar work harder.

Let me show you how.

The $17 vs. $1.96 Wake-Up Call: What Cheap Clicks Don’t Tell You

I once ran a simple A/B test on Facebook. Same ad. Same image. Same copy. Same targeting.
The only difference? One version used Facebook’s built-in lead form. The other sent people to a form on our website.

The results were eye-opening.

The Facebook form generated leads at $17 each. The website version brought in clicks for just $1.96—but hardly anyone filled out the form.

At first glance, $1.96 looked like a win. But when we looked closer, those cheap clicks weren’t converting. The Facebook form leads, though more expensive, actually became customers.

That’s when it hit me: surface-level numbers are deceiving.
A low click cost doesn’t mean it’s a good lead and it definitely doesn’t mean you’re getting a return.

What really matters is intent.

Your website is often the first place a serious prospect goes to learn more. If they took the time to visit it, they’re already more engaged. A strong website isn’t just a digital brochure—it’s your best tool for building trust and turning curiosity into commitment.

To make real marketing decisions, you have to look past the front-end numbers and track what happens after the click.

Did they convert?
Did your team follow up?
Did the sale close—or disappear?

This is where ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) come in—two metrics that can make or break your business.

Most founders are so buried in the day-to-day that they never carve out time to track these numbers. But just 30 minutes a week can reveal what’s working, what’s wasting money, and where to focus next.

And trust me, once you see it clearly, you’ll never want to go back.

So What Is ROAS and What Does It Really Tell You?

Let’s break it down with a real-world analogy:

Imagine you run a small coffee truck. You spend $1,000 on Instagram ads promoting your new cold brew launch. At the end of the week, you’ve brought in $4,000 in sales.

On paper, that’s a ROAS of 4.0—you made $4 for every $1 spent.

Sounds like a win, right?

But not so fast…

That $4,000 is gross revenue. Before you pop the champagne, here’s what still has to come out:

The cost of beans, milk, cups, lids, and ice
Payroll for your barista
Gas to run the truck
Your Square processing fees
Maybe even the food permit for that weekend event

By the time you subtract all that, your profit might only be $400. Meaning you actually made $0.40 for every $1 spent on ads.

That’s the problem with looking at ROAS in isolation.

It tells you how much came in—not how much you get to keep.

If your expenses are high or your margins are tight, even a strong-looking ROAS can hide the fact that your marketing isn’t sustainable. That’s why you have to pair it with Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to really understand if you’re building a profitable growth machine—or just running in circles.

What Is CAC and Why It Complements ROAS

CAC = Total Marketing & Sales Costs ÷ Number of New Customers (Notice this is # of customers not $)

CAC is the total cost you spend on marketing and sales (including ad spend, software, labor, etc.) divided by the number of paying customers acquired during that period.

This includes everything:

Ad spend
CRM tools
Labor costs
Follow-up emails
Sales meetings (yes, even your coffee or lunch bill)

For example: I’m a business coach. I meet a lot of clients in person. I pay for coffee, sometimes meals. That’s my CAC. Not everyone I meet with becomes a client. So, those meetings are part of what it costs to find the right people. CAC must include sunk costs from non-converting prospects—because effort spent on no-shows, free consults, or trial leads still drains resources and time.

If you charge $100 for a service and it costs you $75 to acquire the client, you’re only making $25—before you even fulfill the service. That’s not sustainable.

CAC makes that painfully clear.

Your Website, CRM, and Team Need to Work Together

Back to that Facebook A/B test.

It didn’t stop with identifying the cheaper ad. We realized we had a website problem—slow load times, no autofill, clunky forms.

So we:

Rebuilt the website with speed and mobile-friendliness in mind (with auto-fill)
Added clear buttons and streamlined the form experience
Connected our CRM properly to tag every incoming lead
Setup Automations, Dashboards for sales team, and reporting

Then, we got serious about our CRM notes. If one staff member was out, someone else could pick up the baton and finish the sale. Seamless for the customer. Efficient for us.

Before we optimized our website and CRM, we were spending $2,000 a month on Meta to generate around 90 leads. With a 23% conversion rate, that gave us only 21 new paying customers, putting our Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) at $96.62. After rebuilding the site and syncing the CRM, we increased lead volume to 150 and boosted conversion to 40%—bringing in 60 customers at a CAC of just $33.33. That’s a 65% improvement in margin opportunity.. Which gave us more budget to advertise!

✅ Higher is better: A ratio of 19.5 means we generated $19.50 in lifetime value for every $1 spent to acquire a customer—nearly 3x more efficient than before.

Here’s where it gets real: our average customer stays for 13 months at $50/month, giving us a Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) of $650. Before, we were spending 14.86% of that lifetime value just to acquire a customer. Now? We’re spending just 5.13%. That’s not just more efficient marketing—it’s how margins grow, systems scale, and profit becomes predictable.

Now imagine—during a slow season, the marketing team runs a $1 enrollment special for an entire month. At the time, your CAC was nearly $100. That means every new customer cost you $100 to acquire, but they only paid $1 to get started. The promo looked good on paper—lots of leads!—but it actually drained your profit for the next two months. Because the $1 special didn’t cover your $100 CAC, each new client was a $99 loss—and it took months just to break even. Even worse, not every customer stuck around long enough to recover that cost.(LTV)

Why? Because no one did the math. No one compared CAC to what it actually cost to serve each customer—staff time, onboarding, materials, and support. No one asked, “Can we afford this loss while we wait for these customers to maybe spend more later?” Scary thought, right?

This is why it’s critical to align your marketing offers with something that covers your upfront costs. If your CAC is $33.33, your initial offer should aim to recoup at least that much—even before long-term value kicks in. Because businesses don’t go broke from lack of revenue—they go broke from cash flow gaps.

When your first transaction covers your CAC, every month after becomes pure profit. That’s how you scale sustainably—without cash burn, risky debt, or desperation discounts. Even a low-ticket upsell, bundle, or fast-start kit can turn things around.

That’s how ROAS and CAC go from abstract metrics to powerful financial levers—ones that help you protect cash flow and grow with confidence. #winning

But short-term metrics aren’t the full picture. To build long-term momentum, you also need to understand your LTV…

LTV, or Customer Lifetime Value, isn’t just for subscription-based businesses—it applies to any company that earns repeat business. Whether you run a boutique, a home service company, or a restaurant, LTV measures the total revenue a customer brings over the course of their relationship with your brand. Even if the first sale is small, understanding how often customers return—and what they spend when they do—helps you make smarter marketing decisions. When you know your LTV, you can confidently invest in acquiring new customers, knowing the real value shows up over time.

Don’t Just Market—Plan to Market

It’s easy to get caught up in the “let’s make up an offer right now” scramble.
But if you just take 30 minutes a week to:

Look at your local events calendar
See what other businesses are doing
Choose which offers or collabs make sense

…you’ll waste less and connect more.

Why burn through your own ad dollars when other businesses would love to co-host, co-promote, or share a spotlight?

Collaboration brings volume. Planning brings sanity.

What If You’re Just Not Tracking Anything Yet?

Start small:

UTM Links – Add little tags to your ad URLs so you know exactly where clicks come from (e.g. ?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ad&utm_campaign=summer).
CRM Tags – Use dropdowns on your forms (e.g. “How did you hear about us?”) or auto-tag based on source.
Automate Appointment Setting – If someone fills out a form, automatically send them a calendar link to book a call or bid.
This doesn’t cost much—it costs less time than you think.
Google Calendar

But time is the one thing most business owners feel they don’t have.
And that’s exactly why you need a system.

Study What’s Working, But Don’t Do It Alone

Sales makes money.
Marketing spends money.
Operations saves money.

The only way they all win?
KPIs.

Key Performance Indicators are the common language that keeps every department aligned.
They turn conflict into collaboration by showing:

Sales how to hit targets
Marketing where to double down
Ops where to optimize without killing momentum

When everyone’s chasing the same scorecard, you stop the blame game—and start building a business that actually scales.

If you want to move faster, don’t reinvent the wheel. Look at what’s already working—for your business, and for others like you.

What offers are they running? What events are they sponsoring? Where are they showing up—and how are they turning attention into actual growth?

And while you’re watching what’s working on the outside, we can help you make sense of what’s happening on the inside.

Inside Local Business Academy, Dr. Brad and I built:

A marketing calculator to measure your return on investment
A Google Sheet budget tracker to help you see what you can actually afford to spend
Walkthroughs in our blogs that link to all of these tools

They’re free. We made them because we want more people to win without burning out.

These aren’t just templates—they’re tools we actually use to help clients track results, protect cash flow, and plan better campaigns.

Because strong businesses build strong communities.
And leaders who learn to measure what matters don’t just scale—they last.

And great leaders set goals, offer real opportunities, and help employees grow too.

That helps all of us.

Your Weekly 30-Minute Tracking Routine

If I could teach every business owner just one habit, it would be this:

🧠 Set aside 30 minutes every week to track and review.

Here’s what that can look like:

Check Lead Sources

Open your CRM and look at where new leads came from last week. Use tags or UTM data to separate Facebook, Instagram, email, website, etc.

Calculate CAC for the Week

Add up your total marketing/sales spend and divide by how many new paying customers you got. Is that number getting better or worse?

Review ROAS

If you’re running ads, pull up your ad dashboard. Look at ROAS by campaign. Pause anything under 1.5 unless you’re retargeting or nurturing long-term buyers.

Talk With Your Team

Ask your sales manager or front desk staff: (Use an End of Day Report for Accountability)

“Where are people saying they found us?”
“Are people clicking the link but not booking?”
“Do we have anyone ghosting after the form fill?”

Document & Adjust

Take notes in a simple spreadsheet or inside the marketing calculator we provide. Set one goal for next week based on what you find.

📍This 30-minute check-in will do more for your marketing budget than any $1,000 training ever could.

It keeps you sharp. It gives you clarity. And it helps you grow on purpose, not by accident.

✅ What to Track Weekly by Source & Overall

Spend
Leads
Sales
ROAS
CAC
CTR Click through rate / Frequency <4 (Number of times someone sees your ad)
Form conversion rate
Top-performing creative

Understanding Your Numbers Unlocks Growth

Growth starts with knowing your numbers. Too many founders run six- and seven-figure businesses without knowing what it costs to get a customer, if their ads are working, or whether their team is even using the CRM. When I step in, we clean things up fast—automations get built, systems get simplified, and teams finally use the tools they already have. Often, the software isn’t broken—the tracking is. Even old tools become valuable when you know how to read the data. And those big, flashy moves like sponsorships or billboards? Useless if you can’t measure them. Add QR codes, track with campaign-specific discounts, ask every lead how they found you, and use social tags to expand reach. If you’re not tracking it, you’re just guessing.

Don’t Overlook Team Buy-In

You’re not just running a company—you’re modeling how people should be treated. Greedy leadership is outdated. Today’s workforce is smart, driven, and independent. If working for you doesn’t feel rewarding, they’ll eventually build something of their own.

Want to keep great people? Tie rewards to results. “Every time I was offered an incentive as an employee, I put my best foot forward.”
Offer a trip for hitting a sales goal.
Create referral bonuses.
Let top performers earn first pick on schedules.
Invest in their education.

Small incentives go a long way when they’re tied to clear outcomes. Yes, many of us have been too generous at one point or another—but the key is letting the math determine the reward. When performance drives perks, everyone wins. Your people grow, your business improves, and your culture becomes something worth staying for.

ROAS, CAC, and the Freedom You’re Actually After

One of the biggest benefits of tracking ROAS and CAC isn’t just financial—it’s emotional. When you know exactly where your leads are coming from, how much it costs to acquire a customer, and which campaigns are pulling their weight, you stop second-guessing every move. That mental clarity alone can change the way you lead.

Without it, you’re stuck in the fog—wondering if it was the email or the Instagram post that brought in that sale, hoping your $1,200 ad spend is working, unsure why last month’s numbers dipped. You start to avoid your data altogether. You make decisions based on gut feelings. You go into meetings hoping something lands, but deep down, you’re just guessing.

And that guessing game is exhausting.

If you’re waking up at 2AM stressing about payroll or replying to leads manually at 9PM because there’s no system in place, your business isn’t serving you—you’re serving it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When you’ve got a system that tracks your ROAS and CAC weekly, the pressure starts to lift. Your calendar clears up. Your marketing becomes intentional. Your team checks the metrics and reports back. You stop throwing money at platforms that don’t perform—and you start building predictable, repeatable results.

Freedom isn’t just about making more money.
It’s about knowing how your money flows.

That’s what lets you take a Monday off without guilt.
That’s what turns your business from a rollercoaster into a machine.

The goal isn’t just revenue—it’s margin.
Time margin. Mental margin. Financial margin.

And it all starts with knowing your numbers.

The ROI of Leadership and When You Stop Guessing, Others Start Stepping Up

Here’s something that isn’t talked about enough: when you, as the leader, start tracking your numbers and making data-backed decisions, it sets a powerful example for your team. They will listen when it’s numbers doing the talking.

Leadership isn’t just about vision—it’s about consistency.

When your team sees that:

You’re reviewing the weekly KIPs like CAC and ROAS numbers,
You’re using those insights to change the strategy,
You’re openly sharing what’s working and what’s not…

They begin to mirror that behavior.
They start asking smarter questions.
They care more about results because they see you do too.

Soon, your marketing assistant is suggesting better content ideas. Your front desk person is tracking referral sources. Your salesperson is checking UTM tags before they make calls.

And all of that starts with you taking 30 minutes a week to lead with clarity.

The reward? You’re not the only one holding the weight anymore.
You’re building a team that’s just as committed to growth as you are.

It also means when you take time off—your business doesn’t fall apart. Because your systems are working. Your team is empowered. And your numbers tell the truth, even when you’re not there to oversee everything.

That’s the real return on all of this.

Not just a better ad strategy—but a better business.

A sustainable business.

A business you can be proud of because it’s built on insight, collaboration, and leadership—not chaos, guesswork, or burnout.

And if that’s the kind of business you’re ready to build?

We’re here to help.