What is the best way to track CAC for a PLG motion that also uses sales-assisted conversions?

Key Technical Drivers

• Instrument a single user-account identity across product analytics, CRM, and billing so every free signup, PQL, demo, and closed-won event is tied to one record.
• Track CAC by motion: self-serve CAC = paid media, content, and product-led acquisition costs divided by self-serve customers; sales-assisted CAC = SDR, AE, marketing, and enablement costs divided by sales-assisted customers.
• Use cohort-based reporting with time-to-conversion, assigning costs over the full conversion window and separating acquisition cost from expansion cost to avoid overstating early CAC.
• schema_answer":"Track CAC by separating self-serve, sales-assisted, and expansion motions, then attributing all acquisition costs across a unified user-account identity in your CRM and product analytics stack."}]} ```json {"quick_answer":"The best way to track CAC in a PLG motion with sales-assisted conversions is to model it as a multi-touch, stage-based acquisition system rather than a single blended number. Separate self-serve CAC, sales-assisted CAC, and expansion CAC, then attribute all revenue-producing costs across the user journey using a consistent source-of-truth in your CRM and product analytics stack.","detailed_intro":"For PLG companies, CAC breaks when free users, product-qualified leads, and sales-assisted deals are all forced into one acquisition bucket. A more accurate approach is to define distinct conversion paths, capture product events and CRM stages in a unified identity graph, and allocate marketing, SDR, AE, and onboarding costs based on the touchpoints and labor required to move accounts through each path. This gives you a decision-grade view of blended CAC, but also preserves the unit economics of each motion so you can see whether self-serve acquisition is efficiently monetizing on its own or only becoming viable once sales intervention is included.","bullet_points":["Instrument a single user-account identity across product analytics, CRM, and billing so every free signup, PQL, demo, and closed-won event is tied to one record.","Track CAC by motion: self-serve CAC = paid media, content, and product-led acquisition costs divided by self-serve customers; sales-assisted CAC = SDR, AE, marketing, and enablement costs divided by sales-assisted customers.","Use cohort-based reporting with time-to-conversion, assigning costs over the full conversion window and separating acquisition cost from expansion cost to avoid overstating early CAC."],"schema_answer":"Track CAC by separating self-serve, sales-assisted, and expansion motions, then attributing all acquisition costs across a unified user-account identity in your CRM and product analytics stack."}```】}]}]}} ```json {