CAC Payback Period Calculator
Calculate how long it takes to recover your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) based on the monthly recurring revenue and gross margin. This critical SaaS metric helps you assess the efficiency of your sales and marketing spend.
Calculate Your CAC Payback Period
The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including sales and marketing expenses
The average monthly revenue generated by a customer
The percentage of revenue that remains after direct costs (typically 70-80% for SaaS)
Pro Tips for Optimizing Your CAC Payback Period
- Segment your CAC Payback Period analysis by acquisition channel, customer size, and industry to identify your most efficient growth paths.
- Track changes in CAC Payback Period over time to assess the impact of pricing changes and marketing strategies.
- Consider expansion revenue in your payback calculations if you have strong upsell patterns, but be transparent about this adjustment.
- Compare your CAC Payback Period with your average customer lifetime to ensure adequate return on acquisition investment.
- Use cohort analysis to see how payback periods vary across different customer vintages.
- Balance CAC Payback Period with other metrics like LTV:CAC ratio for a complete picture of your unit economics.
- Analyze seasonality impacts on your CAC Payback Period, as acquisition costs and conversion rates may vary throughout the year.