Performance

CAC payback calculator

The fastest way to sanity-check a paid acquisition program. CAC payback under 6 months for DTC, under 12 months for B2B SaaS. Above those thresholds the program is structurally broken — and creative variations won't fix it.

Customer Acquisition Cost$450

Blended CAC across paid + organic

Average revenue per account (monthly)$180

ARPA / MRR per customer

Gross margin75%

After COGS, before opex

Average retention18 months

Median customer lifetime

Result

3.3months to payback

Healthy (DTC + B2B SaaS green zone)

Payback time

3.3 months

0 → 24 months

LTV : CAC ratio

5.4x

0 → 6x

Customer LTV

$2430

0 → $5,000

How to read this

CAC payback < 6 months — aggressive scaling territory for SaaS, healthy DTC range.
6-12 months — acceptable for B2B SaaS but tighten the ICP fast.
> 12 months— structural problem (wrong ICP, broken attribution, weak retention). New creative won't fix it.
LTV:CAC > 3x — room to scale. Below 3x, retention is the constraint, not acquisition.

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