How long until this customer pays back?

Enter CAC (or spend and customers), then contribution margin or monthly contribution. Get months to payback and a directional health band.

How do you want to enter CAC?
Cost to acquire one customer
Contribution input
Margin after variable product cost. First-order contribution = AOV × margin.
Use 1 if you model first-order only as a one-month recovery proxy; use a fraction for slower repurchase

What this helps you decide

Payback shows how long contribution from a customer takes to recover acquisition cost. Use it to judge cash risk before you scale spend.

  • Months to recover CAC
  • Healthy / stretched / risky bands (directional)
  • CAC from spend + customers if needed
  • Shareable link for team review

Payback feel longer than your cash likes?

fisagency helps values-led brands tighten CAC and contribution so growth does not outrun runway.

Talk with fisagency →
Decisions

Payback questions founders ask

Use these before you treat months-to-payback as a hard target.

What counts as contribution toward payback?

Use contribution after variable cost of goods, not full revenue. Gross margin times AOV is a common proxy when you do not track monthly contribution per customer.

What is a healthy payback window?

Many DTC teams treat under about 6 months as healthier, 6 to 12 as stretched, and beyond 12 as riskier for cash. These bands are directional, not a guarantee.

Should I use CAC or spend plus customers?

Either works. If you already know CAC, enter it directly. If not, spend divided by new customers gives the same input.

Does payback include retention?

This tool uses a simple monthly contribution assumption. If contribution rises with repeat purchase, actual payback can be faster than the estimate.

Payback looks fine. What next?

Confirm LTV and blended CAC. Short payback with weak retention still limits how hard you can scale.