Table 120 Aug 2026From “CAC payback is a cash calendar”

The CAC payback calculation

The arithmetic is simple. The cost boundary decides whether the answer is useful.

Table 1The CAC payback calculation

Input	Illustrative value	Boundary to state
Fully loaded acquisition cost	12,000	Sales, marketing, commission and partner cost
Monthly recurring revenue	2,000	Starting contract only or expected expansion included
Contribution margin	75%	Revenue less the costs that scale with the customer
Monthly contribution	1,500	2,000 multiplied by 75%
Simple payback	8 months	12,000 divided by 1,500
First-year risk	Unknown	Churn, contraction, onboarding and collection timing

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Source: Author's framework. The example values are illustrative and are not benchmarks.

PNG4:3, 1600 × 1200, with the title, the source line and the attribution set in the image isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01.png

From the essay

Revenue operations & AI

CAC payback is a cash calendar

CAC payback period is the time needed to recover acquisition cost from contribution margin. Make the margin, cohort and cash boundary explicit.

20 Aug 2026

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APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). The CAC payback calculation [Table]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01/

BibTeX

@misc{isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{The CAC payback calculation}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Table 1, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01/},
  note = {From the essay {CAC payback is a cash calendar}}
}

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<figure>
  <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01/">
    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01.png" alt="Table 1: The CAC payback calculation" width="3200" height="2400">
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  <figcaption>Table 1: The CAC payback calculation. Source: Author&#39;s framework. The example values are illustrative and are not benchmarks. <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-cac-payback-is-a-cash-calendar-fig01/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
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