Table 22 Sept 2026From “What is CAC payback period?”

Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity?

Table 2Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity?

Shortcut	Why it fails	Corrective protocol
Blended revenue payback	Direct delivery and support costs are ignored, understating payback time	Calculate payback exclusively against net variable contribution margin
Zero-churn assumption	Defected accounts leave unamortized CAC balances that slow cohort recovery	Factor actual monthly cohort survival probabilities into the recovery schedule
Upfront billing treated as zero payback	Annual prepayment covers year 1 cash but does not mean CAC was zero	Distinguish working capital cash collections from economic break-even
Excluding sales management overhead	Front-line salaries are counted while sales engineering and enablement are dropped	Use fully loaded acquisition costs in the initial investment balance
Masking contraction with price hikes	Topline retention looks stable while active account usage deteriorates	Track gross margin contribution at constant price boundaries
Blending acquisition channels	Organic referrals with 3-month payback hide paid search campaigns with 24-month deficits	Segment payback calendars strictly by acquisition channel and customer tier

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Source: Table from this essay. Sources and interpretation are given in the article.

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From the essay

Growth that compounds

What is CAC payback period?

CAC payback measures when cumulative gross margin recovers acquisition costs. State the margin boundary, churn and cash calendar.

2 Sept 2026

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APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity? [Table]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-cac-payback-fig03/

BibTeX

@misc{isoglu-2026-what-is-cac-payback-fig03,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity?}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Table 2, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-cac-payback-fig03/},
  note = {From the essay {What is CAC payback period?}}
}

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    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-what-is-cac-payback-fig03.png" alt="Table 2: Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity?" width="3200" height="2400">
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  <figcaption>Table 2: Which common shortcuts lead to dangerous miscalculations of payback velocity?. Source: Table from this essay. Sources and interpretation are given in the article. <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-cac-payback-fig03/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
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