CAC payback

How many months of gross profit it takes to recover the cost of winning a customer.

A ₹250 acquisition cost against ₹600 of annual revenue at a 35% margin takes 14.3 months.

Under twelve months is considered healthy for a subscription business, because it means the company can fund its own growth from the returning cash rather than from external capital.

The measure is more useful than lifetime value ratios because it depends only on the near term. It does not need a retention assumption stretching five years into the future.

A lengthening payback while growth slows is the signature of a business buying its last customers too expensively.