How much can I spend to acquire a customer?
The ceiling on acquisition cost comes from what a customer contributes after margin, refunds and churn, within the time you are willing to wait to get the money back.
- Contribution per month
- $71
- Max CAC within 6 months
- $383
- Lifetime contribution (assumption)
- $1,763
How to use the number
Use the payback figure as your spending limit per new customer, and treat lifetime contribution as an assumption until you have renewals to check it against. Churn and margin here are your inputs, not measured facts.
Turn it into a test
Set a budget, a cost per paid customer that stops the test, and a review date. Count only customers who paid and were not refunded.
Use this with your own numbers. Keep the evidence private, attach a budget and a review date.
Set a bounded acquisition test