El CAC Payback Period mide cuántos meses tarda en recuperar el coste de adquirir un cliente con su contribution profit (MRR × Gross Margin). Métrica foundational unit economics B2B SaaS · <12m best-in-class · >24m alarma.
Fórmula CAC Payback
CAC Payback = CAC / (MRR per customer × Gross Margin)
Ejemplo: CAC 12.000€ / (MRR 1.500€ × 80% gross margin) = 12K / 1.200€ = 10 meses payback.
Benchmarks B2B SaaS mid-market
- Best-in-class · <12 meses CAC payback.
- Good mid-market · 12-18 meses.
- Acceptable · 18-24 meses.
- Alarm bell · >24 meses · cash burn risk.
- Enterprise B2B · 18-36 meses acceptable por LTV high.
Drivers CAC Payback
- Reducir CAC · canal optimization + lead scoring tightening + sales productivity.
- Aumentar ACV · pricing optimization + upsell + value-based pricing.
- Mejorar gross margin · hosting + support efficiency.
- Annual prepay · upfront cash collection vs monthly billing.
Impact valuation + Rule of 40
- Rule of 40 · Growth Rate + Profit Margin > 40 healthy SaaS.
- CAC payback <12m + NRR >110% · SaaS valuation 10-20x ARR.
- CAC payback 18-24m · valuation 6-10x ARR.
- CAC payback >24m · valuation 3-5x ARR · Rule of 40 fallido.
Errores frecuentes
- Payback sin gross margin. Revenue ≠ contribution profit.
- Annual contract MRR mal normalizado. Contract 12K€/año = 1K€/mes MRR para payback calc.
- Sin segmentar por canal. Aggregate payback oculta canales burning cash.
- Sin tracking quarterly. Payback drifta con sales motion changes.
- Confundir con LTV/CAC. LTV/CAC = ratio long-term. Payback = velocity short-term.
Términos relacionados
- CAC — numerador payback.
- LTV — métrica complementaria.
- MRR/ARR — denominador payback.
- Churn Rate — impacta payback estructural.
- NRR — NRR >110% reduce payback efectivo.