The Math · How it works
The channel that quietly loses money
One acquisition channel can cost more to win a customer than that customer ever pays back — and blended CAC hides it in the average. The calculator runs CAC, payback, LTV and LTV:CAC on every channel and totals the spend sitting in Cut channels you can reallocate.
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<iframe src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/kit/cac-payback-calculator.html" title="The channel that quietly loses money — the math — RedHub AI" width="760" height="1338" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px"></iframe>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/kit/cac-payback-calculator">The channel that quietly loses money — the math</a> — by <a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a>, the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>Image + link — a static picture for any blog
<a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/kit/cac-payback-calculator"><img src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/kit/cac-payback-calculator-share.png" alt="Worked example: an influencer channel at $625 CAC takes 15.6 months to pay back and returns $0.77 per $1 — verdict Cut." width="760" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:16px"></a>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a> — the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>This is the math behind CAC & Payback Calculator. More diagrams in the Visual Field Guide.