Measuring CAC Payback by Lead Type/Channel: Put Your Attribution Data to Work

What if one of your marketing channels is secretly printing money while another is burning through cash, but your blended CAC payback metric is hiding what's happening behind both? In this episode, Rachael Bueckert and Eddie Reynolds tackle why measuring CAC payback at the aggregate level is like looking at your financials through foggy glasses.

Eddie breaks down why the twelve-month payback threshold matters, how to actually calculate CAC payback for different channels and segments, and why most companies are focusing on fixing what's broken instead of doubling down on what's already working exceptionally well. The conversation gets into the messy reality of attribution, the data you actually need (versus the perfect data you'll never have), and when to cut versus optimize underperforming channels.

From Facebook's like button to Salesforce's SDR handoff process, Eddie shares concrete examples of how seemingly small optimizations to high-performing areas can create massive returns—and why your go-to-market ops team should be proactively hunting for these opportunities rather than just firefighting whatever squeaky wheel gets the most attention.

Read the article on this topic here.

[00:00] Cold Open - Why We Focus On What's Broken Instead Of What's Working

[02:02] Episode Introduction

[02:11] Why CAC Payback By Channel Matters

[04:30] Breaking Down The CAC Payback Formula

[07:53] What To Do When CAC Payback Is Over A Year

[10:32] The Biggest Issue With Blended CAC Payback

[12:27] Breaking Down Lead Buckets To Calculate CAC Payback

[15:13] What Systems And Processes You Need In Place

[18:14] Choosing Which Buckets To Analyze

[22:19] How To Measure CAC For Different Segments

[25:25] The Dumpster Fire Vs. Slot Machine Dilemma

[31:22] Why Healthy Channels Get Ignored

[32:54] What To Do After Analyzing CAC Payback By Channel

[39:44] How To Know When It's Time To Cut Something

[43:00] When To Double Down Vs. Risk Diminishing Returns

[49:23] Using Historical Data To Predict Future Performance

[55:26] The Role Of Go-To-Market Operations

[59:34] The Moneyball Approach To Revenue Operations

[1:02:09] First Steps: Form A Hypothesis And Test It

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