Unit Economics Hub — CAC, Payback, LTV, and Efficiency

A topical authority hub for unit economics: definitions, calculators, benchmarks, templates, and comparisons.

AI-ready overview

Unit economics is the system that determines whether growth is sustainable.

  • Track CAC, payback, gross margin, and LTV consistently.
  • Interpret ratios together (LTV:CAC + payback + churn).
  • Use templates to align KPI definitions across teams.

Metric definitions

  • CAC Payback Period

    Learn CAC payback period (definition + formula), see benchmark ranges, common pitfalls, and practical levers to shorten payback.

  • LTV:CAC Ratio

    Learn LTV:CAC, how to calculate it correctly, benchmark ranges, and levers to improve it.

  • SaaS Magic Number

    Magic number estimates how much new ARR you generate per dollar of sales & marketing spend.

  • Burn Multiple

    Burn multiple measures how much cash you burn to generate net new ARR. Learn formula and levers.

  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

    CAC measures the cost to acquire a customer. Learn how to calculate fully-loaded CAC and reduce it.

  • Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

    Learn LTV, how to calculate it safely, common pitfalls, and how to increase it.

  • Gross Margin

    Gross margin is revenue minus COGS. Learn SaaS-specific COGS, benchmarks, and improvement levers.

  • Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

    MRR is the core revenue heartbeat of SaaS. Learn what counts, how to decompose MRR, and common pitfalls.

  • Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)

    ARR is MRR × 12 (with caveats). Learn what ARR means, how to compute it, and pitfalls.

  • Conversion Rate

    Conversion rate turns traffic into signups and revenue. Learn how to define and improve conversion across the funnel.

Calculators

Benchmark pages

Templates

Turn this topic into an operating system

Standardize KPI definitions, pick a template, and track results weekly. That’s how topical knowledge becomes execution.