[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"skill:01M792X97Z66STWMPD9BR41FD2":3,"skill-same:01M792X97Z66STWMPD9BR41FD2":61},{"skillNo":4,"name":5,"nameZh":6,"description":7,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":16,"categories":17,"keywords":18,"publishedAt":19,"linkOnly":20,"markdownContent":21,"markdownBody":22,"frontMatter":23,"refName":26,"commitSha":27,"skillDirectory":28,"forksCount":14,"repositoryHtmlUrl":29,"repositoryHomepageUrl":30,"ownerHtmlUrl":31,"ownerBlogUrl":32,"ownerDescription":33,"updatedAt":34,"install":35,"resources":48},"01M792X97Z66STWMPD9BR41FD2","unit-economics",null,"Model CAC, LTV, payback and channel break-even so spend decisions have a floor. Use when calculating CAC, LTV, payback periods, or contribution margin.","poorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing","poorvith-mp","https:\u002F\u002Favatars.githubusercontent.com\u002Fu\u002F277478855?v=4","01M78Z5K0YH1Z3PX815PGQ96ND","Poorvith M P","01M792P4C4Z12T0V4B97Z9MNX3",0,"MIT","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Funit-economics\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],"2026-11-15 14:19:17",false,"---\nname: unit-economics\nlast_reviewed: 2026-09-06\ngroup: Offer and money\ndescription: >-\n  Model CAC, LTV, payback and channel break-even so spend decisions have a floor. Use when\n  calculating CAC, LTV, payback periods, or contribution margin.\n---\n\n# Unit Economics\n\nGrowth without positive unit economics is accelerated insolvency. Marketing and growth investments must be governed by fully-loaded Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), gross-margin-adjusted Lifetime Value (LTV), cash payback velocity, and channel-level contribution margins.\n\n## 1. Core Mathematical Formulations\n\n### A. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)\nDistinguish between blended and paid acquisition costs:\n- **Paid CAC**:\n  $$\\text{Paid CAC} = \\frac{\\text{Direct Paid Ad Spend}}{\\text{Customers Acquired via Paid Channels}}$$\n- **Fully-Loaded CAC** (the true economic floor):\n  $$\\text{Fully-Loaded CAC} = \\frac{\\text{Ad Spend} + \\text{Agency\u002FCreative Fees} + \\text{Salaries (Sales + Mktg)} + \\text{Software Stack}}{\\text{Total New Customers Acquired}}$$\n  *Rule*: Always use Fully-Loaded CAC when setting budget ceilings.\n\n### B. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)\nNever calculate LTV using top-line revenue alone; LTV must be adjusted for cost of goods sold (COGS):\n$$\\text{LTV} = \\frac{\\text{ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}{\\text{Customer Churn Rate (Monthly)}}$$\n- **ARPU**: Average Revenue Per User\u002FAccount per month.\n- **Gross Margin \\%**: `(Revenue - Hosting\u002FPayment\u002FSupport COGS) \u002F Revenue`. For B2B SaaS, benchmark is 75%–85%; for e-commerce, 40%–60%.\n- **Expansion-Adjusted LTV** (when Net Revenue Retention > 100%):\n  $$\\text{LTV} = \\frac{\\text{Initial ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}{\\text{Churn Rate} - \\text{Expansion Rate}}$$\n\n### C. CAC Payback Period (Cash Velocity)\nPayback measures how many months of gross profit are required to recover the cash spent to acquire a customer:\n$$\\text{CAC Payback (Months)} = \\frac{\\text{Fully-Loaded CAC}}{\\text{Monthly ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}$$\n\n### D. Channel Contribution Margin & Break-Even ROAS\nDetermine whether an individual acquisition channel is accretive:\n$$\\text{Contribution Margin} = \\text{Attributed Net Revenue} - \\text{COGS} - \\text{Channel Ad Spend} - \\text{Payment Gateway Fees}$$\n$$\\text{Break-Even ROAS} = \\frac{1}{\\text{Gross Margin \\%}}$$\n*Example*: At 70% Gross Margin, break-even ROAS is `1 \u002F 0.70 = 1.43x`. Any campaign below 1.43x ROAS destroys cash on the first transaction.\n\n## 2. Benchmark Health Scorecard\n\n| Metric | Danger Zone (\u003C Floor) | Target (Healthy) | Exceptional (> Ceiling) |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| **LTV : CAC Ratio** | `\u003C 2.5x` (Burning capital) | `3.0x – 5.0x` (Sustainable scale) | `> 5.0x` (Under-investing in acquisition) |\n| **B2B SaaS Payback** | `> 18 months` | `9 – 12 months` | `\u003C 6 months` (Hyper-efficient) |\n| **B2C \u002F Self-Serve Payback** | `> 12 months` | `4 – 6 months` | `\u003C 3 months` (Near-instant cash recycle) |\n| **Gross Margin** | `\u003C 65%` (SaaS) | `75% – 85%` | `> 88%` |\n| **Net Revenue Retention (NRR)** | `\u003C 90%` | `105% – 115%` | `> 125%` (Enterprise expansion) |\n\n## 3. Worked Example: B2B SaaS Tier\n\nGiven:\n- Monthly subscription: $200\u002Fmonth\n- Gross Margin: 80% (Hosting + payment processing = $40\u002Fmonth)\n- Monthly customer logo churn: 2.5% (Average lifetime = `1 \u002F 0.025 = 40 months`)\n- Total sales & marketing monthly spend: $40,000\n- New customers closed per month: 25\n\nCalculations:\n1. **Fully-Loaded CAC**: `$40,000 \u002F 25 = $1,600`\n2. **Gross Margin ARPU**: `$200 * 0.80 = $160\u002Fmonth`\n3. **LTV**: `$160 \u002F 0.025 = $6,400`\n4. **LTV : CAC**: `$6,400 \u002F $1,600 = 4.0x` (Healthy scaling zone)\n5. **CAC Payback**: `$1,600 \u002F $160 = 10 months` (Meets the \u003C12 month B2B benchmark)\n\n## Critical Rules\n1. Never report Blended CAC as an excuse for an unprofitable paid ad channel; paid campaigns must stand on their own Paid CAC.\n2. Always deduct variable delivery and payment processing costs from revenue before computing LTV.\n3. If churn exceeds 5% monthly, fix customer retention and onboarding before increasing acquisition spend.\n\n## Verification Checklist\n- [ ] CAC calculation includes fully-loaded personnel, agency, and tooling costs.\n- [ ] LTV uses gross margin dollars rather than gross revenue.\n- [ ] Payback period calculated against gross profit contribution per month.\n- [ ] Break-even ROAS and contribution margin calculated for each paid channel.\n- [ ] Baseline metrics compared against industry cohort benchmarks.\n\n## Anti-Patterns\n- NEVER use a single company-wide LTV across disparate customer segments (e.g. self-serve vs enterprise).\n- NEVER assume lifetime is infinite when churn is low; cap lifetime at 36 or 60 months in financial models.\n- NEVER scale marketing budgets based on top-line revenue when net contribution margin is negative.\n","# Unit Economics\n\nGrowth without positive unit economics is accelerated insolvency. Marketing and growth investments must be governed by fully-loaded Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), gross-margin-adjusted Lifetime Value (LTV), cash payback velocity, and channel-level contribution margins.\n\n## 1. Core Mathematical Formulations\n\n### A. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)\nDistinguish between blended and paid acquisition costs:\n- **Paid CAC**:\n  $$\\text{Paid CAC} = \\frac{\\text{Direct Paid Ad Spend}}{\\text{Customers Acquired via Paid Channels}}$$\n- **Fully-Loaded CAC** (the true economic floor):\n  $$\\text{Fully-Loaded CAC} = \\frac{\\text{Ad Spend} + \\text{Agency\u002FCreative Fees} + \\text{Salaries (Sales + Mktg)} + \\text{Software Stack}}{\\text{Total New Customers Acquired}}$$\n  *Rule*: Always use Fully-Loaded CAC when setting budget ceilings.\n\n### B. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)\nNever calculate LTV using top-line revenue alone; LTV must be adjusted for cost of goods sold (COGS):\n$$\\text{LTV} = \\frac{\\text{ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}{\\text{Customer Churn Rate (Monthly)}}$$\n- **ARPU**: Average Revenue Per User\u002FAccount per month.\n- **Gross Margin \\%**: `(Revenue - Hosting\u002FPayment\u002FSupport COGS) \u002F Revenue`. For B2B SaaS, benchmark is 75%–85%; for e-commerce, 40%–60%.\n- **Expansion-Adjusted LTV** (when Net Revenue Retention > 100%):\n  $$\\text{LTV} = \\frac{\\text{Initial ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}{\\text{Churn Rate} - \\text{Expansion Rate}}$$\n\n### C. CAC Payback Period (Cash Velocity)\nPayback measures how many months of gross profit are required to recover the cash spent to acquire a customer:\n$$\\text{CAC Payback (Months)} = \\frac{\\text{Fully-Loaded CAC}}{\\text{Monthly ARPU} \\times \\text{Gross Margin \\%}}$$\n\n### D. Channel Contribution Margin & Break-Even ROAS\nDetermine whether an individual acquisition channel is accretive:\n$$\\text{Contribution Margin} = \\text{Attributed Net Revenue} - \\text{COGS} - \\text{Channel Ad Spend} - \\text{Payment Gateway Fees}$$\n$$\\text{Break-Even ROAS} = \\frac{1}{\\text{Gross Margin \\%}}$$\n*Example*: At 70% Gross Margin, break-even ROAS is `1 \u002F 0.70 = 1.43x`. Any campaign below 1.43x ROAS destroys cash on the first transaction.\n\n## 2. Benchmark Health Scorecard\n\n| Metric | Danger Zone (\u003C Floor) | Target (Healthy) | Exceptional (> Ceiling) |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| **LTV : CAC Ratio** | `\u003C 2.5x` (Burning capital) | `3.0x – 5.0x` (Sustainable scale) | `> 5.0x` (Under-investing in acquisition) |\n| **B2B SaaS Payback** | `> 18 months` | `9 – 12 months` | `\u003C 6 months` (Hyper-efficient) |\n| **B2C \u002F Self-Serve Payback** | `> 12 months` | `4 – 6 months` | `\u003C 3 months` (Near-instant cash recycle) |\n| **Gross Margin** | `\u003C 65%` (SaaS) | `75% – 85%` | `> 88%` |\n| **Net Revenue Retention (NRR)** | `\u003C 90%` | `105% – 115%` | `> 125%` (Enterprise expansion) |\n\n## 3. Worked Example: B2B SaaS Tier\n\nGiven:\n- Monthly subscription: $200\u002Fmonth\n- Gross Margin: 80% (Hosting + payment processing = $40\u002Fmonth)\n- Monthly customer logo churn: 2.5% (Average lifetime = `1 \u002F 0.025 = 40 months`)\n- Total sales & marketing monthly spend: $40,000\n- New customers closed per month: 25\n\nCalculations:\n1. **Fully-Loaded CAC**: `$40,000 \u002F 25 = $1,600`\n2. **Gross Margin ARPU**: `$200 * 0.80 = $160\u002Fmonth`\n3. **LTV**: `$160 \u002F 0.025 = $6,400`\n4. **LTV : CAC**: `$6,400 \u002F $1,600 = 4.0x` (Healthy scaling zone)\n5. **CAC Payback**: `$1,600 \u002F $160 = 10 months` (Meets the \u003C12 month B2B benchmark)\n\n## Critical Rules\n1. Never report Blended CAC as an excuse for an unprofitable paid ad channel; paid campaigns must stand on their own Paid CAC.\n2. Always deduct variable delivery and payment processing costs from revenue before computing LTV.\n3. If churn exceeds 5% monthly, fix customer retention and onboarding before increasing acquisition spend.\n\n## Verification Checklist\n- [ ] CAC calculation includes fully-loaded personnel, agency, and tooling costs.\n- [ ] LTV uses gross margin dollars rather than gross revenue.\n- [ ] Payback period calculated against gross profit contribution per month.\n- [ ] Break-even ROAS and contribution margin calculated for each paid channel.\n- [ ] Baseline metrics compared against industry cohort benchmarks.\n\n## Anti-Patterns\n- NEVER use a single company-wide LTV across disparate customer segments (e.g. self-serve vs enterprise).\n- NEVER assume lifetime is infinite when churn is low; cap lifetime at 36 or 60 months in financial models.\n- NEVER scale marketing budgets based on top-line revenue when net contribution margin is negative.\n",{"name":5,"group":24,"description":7,"last_reviewed":25},"Offer and money",1788652800000,"main","e9ea1069b8d051ec6f88c3bdc4290183b8e68c94","skills\u002Funit-economics","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskillary","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp","poorvithmp.com","Shipping tools for problems people notice too late.","2026-10-02 21:32:44",{"source":8,"skillName":5,"commands":36,"prompt":46,"zipAvailable":47},[37,40,43],{"tool":38,"command":39},"npx","npx skills add poorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing --skill unit-economics",{"tool":41,"command":42},"bunx","bunx skills add poorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing --skill unit-economics",{"tool":44,"command":45},"pnpm","pnpm dlx skills add poorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing --skill unit-economics","安装技能，技能地址：https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Funit-economics\u002FSKILL.md",true,[49,55],{"path":50,"resourceType":51,"resourceTypeDesc":52,"sizeBytes":53,"sourceHtmlUrl":54},"evals\u002Frouting.yaml","REFERENCE","参考文档",920,"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Funit-economics\u002Fevals\u002Frouting.yaml",{"path":56,"resourceType":57,"resourceTypeDesc":58,"sizeBytes":59,"sourceHtmlUrl":60},"unit-economics.skill","OTHER","其他",2929,"https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Funit-economics\u002Funit-economics.skill",[62,69,75,81,88,94],{"skillNo":63,"name":64,"nameZh":6,"description":65,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":66,"categories":67,"keywords":68,"publishedAt":19},"01M792Y3WSAZ5ABHX58QPMWXMH","youtube-clipper","Moved to modernized catalog in skillary. Removed in v4.1.","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fyoutube-clipper\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],{"skillNo":70,"name":71,"nameZh":6,"description":65,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":72,"categories":73,"keywords":74,"publishedAt":19},"01M792Y1ABERS38QWQCJ9CKWJB","youtube-b-roll-maker","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fyoutube-b-roll-maker\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],{"skillNo":76,"name":77,"nameZh":6,"description":65,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":78,"categories":79,"keywords":80,"publishedAt":19},"01M792XZCWKZV16GNK3QQR9M2X","x-twitter-intelligence-analyst","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fx-twitter-intelligence-analyst\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],{"skillNo":82,"name":83,"nameZh":6,"description":84,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":85,"categories":86,"keywords":87,"publishedAt":19},"01M792XTYRW8ZSHPSPVMK301QW","visual-assets","Generate on-brand images: OG cards, blog heroes, social graphics and mockups. Use when creating Open Graph cards, hero visuals, or brand graphics.","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fvisual-assets\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],{"skillNo":89,"name":90,"nameZh":6,"description":65,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":91,"categories":92,"keywords":93,"publishedAt":19},"01M792XR5BZ510MFZETMPAAJBW","viral-hook-generator","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fviral-hook-generator\u002FSKILL.md",[],[],{"skillNo":95,"name":96,"nameZh":6,"description":65,"descriptionZh":6,"repositoryFullName":8,"ownerLogin":9,"ownerAvatarUrl":10,"ownerAccountNo":11,"ownerDisplayName":12,"repositoryNo":13,"starsCount":14,"licenseSpdxId":15,"licenseFileUrl":6,"sourceHtmlUrl":97,"categories":98,"keywords":99,"publishedAt":19},"01M792XPJB02Q3HQTKKYZTKJ8A","video-script-writer","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fpoorvith-mp\u002Fskills-marketing\u002Fblob\u002Fmain\u002Fskills\u002Fvideo-script-writer\u002FSKILL.md",[],[]]