All-in CAC, not just ad spend. Per channel. Updated monthly.
You'd think CAC = ad spend / signups — Astra adds payroll, tools, agencies, and content costs to give you the real number, per channel.
Astra computes your true CAC monthly across 4 layers most founders ignore. (1) Direct ad spend from Google Ads + LinkedIn + Meta + Reddit. (2) Marketing payroll: % of salary for any team member spending >20% time on growth (CMO, content writers, designers, growth eng). (3) Tools: HubSpot, Mailchimp, Webflow, Ahrefs, etc. — anything in the marketing tech stack. (4) Content + agency costs: contractors, freelance writers, video editors, paid sponsorships. Then she divides by paid customers acquired in the same period (not signups — paid customers, attributed to channel via UTM + first-touch). Result: blended CAC + per-channel CAC + payback period (CAC / monthly gross profit per customer). LTV/CAC ratio (target 3+). Most founders discover their true CAC is 2-3x what they thought — and the channel mix they should optimize is different from what they're spending on.
Direct ads (Google/LinkedIn/Meta/Reddit), marketing payroll % from Gusto, MarTech tools from Brex categorization, contractor + agency spend from QuickBooks.
Stripe paid signups in the period. Match to UTM source from PostHog/GA4 first-touch attribution. Multi-touch model for complex buyer journeys (B2B).
Blended = total spend / total paid customers. Per-channel = channel spend / channel paid customers. Highlight channels with CAC > 2x blended.
Payback = CAC / monthly gross profit per customer. LTV from cohort retention curve × monthly gross profit. LTV/CAC ratio (target 3+, healthy 4-5+).
Monthly Lark report: blended CAC, per-channel ranked, payback, LTV/CAC, top 2 actions (cut weakest channel, double down on best).
Monthly Lark report: blended CAC, per-channel CAC ranked, payback period, LTV/CAC ratio, top 2 actions.
Monthly on the 5th (after Stripe + ad platform data settles). Quarterly deep-dive on attribution model.
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If founders spend >20% of time on growth, yes — at a market salary equivalent ($150-250K/yr typically). Most underreport this. Astra defaults to including it but you can flip it off if you want a 'cash CAC' view for fundraising decks. She'll show both numbers.
First-touch by default for simple funnels (most paid signups happen <30 days after first touch). For complex B2B with 60-180 day cycles she switches to time-decay multi-touch using the GA4 model. She'll tell you which model she's using and you can override.
Ad platform CAC only counts that platform's spend / that platform's attributed conversions, ignoring all other costs. Astra's CAC is fully loaded — payroll, tools, agencies — so it's typically 2-3x higher than the ad platform number. The fully loaded number is what determines runway and unit economics.
3+ is the standard rule, 4-5+ is healthy, 6+ is potentially under-investing in growth (you could spend more and still be profitable). Below 3 means you're losing money on growth — needs urgent intervention. Astra alerts you immediately if LTV/CAC drops below 3.