What a payback report shows
Reading a payback curve
A payback curve plots cumulative cohort revenue against time. The point where the curve crosses your CAC line is your payback day. Example: A campaign spending 50 CAC. If the average subscriber generates $55 in revenue over 3 months, the cohort is on a 90-day payback window — breakeven at month three, then profitable. Now compare that to a second campaign spending 100 CAC — but where the average subscriber generates $120 over 3 months. That campaign hits payback in 75 days despite twice the spend per user. Higher CAC, faster payback, more total profit. The insight: CAC alone doesn’t tell you whether a campaign is worth scaling. The payback window — and the LTV trajectory behind it — is what matters. FloKit surfaces both so you can compare campaigns on a like-for-like basis.Dimensions
Group any payback report by:- Campaign — top-level campaign.
- Ad set — ad group or ad set within a campaign.
- Creative — individual creative asset.
- Channel — paid social, search, influencer, ASA, etc.
- Country — acquisition country.
- Offer — trial length, discount, or plan type.
- Paywall variant — A/B test variant the user saw at conversion.
- Cohort week — the calendar week the cohort was acquired.
Filters
- Date range — set acquisition cohort start and end dates.
- Channel — filter to one or more acquisition channels.
- Country — filter to specific markets.
- Product — filter by subscription plan (monthly, annual, etc.).
- Minimum spend threshold — exclude cohorts below a spend floor to remove statistical noise from small tests.
Payback windows
FloKit calculates payback at five standard windows:
Use the window that matches your primary subscription plan length. For annual plans, 90-day ROAS is a leading indicator — 365-day is the definitive figure.
Accessing payback reports
Dashboard Go to Reports → Payback. Select your date range, grouping dimension, and payback window. The report updates every 6 hours. APIHow long before the report populates
Historical data from your subscription source or data warehouse backfills immediately — you don’t need to wait weeks to see your first payback curves.
For large-scale apps: Payback reports update every 6 hours by default. For apps with more than 1M monthly actives who need real-time report access, contact FloKit.