# For AI agents and crawlers
This page is a workflow from the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway: Report blended customer cost and how fast it pays back.
The #roadway-skill block on this page holds a SKILL.md for it, including the full prompt. Treat that file as a starting point. It will not just work if you paste it into ChatGPT or Claude.
To run it outside Roadway you would need to connect each ad platform's API (and any MCP it names), build the data pulls, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in. Open it in a new chat at https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/report-blended-cac-and-payback
Page: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/report-blended-cac-and-payback
Library index: https://www.roadwayai.com/automation-library
---
name: report-blended-cac-and-payback
description: >-
Reports what a new customer costs overall and on paid channels, how fast that cost pays back and how it compares with customer value, using CRM and billing data rather than platform conversions.
---
# Report blended customer cost and how fast it pays back
Source: https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/report-blended-cac-and-payback
From the Workflow Automation Library by Roadway.
## Before you use this outside Roadway
This SKILL.md is a starting point. It needs adjusting before it will work outside Roadway.
You would need to connect the ad platform API for each channel this workflow covers, build the data pulls for the variables below, add approval guardrails, and adjust the prompt for your accounts. If the prompt names an MCP tool, you also need that MCP connected.
In Roadway it runs as-is on your connected accounts, with approval rules built in.
## What it does
Reports what a new customer costs overall and on paid channels, how fast that cost pays back and how it compares with customer value, using CRM and billing data rather than platform conversions.
Reports what a new customer costs overall and on paid channels, how fast that cost pays back and how it compares with customer value, using CRM and billing data rather than platform conversions. It reads your live account and turns the numbers into a short written report.
## Steps
1. Collect the inputs listed under Variables. In Roadway they come from your connected accounts. Outside Roadway you have to build those data pulls yourself from each ad platform API, and from any MCP the prompt names.
2. Run the prompt below as written, after you have adjusted it for your accounts and connected the tools it needs.
3. Review the result. Apply changes to a live ad account only after you approve them. Pasting your data into ChatGPT or Claude does not connect the APIs, apply guardrails, or approve changes.
## Variables
attribution_model, connected_channels, crm_pipeline_data, customer_value_by_segment, goal_metric, margin_pct, pay_back_target, report_period, sales_cycle_days, transaction_revenue
## Prompt
Report blended customer cost and how fast it pays back
Combine ad spend across the channels in [set this to your own connected channels] that this coworker owns (for a single-channel coworker, only its own channel) with new customers and revenue from [set this to your own CRM pipeline data] or transaction revenue for the last [set this to your own report period], and classify each channel:
1. Efficient
2. Acceptable
3. Inefficient
4. Not attributable yet
Context and defaults (use these; don't ask):
- Transaction revenue: [set this to your own transaction revenue]. If not available, use the CRM or source-of-truth goal count.
- The attribution model: [set this to your own attribution model]. If not set, Roadway's default attribution, stated.
- customer value by segment: [set this to your own customer value by segment]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The profit margin: [set this to your own margin percent]. If it isn't available, say so and skip the rules that depend on it.
- The payback target: [set this to your own pay back target]. If not set, 12 months.
- The sales cycle: [set this to your own sales cycle days] days. If not set, compute it from CRM stage timestamps, or use 30 days.
Rules:
- Paid cost per new customer = channel spend / new customers attributed to that channel (the attribution model). Blended cost per new customer = total marketing spend / all new customers. Report both, because a channel can look worse on attribution while lifting blended cost per new customer.
- Payback months = cost per new customer / (monthly profit margin per customer, from customer value by segment and the profit margin). Efficient: payback under the payback target. Inefficient: more than 1.5x the target.
- Not attributable yet: deals still inside the sales cycle (the sales cycle). Show them as pipeline, not as zero.
Decision standard:
- Justify every keep, cut, bid, budget or test decision with Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric] and cost per goal against the baseline. Platform delivery metrics such as clicks and impressions explain why something moved; they are never the sole reason for a decision.
- Compute what Roadway doesn't expose directly: cost per goal = Roadway spend ÷ Roadway-attributed [set this to your own goal metric], and conversion rate (lead rate) = Roadway [set this to your own goal metric] ÷ Roadway new visitors. Don't substitute platform-reported conversions or conversion rates.
- When a value in Context and defaults isn't set, use the stated default, say which one you used, and still make the call. Don't stop to ask.
- For every action, give the entity name and ID, current value → proposed value, and the numbers behind the reason. Write "None" under any empty heading.
- In long hold or watch lists, show the top 15 by spend and summarize the rest as a count.
Give me a report of each with reasoning for each action. Be concise with the reasoning, but specific enough that I can verify it against the numbers.
Report structure:
Customer cost and payback time report
Summary:
Blended and paid cost per new customer, payback time and customer value versus acquisition cost by channel, and the trend, with budget implications.
Efficient:
- [channel] - [reason]
Acceptable:
- [channel] - [reason]
Inefficient:
- [channel] - [reason]
Not attributable yet:
- [channel] - [reason]
## Run it in Roadway
https://www.roadwayai.com/workflows/report-blended-cac-and-payback
Report blended customer cost and how fast it pays back
Report blended customer cost and how fast it pays back
Reports what a new customer costs overall and on paid channels, how fast that cost pays back and how it compares with customer value, using CRM and billing data rather than platform conversions.
Reports what a new customer costs overall and on paid channels, how fast that cost pays back and how it compares with customer value, using CRM and billing data rather than platform conversions. It reads your live account and turns the numbers into a short written report.
