ePORTS — Print on Demand: Advanced CAC CEILING + SCALING GATE — before a dollar goes to ads (chapter 6) Judge acquisition against LOADED PRE-AD contribution — never revenue, never a unit figure — and count the ad ONCE. CAC = ad spend / NEW buyers (not orders, not the platform's ROAS). Pre-ad contribution per sale (loaded, NO ad): $__________ Profit I require per sale: $__________ -> FIRST-SALE CAC ceiling (pre-ad minus profit): $__________ Cohort pre-ad contribution (ONLY if PROVEN): $__________ -> COHORT ceiling (keep ~half is prudent): $__________ Conditions: cohort proven? __ cash to float it? __ compute both: eports.global/tools/print-on-demand-allocation THE ROAS TRAP: break-even ROAS = revenue / pre-ad. A "3x" the dashboard cheers is break-even on a $68/$22.81 premium and a BLEED on a $22/$3 tee (needs ~7.4x just to stop losing). Act on YOUR break-even, never the platform's headline. THE GATE: GATE A — clears the FIRST-SALE ceiling: scale NOW in small steps; recheck CAC (on loaded contribution) each step; STOP the moment it breaches the ceiling. No payback wait. GATE B — clears only the COHORT ceiling: freeze at a baseline; do NOT scale until real repeat contribution has paid the gap back. Either: advertise only products a real channel can hit; measure incrementally (a holdout), not the dashboard's self-reported ROAS. ⚠ CAC rises as you scale (cheap audience runs out). Steps, not leaps. — From Print on Demand: Advanced — the full method: eports.global/print-on-demand Every worksheet, free and kept current: eports.global/resources ePORTS — your ecom source. eports.global.