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Marketing & Ads
Your advertising investment, attributed returns and country performance.
LTV / CAC
Scaling Insights — understand customer value before increasing spend.
CAC calculation window: 2026-09-05 – 2026-10-04 · 30 days. Ad spend and new customers use the selected calendar period. Shopify revenue below follows the calendar selection; LTV uses the separate 90-day horizon.
Customer-level purchase history is not available in the current import. LTV, new customers and CAC remain N/A; orders are not a substitute for unique new customers.
No imported advertising records for 2026-09-05 – 2026-10-04. Review the import in Advertising Overview. Missing records are not zero spend.
Scaling scenarios
Awaiting cohort dataCurrent imported daily spend: N/A
| Scenario | Budget / day | New customers / 30 days | 90-day cohort revenue | 90-day contribution after ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A — verified new customers, cohort value and advertising coverage are required. | ||||
Assumes constant CAC and customer value. CAC can rise when spend increases. These are not monthly profit forecasts or recommendations to change budgets; fixed costs are excluded.
What is missing?
Live LTV/CAC needs customer identifiers, verified first-order dates, refunds and repeat orders across the chosen horizon, plus complete advertising coverage. The current reports expose aggregate sales and ad spend, not these customer cohorts.
No additional connection button can repair missing cohort imports. The customer-history import must be implemented before live scaling recommendations can be enabled.
Review connected integrationsRecommended analysis setup
Start with 90-day customer value, then compare the 30-day view to understand cash recovery. Longer horizons need fully observed cohorts.
| Decision | LTV horizon | CAC window |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic view | 90 days | Matching acquisition period |
| Scaling review | 90 days | Last 30 days · compare cohorts carefully |
| Cash-flow review | 30 days | Matching acquisition period |
| Long-term retention | 180–365 days | Matching acquisition period |
How it is calculated
CAC
Paid spend ÷ new customersMeta and Google spend, normalized to the reporting currency, divided by unique customers acquired in the same window. Platform purchase counts are not added together.
Customer LTV
Cohort value ÷ cohort customersNormalized Shopify revenue within the horizon after each first purchase. Contribution deducts known variable costs before acquisition spend.
LTV : CAC
LTV ÷ CACA revenue ratio is not a profit margin. Unknown inputs remain N/A; zero CAC never produces an infinite ratio.
Understand your LTV / CAC
What do these numbers really mean?
LTV measures customer value over a defined horizon, not an infinite lifetime. CAC measures acquisition cost per unique new customer, not per order. Compare the same cohort and currency before acting.
How should I interpret the ratio?
Revenue LTV/CAC above 3x may justify further investigation, but does not prove profitability. Contribution margins, refunds, cash flow, cohort maturity and attribution quality determine whether growth is sustainable.
Revenue LTV vs. contribution LTV
Revenue excludes discounts and refunds according to the existing commerce definition. Contribution also subtracts COGS, shipping, packaging, processing fees and other known variable costs. Missing costs must not be treated as zero.
Which horizon should I choose?
30 days highlights early payback; 90 days captures more repeat purchases; 180–365 days suits longer repurchase cycles. Only fully observed cohorts can support a complete horizon. Longer horizons do not improve immediate cash flow.
Three checks before changing a budget
- Is this revenue or contribution LTV?
- Does the mature 30-day cohort recover acquisition cost?
- Does CAC remain stable as spending increases?
Review supporting evidence. No advertising budgets are changed by this dashboard.