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Paid Media

LTV to CAC ratio.

Definition

The canonical answer.

The LTV to CAC ratio compares customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost, stating how many dollars of value each acquisition dollar buys. A commonly used healthy benchmark is 3 to 1; below break-even the offer loses money per customer and no media optimization can rescue it, because the constraint is the economics.

Worked example

In practice.

A business acquires customers at a loss and asks for better ads. The math shows the ratio misses 3 to 1 at any realistic click cost, so the fix is the offer: pricing, retention, or order value. When the ratio clears, the same campaigns scale profitably without a single new creative.

Where this work happens: Paid Advertising

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