LTV
Calculates customer lifetime value and unit economics ratios using gross margin, retention, and CAC metrics.
Purpose
Provide a unit-economics view, combining revenue quality, customer lifetime, and go-to-market efficiency into a single, decision-ready table.
This model is designed as the top-layer KPI model, enabling:
- LTV and LTV/CAC benchmarking
- Payback period analysis
- Validation of GTM scalability and business sustainability
It consolidates previously derived metrics into one coherent economic picture.
Business Logic
- Start from PnL Metrics
- Isolate gross margin
gl_id = 3000 - Join with Customer Count View to derive ARPU
- Join with GTM Efficiency for CAC and Retention for churn and lifetime
- Compute:
- ARPU = Gross Margin / Active Customers
- ARPU / CAC ratio
- Payback period = 1 / (ARPU / CAC)
- Customer lifetime = 1 / churn rate
- LTV = ARPU × Customer lifetime
- LTV / CAC ratio
- Default undefined divisions to 0
- Produce one row per date and value type
Output Contract
Definitions
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| date | Date of the snapshot (YYYY-MM-DD) |
| value_type | Indicator such as actual, budget |
| arpu | Average gross margin per customer |
| arpu_cac_ratio | Ratio of ARPU to blended CAC |
| payback | CAC payback period (in periods) |
| customer_lifetime | Expected customer lifetime (in periods) |
| ltv | Estimated customer lifetime value |
| ltv_to_cac_ratio | Ratio of LTV to CAC |
Sample & Implementation
| date | value_type | arpu | arpu_cac_ratio | payback | customer_lifetime | ltv | ltv_to_cac_ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-01 | budget | 4800.1533 | 1.3609 | 0.7348 | 120.0 | 576018.4 | 163.3114 |
| 2025-02-01 | budget | 4806.1614 | 1.3626 | 0.7339 | 233.4615 | 1122053.8462 | 318.1221 |
| 2025-03-01 | budget | 4812.0772 | 1.3643 | 0.733 | 237.0769 | 1140832.4615 | 323.4462 |
| 2025-04-01 | budget | 4817.9044 | 1.366 | 0.7321 | 240.6923 | 1159632.5385 | 328.7763 |
| 2025-05-01 | budget | 4823.6455 | 1.3676 | 0.7312 | 244.3077 | 1178453.6923 | 334.1125 |
| 2025-06-01 | budget | 4829.3025 | 1.3692 | 0.7304 | 247.9231 | 1197295.5385 | 339.4545 |
| 2025-07-01 | budget | 4834.8786 | 1.3708 | 0.7295 | 233.5714 | 1129289.5 | 320.1736 |
| 2025-08-01 | budget | 4840.377 | 1.3723 | 0.7287 | 236.8571 | 1146477.8571 | 325.0468 |
| 2025-09-01 | budget | 4845.8004 | 1.3739 | 0.7279 | 240.1429 | 1163684.3571 | 329.9251 |
| 2025-10-01 | budget | 4851.1508 | 1.3754 | 0.7271 | 243.4286 | 1180908.7143 | 334.8085 |
Dependencies
- Transformations: GTM Efficiency, Customer Count View, Retention, and PnL Metrics