Customer lifetime value or CLV is a key marketing metric that is primarily used in relationship marketing oriented organizations. In simple terms, it is the profit attributable to an individual customer during their time as a customer with the organization.
Contents
Customer lifetime value has three main components:
- The acquisition cost of customer
- The annual profit of customer
- And the lifetime of the customer to the firm
Customer acquisition cost
This is the amount of money it costs, on a per customer basis, to attract a first-time customer. Acquisition costs are calculated by dividing the total promotional spend during a period by the number of new/first-time customers attracted in that same period.
The annual profit of a customer
The main component of the customer lifetime value formula is an understanding of what profitability is generated from each individual customer on average.
In simple terms, what is known as “customer profit” is the revenue generated by a customer over a year, less the direct costs of providing that product or service to the customer, less any costs of retention or other forms servicing.
The average lifetime of customer
The final component in the customer lifetime value calculation is to work out the average length of customer’s relationship with the firm or brand. In many cases, there will be a general length of time that can be calculated for the average customer.
Related topics
The customer lifetime value Excel template
Calculating average lifetime in years
