sales
What is Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)?
The total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship.
In plain English
Customer lifetime value is the single most important number for understanding whether your marketing and sales spending makes sense. If your average customer spends $500/year and stays for 3 years, their CLV is $1,500 — meaning you can rationally spend up to several hundred dollars to acquire them. Automations that improve retention, increase purchase frequency, and expand accounts directly increase CLV, which is why post-purchase automation often has the highest ROI of any marketing investment.