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Free Unit Economics Tool
Know how long it takes for a new customer to repay their ad acquisition cost. Model your repurchase rates, margin expansion, and maximum safe CAC.
Test your customer cohort economics over a 12-month horizon.
$48.75
+$3.75$60.19
134% payback$68.77
153% payback$77.35
1.7× LTV:CACImmediate (Day 1)
Acquisition is self-funding on order #1.
1.72 : 1
High capital risk. CAC is consuming gross margin.
If your blended CAC stays below $60.19, you will fully recover ad acquisition costs within 90 days.
Email me this payback curve
At $45.00 CAC your 365-day LTV is $77.35 — a 1.72× ratio with payback in 0.0 months.
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Connect Shopify to reveal actual repurchase curves, cohort LTV, and lifecycle flow recovery.
Consumable, apparel, and subscription brands often acquire first orders at break-even or a slight loss on day 1. If customer retention is strong, that initial investment generates recurring gross profit through email, SMS, and organic repeat orders without additional ad spend.
First-order gross profit minus initial blended acquisition cost.
Number of days or months required for cumulative margin to equal CAC.
Total gross profit generated in year one divided by initial CAC.
A 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio is widely considered the gold standard for healthy e-commerce brands. A ratio below 2:1 indicates that acquisition costs are consuming too much gross profit, making the brand vulnerable to ad cost spikes. A ratio above 4:1 or 5:1 often means you are under-spending on acquisition and leaving market share on the table.
Paper LTV doesn't pay your suppliers or credit card bills next month. Cash-constrained brands need payback within 30 to 90 days to avoid running out of working capital. If your payback period is 18 months, scaling ads aggressively will drain your bank balance even if the customer is technically profitable on paper years later.
LTV must always be calculated on Gross Profit (Revenue minus COGS, shipping, and payment fees), never on Topline Revenue. Calculating LTV on gross revenue gives a falsely inflated ratio and leads to unsustainable ad spending.
Glimmio integrates with your Shopify order history and customer accounts to track cumulative gross margin cohorts over 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365 days, correlating acquisition campaigns directly with long-term customer value.
Guides on cohort retention, contribution margin, and sustainable growth.
Your best-performing campaign by ROAS might be your least profitable, and your reporting has no way to tell you.
Read the guideYou know acquisition is getting more expensive but you cannot tell whether your numbers are normal, bad, or about to become a solvency problem.
Read the guideYou are pouring money into acquisition to replace customers who bought once and never came back.
Read the guideEvery channel reports a profitable ROAS, the totals do not add up to your actual revenue, and you cannot tell whether spending more is making you money.
Read the guide