The Pitfalls of Relying Solely on Customer Lifetime Value in Business Strategies

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This chapter explores the drawbacks of solely focusing on Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) in business strategies, warning about issues like customer price sensitivity, creativity loss in marketing, excessive spending, and unsustainable growth models. It emphasizes the importance of balancing customer acquisition costs with long-term profitability for sustainable business success.

Episode 119: LTV, or lifetime value, has become the gold standard for startups, specifically how they measure the effectiveness of their various marketing channels. LTV does have merit, and it is a helpful proxy to prioritize marketing and understand the economics of each customer you acquire, but if relied on entirely, it can be misleading at best and harmful to your business at worst. I’ve found what I believe to be one of the best pieces on the internet about the challenges of this methodology, a 12-year-old essay by investing legend Bill Gurley that is as relevant today as it was then.

The Dangerous Seduction of the Lifetime Value (LTV) Formula: https://abovethecrowd.com/2012/09/04/the-dangerous-seduction-of-the-lifetime-value-ltv-formula/

DTC Metrics, Explained: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/dtc-metrics-explained-2020-02-12

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