
24 PART 1 Closer to your customers: the true measure of success
Use lifetime customer values to improve
marketing performance
There are four important applications:
Set target customer acquisition costs.
Allocate acquisition funds.
Select acquisition offers.
Support customer retention activities.
Set target customer acquisition costs
If a customer is expected to generate more than one sale,
the allowable acquisition cost can be greater than the cost
allowed for the first sale – the classic loss-leader approach.
However, overspending on customer acquisition can also be
risky. A reasonable calculation is to recruit only from those
sources