Customer Acquisition
Growth is not a traffic issue. It is a payback issue.
Acquisition economics modelled to a payback period, with media purchased to match.
-34%
Lower new-customer acquisition cost
The challenge
Most acquisition targets are set the wrong way round. A CPA figure is agreed during planning, usually last year’s number minus an improvement, and media is then bought to hit it. No one checks whether that CPA is affordable at today’s margins, how long a customer takes to pay it back, or whether customers acquired at that price behave as the model expects. Businesses spot the problem when cash gets tight — exactly when acquisition spend must be cut, and the worst moment to learn the model was wrong.
Our process
Our approach
Build unit economics before the media plan
Contribution margin per first order, repeat rate and repeat interval, gross margin by product mix or plan tier, and the payback curve that results. This is finance work, not marketing work, and we do it together with your finance team rather than around them. It produces the one figure that matters: how much you can afford to pay for a customer and remain solvent at scale.
Segment by cohort value, not by channel
Two customers won at the same CPA can have very different value depending on their first product, the discount on their first order and the channel they came from. We track cohorts by source and month and report payback per cohort rather than blended, so a channel that brings in cheap, low-value customers no longer looks efficient.
Set a bidding target the algorithm can really use
Once payback tolerance is agreed, it becomes a target CPA or target ROAS for each channel, tiered by expected cohort value. That target is loaded into the bidding platforms with matching conversion values. Most of acquisition is making the economics understandable to a machine that will be spending your money at four in the morning.
Check the model against reality
Payback assumptions drift. Repeat rates change, margins tighten, discounting creeps in, and exchange rates shift beneath any target set in a currency you do not trade in. We rerun the cohort analysis against actual behaviour on an agreed schedule and adjust targets, instead of defending a model built at the start.
Deliverables
What you receive
An acquisition economics model covering contribution margin per first order, repeat rate, repeat interval and payback curve, built with your finance team
Maximum affordable acquisition cost by segment, with every assumption stated clearly so it can be questioned
Cohort reporting by acquisition month and channel, showing payback progress rather than blended lifetime value
Channel-level target CPA or ROAS derived from the payback model and loaded into bidding platforms with matching conversion values
New versus returning customer split reported as standard across every paid channel
Regular re-forecasts of the acquisition model against real cohort behaviour, with recommended target changes and the reasoning behind them
A documented stop-loss point: the performance level at which we would advise cutting spend rather than defending it
Industries
Sectors where we deliver this
Ecommerce
Paid acquisition managed to contribution margin and breakeven efficiency, not the return platforms report.
SaaS
Demand capture and creation for B2B software, measured on payback time rather than lead volume.
Finance
Acquisition for regulated firms, where every advert is itself a regulated document.
Gaming
User acquisition for free-to-play games, judged on retention curves and payback periods.
B2B
Paid acquisition for high-consideration purchases with long sales cycles, narrow keyword pools and offline conversions.
Common questions
Our lifetime value data is not clean. Can you still help?
Yes — and most clients start in exactly that position. We work from a payback period you can actually observe, typically the first 90 or 180 days, instead of a projected lifetime value that nobody trusts. Shorter observed windows look less impressive and are far more useful.
How is this different from what our media agency already does?
It comes before it. A media agency optimises towards the target it is handed. This work sets that target — and it is often why a well-managed media account still fails to make a profit. If your current agency already does this properly, you do not need us for it.
Does this work if our purchase cycles are long or irregular?
Longer cycles make the observed-payback approach more important, not less, because projected lifetime value becomes less reliable the further ahead you look. We lengthen the observation window and rely more on leading indicators — second-purchase rate, activation and, for subscriptions, early retention curves.
Will you ever advise us to spend less?
Sometimes. If the model shows your current CPA is above what you can afford and cannot be reduced, we will recommend lowering spend or changing the offer. We would rather tell you early than defend an unaffordable position for a year.
Begin with an audit.
The audit has a clear scope and a clear output, and it stands on its own — no obligation to continue. If it shows your current setup is working well, that is a perfectly valid result and we will tell you so.