The 7 Customer Acquisition Metrics You Must Track to Optimize Growth

How important is customer acquisition? More than half of surveyed marketing professionals say it’s a number one priority. Let’s take a look at why.

You’re in the process of launching a new business or a new product. You have the perfect product, and your website looks stunning. The customers are sure to line up around the block, right?

Not exactly.

You need a solid customer acquisition strategy to bring the right people in the door and into your sales funnel. But how do you know if your customer acquisition strategy is working? The answer lies in customer acquisition metrics. By tracking these metrics, you can keep your finger on the pulse of your business and make data-driven decisions to grow your customer base.

In this blog post, we'll discuss seven customer acquisition metrics that matter for growing businesses.

Customer Acquisition Metrics: The Basics

Before we dive into the metrics you should track, let’s answer a foundational question: what is customer acquisition?

Customer acquisition is all your business's processes and practices to attract and convert new customers. From identifying potential customers to signing them on as a client or customer, every step in this buyer’s journey is a part of the customer acquisition process. In other words, customer acquisition is about finding new ways to grow your customer base and increase your revenue.

Tracking customer acquisition metrics is essential if you want your business to succeed in today’s highly competitive market. Why is this so important? Simple: monitoring these metrics helps you gain insights into the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts.

Analyzing customer acquisition data helps identify which channels and campaigns drive the most traffic and conversions and which fail to return on your investment. This knowledge allows you to focus your resources on the areas that deliver the best results.

Failing to track customer acquisition metrics can have serious consequences for your business. Without this data, you won't know which marketing and sales strategies are working and which ones are not.

Instead of making measured, data-driven decisions, you’ll be flying blind about growing your customer base and increasing your revenue. As a result, you might miss out on opportunities to improve your processes. Or worse, you might continue dumping resources into a campaign or strategy that isn’t delivering.

With all this in mind, let’s lay out the top seven customer acquisition metrics every marketing leader should know like the back of their hand.

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1. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of site visitors who take a specific action, like filling out a form or purchasing. The formula to calculate the conversion rate is simple: divide the number of conversions by your overall number of website visitors.

Conversion rate is a key metric for measuring the effectiveness of your website content and messaging. A high conversion rate indicates that your website effectively turns visitors into leads and customers.

Pro Tip: To improve your conversion rate, examine your site design and copy, optimize your calls to action, and ensure you create content designed to attract and provide value to your target customer.

2. Cost per Acquisition

Cost per acquisition (CPA) reports how much your business spends acquiring one new customer. You can measure CPA by dividing your total marketing and sales spending by the number of new customers won through those efforts.

The lower your CPA? The more efficient your marketing and sales efforts are in converting leads into customers.

Pro Tip: Reduce your CPA by examining customer targeting and refining your marketing messaging. The more directly your messaging targets your ideal customer, the less friction those customers will experience on their buyer journey.

3. Customer Lifetime Value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the total revenue a single customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business. You can calculate CLV by multiplying the average purchase value by the average purchase frequency by the average customer lifespan.

Customer lifetime value is a crucial metric for understanding the long-term value of your customers. A high CLV indicates you’re reaching and retaining valuable customers worth pursuing. Conversely, if your CLV is on the lower side, you may be experiencing high churn or chasing poor-fit customers.

Pro Tip: One way to increase CLV is to invest in customer loyalty programs and customer retention efforts. These measures improve retention, which translates to higher CLV.

4. Churn Rate

Churn rate is the flip side of customer retention. This metric measures the percentage of customers who stop doing business with you over a period. A high churn rate can be expensive for your business, so this is an essential metric to keep a close eye on.

You can measure churn rate by dividing the number of customers lost by the total number of customers your company served over that period.

Pro Tip: To reduce your churn rate, you can focus on improving your customer experience and addressing any issues or concerns your customers may have.

5. Click-Through Rate

Click-through rate (CTR) indicates the percentage of people who view your ad or link and click on it to proceed to your site. You measure CTR by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions. A high CTR indicates your content is engaging and relevant to your target audience.

Click-through rate is an important metric for measuring the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing campaigns. If your CTR is low, your ads or content might not be targeted appropriately.

Pro Tip: To improve CTR, take a close look at your content headlines, meta descriptions, and keyword intent. Ensure your posts and ads are getting in front of the right sets of eyes, and adjust your copy as needed.

6. Customer Acquisition Cost to Customer Lifetime Value Ratio

Customer acquisition cost to customer lifetime value (CAC:LTV) combines two critical metrics into a new, equally valuable figure. CAC:LTV compares the cost to acquire a customer to that customer's lifetime value.

This metric is vital in understanding the ROI of your marketing efforts. You measure this figure by calculating how much it costs to acquire a new customer and divide that figure by the lifetime value of one customer. You can improve your ratio by reducing acquisition costs or increasing each customer's value.

Pro Tip: A healthy CAC:LTV is typically 3:1 or better.

7. Time to Conversion

Lastly, you should consider the time to conversion. This metric measures how long a prospect travels through your sales funnel and becomes a customer. A short time to conversion indicates low friction in your sales funnel and highly effective sales and marketing efforts.

You can measure time to conversion simply by tracking the time between first contact with a prospect and their first purchase. A CRM system like Hubspot to manage your leads and customers can simplify this tracking process.

Pro Tip: Reduce your time to conversion by optimizing your sales process. Consider the customer experience at every stage in their buyers’ journey and ensure the process is as smooth, simple, and painless as possible.

Mastering Customer Acquisition Metrics For Your Business

Tracking customer acquisition metrics is critical for your growing business. Without the insights afforded by these metrics, you’ll have trouble knowing which of your efforts are paying off and which are falling short.

When you set up the appropriate systems to monitor these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions to optimize your customer acquisition strategy. However, strong customer acquisition efforts are only one part of the puzzle you must solve to scale your business profitably.

Refer to our resource, the Growth Playbook, for more information on the tricks and tactics you can use to 10X your growth without breaking a sweat.

Mallory is a Growth Marketer at Lean Labs, working with brands to ignite their growth engine through conceptualizing, implementing, and optimizing growth marketing strategies.

5 Min Read

Growth Marketing

Aug 23, 2023