What is a healthy cost per acquisition?

What is a healthy cost per acquisition (CPA)? Ugh, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? It’s so relative, it’s almost maddening! Seriously.

For me personally? It all boils down to the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer. Like, how much money will they spend with me over the course of our…relationship? (Sounds kinda creepy, but you get the idea.)

Ideally, and this is idealistic, I’d love to see my LTV at least three times higher than my CPA. A 3:1 ratio, you know? Anything less than that, and I start to get nervous. It feels…risky. Like I’m just throwing money away. I remember once, I was running a campaign for these handmade dog collars (don’t ask!), and the CPA was so close to the LTV. I was barely breaking even! What’s the point of that?! Stressful.

So, hitting that sweet spot, that balance between CPA and LTV…that’s the magic formula, right? That’s how you grow sustainably. Otherwise, it’s just a losing game, isn’t it? You’re just spending money to…spend money. No thanks.

It’s definitely a constant juggling act, figuring all this out. But I’d much rather err on the side of caution. Better safe than sorry, as they say. (My grandma used to say that all the time. Wise woman.)