Metrics · Purchase / Paid Conversion
LTV:CAC Ratio
Lifetime Value divided by Customer Acquisition Cost. The fundamental unit economics health check for any subscription or recurring business. 3:1 is the minimum sustainable threshold; 5:1 is healthy SaaS; above 7:1 either indicates excellent unit economics or underinvestment in growth. Below 1:1 means the business is currently paying more to acquire customers than it earns from them.
How to calculate it
ltv / cacRatio unit (not percent). 3:1 threshold is the most-cited SaaS benchmark for 'minimum viable economics'. This metric is not reported in the same sources as CVR benchmarks — it requires LTV (ARPU / churn) and CAC (spend / new_customers) inputs. Generally understood as a benchmark concept rather than a directly-reported metric in most studies.
Per-industry distribution (3)
Each row shows the cited p25 / p50 / p75 for LTV:CAC Ratio in that industry. Click an industry to open the full benchmark page.
Swipe horizontally to see the study name and source details.
| Industry | p25 | p50 | p75 | Study / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS (B2B Software)Derived | 2.5 | 3.8 | 6.5 | HubSpot State of Marketing 2024 + Bessemer State of Cloud (derived) |
| Ecommerce (D2C Retail)Derived | 1.5 | 2.8 | 5.0 | HubSpot State of Marketing 2024 (derived for ecommerce) |
| B2B Services (Agencies, Consulting)Derived | 3.0 | 5.5 | 9.0 | HubSpot State of Marketing 2024 (derived for B2B services) |
Primary source
State of Marketing Report (2024) · HubSpot · 2024
Annual survey of 1,400+ marketing professionals globally. Covers email marketing benchmarks (open rate, CTR, CTOR), lead generation and lead-to-SQL conversion rates, content marketing performance, and B2B pipeline metrics. Cross-referenced with HubSpot platform data from 100,000+ customers. B2B and agency respondents skew.