CLTV vs CAC Analysis Excel Template

The workbook is organized into 4 tabs, kept simple so you always know where to look:

1. Cover – title page
2. Drivers – company name, business type, currency, starting year, and start date
3. Model – the full monthly Customer Value Analysis Template, from subscriber counts through to your final CLV/CAC ratio
4. Graphs – visual charts for reporting

The Model tab tracks the following, month over month, across a rolling multi-year timeline:

• Existing Customers – your subscriber base at the start of each month
• New Customers – new subscriptions added during the month
• Churn Rate – the percentage of customers lost each month
• Churned Customers – calculated automatically from your churn rate
• Closing Subscriptions – your net subscriber count at month-end
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) per Customer – your average recurring revenue per subscriber
• Sales and Marketing Expense – your total acquisition spend for the month

Every one of these inputs feeds directly into the model's core outputs, so a change in churn rate or marketing spend immediately updates your final ratio.

This is the core of the Customer Acquisition Cost vs Lifetime Value Calculator:

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) — calculated from your MRR per customer relative to churn rate, showing the total revenue you can expect from an average customer over their full subscription lifetime
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) per User — your total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers acquired that month
• CLV / CAC Ratio — the key output metric, showing how many dollars of lifetime value you generate for every dollar spent acquiring a customer

A ratio above 3:1 is generally considered healthy for SaaS businesses, while a ratio near or below 1:1 signals that acquisition spend isn't being recovered efficiently. This template makes that number visible every single month, not just at the end of the year.

• It's one of the first metrics investors check — a strong LTV:CAC ratio signals a scalable, capital-efficient growth model
• It reveals whether growth spend is working — tracking it monthly shows if rising CAC is eating into your margins before it becomes a bigger problem
• It connects marketing, sales, and finance — this template forces those numbers into one shared view instead of living in separate spreadsheets
• It supports pricing and retention decisions — since CLTV is driven by both MRR per customer and churn rate, the model shows whether you have a pricing problem, a retention problem, or both

• Simple, ready-to-use monthly structure — fill in the grey input cells; churn, CLV, CAC, and the final ratio calculate automatically
• Rolling multi-year monthly timeline — track how your ratio trends over time, not just a single static number
• Built-in churn and subscriber tracking — existing, new, churned, and closing customer counts calculated together
• Visual Graphs tab — ready-made charts for board decks or investor updates
• Not password-protected — fully editable so you can adjust categories, extend the timeline, or add customer segments
• Works for any subscription or recurring-revenue business — built with SaaS in mind, but adaptable to any MRR-based model

• SaaS founders tracking unit economics month over month
• Startups preparing metrics for an investor update or pitch deck
• Growth and marketing teams evaluating whether acquisition spend is sustainable
• Finance and FP&A teams who need a shared Customer Lifetime Value Template Excel that sales, marketing, and leadership can all reference

Most investors look for a ratio of 3:1 or higher, meaning each customer generates at least three times what it cost to acquire them. A ratio below 1:1 typically means acquisition costs are not being recovered.

Every download includes free support and error correction. If you'd like help adapting the model to your specific subscription structure, our team is happy to assist.