Marketing spend entry and the CAC / Revenue-to-CAC cards

A single total advertising spend per month is entered on the Reports > Marketing Spend screen. The amounts entered fill the Marketing Spend, CAC (Acquisition Cost) and Revenue/CAC Ratio cards in the Customer Lifecycle Report.

Year, month, amount and an optional note are entered and saved from the form at the top of the screen. A single total per month is enough; no channel breakdown is required. The amount is stored in the store's currency, and the field label shows the currency. The list under the form holds the entered months of the selected year; Edit on a row pulls the amount into the form to update it. Past years can be entered too.

The "CAC & Revenue/CAC" section of the Customer Lifecycle Report has three cards:

• Marketing Spend: the total for the selected period
• CAC (Acquisition Cost): calculated by dividing the period's spend by the number of new customers won in that period
• Revenue/CAC Ratio: under the card sits the note "Healthy threshold is roughly 3 / profit margin", because lifetime value is calculated on revenue

If no spend has been entered for the selected period, the section shows the message "No marketing spend entered for this period" and an "Enter spend" link that leads straight to the entry screen.

When a spend is saved, the lifecycle report refreshes; there is no need to reload the page by hand.