I got my start as an outbound marketer and salesperson in rapidly developing SaaS startups, so I had to learn how to work with dozens of data points to find out what strategies come with flaws and how to attract more leads with a pretty tight budget.
Thanks to six years of trial and error and umpteen convos with marketing peers, I can now lay out fundamental principles of customer acquisition analytics for different businesses and show you real-life examples you can learn from.
Continue reading to discover how to apply this knowledge to your own marketing efforts. By identifying and addressing gaps in your customer acquisition process, you can significantly improve the return on your marketing investments.
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What Is Customer Acquisition Analytics?
Customer acquisition analytics involves collecting and analyzing data to understand how new customers find and engage with your business. Conversion rates, customer demographics, churn rates, ROAS, and more show you what lead acquisition campaigns work or drain your budget.
Therefore, marketers and CRO specialists use this information to improve your overall customer acquisition strategies and attract more relevant leads with high customer lifetime value (CLV).
Why Is Data Analytics Important for Customer Acquisition?
I could probably write a novel about it, but here are the top three reasons why it matters:
1. Pinpoint your audience.
Data analytics lets you “meet” your perfect audience. It reveals who’s interested in your goods or services and particular items or bundles so you can focus on the people who are actually going to buy from you.
Example: Let’s say you run an online sneaker store. Data shows that women between 18-25 are your most frequent buyers. What will you do? Research and tailor your ads and social media posts to highlight styles and colors that appeal to this group.
2. Save money, gain more.
The moment you find out which lead acquisition tactics work best, you’ll stop wasting your resources. Marketing budgets will finally be directed toward what indeed works and benefits your business. Analytics helps you pinpoint these insights and keeps you from throwing cash at ineffective marketing and pointless tasks.
Example: Say your Facebook ads get lots of clicks but few purchases, while your email campaigns lead to more actual sales despite low CTRs. With this data, you’d shift more of your budget to analyzing email campaigns to capitalize on it and, on the other hand, invest more time in user behavior upon ad clicking. There must be a solid reason why your messages appeal to the audience but lead to small sales.
3. Predict what’s next.
What will your customers want tomorrow? No one knows better than your historical data. If you analyze previous buying habits and trends, you’ll predict what customers might be looking for next.
Example: A custom clothing brand notices that every fall, there’s a spike in sweater sales with Canadian maple leaves and embroidered clouds. Knowing this, they can promote sweaters before the trend peaks and customize designs for the new season. Moreover, the brand can allocate more money to bold campaigns and expect substantial ROIs.
Now, let’s learn from real-world stories.
Case study #1: Boosting customer acquisition for a California bank.
Quantzig, a customer analytics company, helped a big California-based bank with customer acquisition. They used customer segmentation and profiling to determine whom they should target.
The results speak for themselves:
- Customer acquisition jumped by 17%. By focusing on the right audience, the bank was able to attract new customers by leaps and bounds.
- Retention rate hit 54%. While this is about keeping customers, it ties into acquisition, too; Happy, long-term customers often bring in new business through referrals.
This shows us how using data-driven strategies can help even classic businesses boost customer acquisition and retention simultaneously.
Case study #2: Walmart’s use of big data in customer acquisition.
By using big data — like shopping history, personal info, and product preferences — Walmart created personalized shopping experiences that keep customers coming back and drive up sales.
The results prove it:
- 30% increase in new sign-ups. More customers registered on Walmart’s eCommerce platform.
- 20% higher conversion rates. Personalized recommendations improved the number of purchases from new shoppers.
- Rise in online sales. The Walmart Grocery App saw a significant jump in downloads, especially during the pandemic.
But don’t treat “big data” as the only thing that matters.
Sure, it’s important, but it’s not as crucial as digging a little deeper to understand why over what.
“Too many brands focus heavily on quantitative over qualitative data because it’s simple and impressive. But unless you’re using qualitative data to understand why the numbers are changing, you miss understanding how to lean into strengths and eliminate weaknesses,” shares Brooke Webber, Head of Marketing at Ninja Patches.
What Makes Great Customer Acquisition Data for Analysis?
Together with brands that worked customer acquisition to their advantage, I can highlight four pillars for great data:
- Customer segmentation.
- Lead source tracking.
- Integration and automation.
- Predictive analysis.
I'll go over some real-world examples to better explain this concept. Because nothing teaches us better than hiccups and wins.
1. Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation and micro-segmentation make data “easier on the eyes.”
Sorting customers based on demographics or behaviors helps companies understand what each segment wants.
For example, the HubSpot team analyzes how free users who eventually upgrade behave compared to those who don’t and reads these insights to improve marketing and onboarding strategies targeted to specific user segments. This helps guide users along the path to becoming paying customers.
If zoomed out, customer acquisition analysis also helps marketing pros gain a complete understanding of how the majority of users behave. This translates into TOFU campaigns that keep HubSpot at the forefront for anyone searching for advanced paid marketing and sales solutions.
2. Lead Source Tracking
By tracking lead sources, you can gather useful customer acquisition data to see which channels work best and optimize your marketing strategies accordingly.
Are customers finding you through search engines, social media posts or reels, paid ads, coupons, or influencer recommendations?
For example, Gymshark can track what portion of their fitness supplements and equipment sales come from customers finding them through search engines, social media, or thanks to influencers.
Let’s take the latter as an example. Every influencer gets their discount code.
So, if people use the code MARNIEH, the Gymshark team knows that influencer drives those customers. If many sales come through that code, they’ll see it’s worth sending more free products to that influencer or paying them, depending on their agreement.
3. Integration and Automation
Seamless integration and automation between tools ensure accurate, real-time tracking of customer behaviors, drop-off points, marketing campaign analytics, and sales performance. Thus, you obtain great customer acquisition data to act on.
For example, HubSpot combines CRM, email marketing, and social media tools into one platform. This allows businesses to track customer interactions automatically, reducing manual work.
When a company runs a social media campaign, HubSpot captures new leads and updates the CRM on its own. This helps businesses see which channels are bringing in the most customers.
4. Predictive Analysis and AI Insights
Predictive analytics helps businesses anticipate customer needs (cheers to AI).
Amazon uses AI — to gather accurate cart abandonment data and user history so they can send personalized follow-up emails.
Amazon nudges users about their pending purchases, cutting down on lost sales. What’s even cooler is that by sending only relevant messages, they maintain a high conversion rate → Amazon listings convert at 10% to 15% on average. For Prime members, it's even higher, over 74%.
10 Customer Acquisition Metrics to Analyze
And now, we come to perhaps the most important part: what metrics to analyze to understand what we’re doing right and where we can improve.
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1. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)
The Customer Acquisition Cost assesses the company's average expense to bring in a new customer. CAC varies from company to company, but it primarily includes costs associated with marketing and sales teams, such as investments in advertisements and content. You can gauge how well a business’s direction and strategy are performing through CAC.
Why This Metric Matters
- Assess returns on marketing spend. For example, $10,000 spent yields 100 customers = $100 CAC.
- Helps allocate funds effectively across channels, shifting budget from costly ads to social media for lower CAC.
- Spots inefficiencies in the sales process. High CAC in lead qualification indicates a need for improvement.
- Compares performance against competitors. For instance, if CAC is 25% above the industry average, you need to review the strategy.
- Informed acquisition strategies based on CLV →, e.g., a $900 CLV with a $300 CAC results in a healthy 3:1 ratio.
Try HubSpot’s Free CAC Calculator to simplify your cost calculations. Identify your business's key metrics and KPIs for customer support, service, and success.
2. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate reports the percentage of individuals who have completed a desired action. From a marketing viewpoint, this metric is used to measure the performance of various actions, such as blog visits, form completions, and CTA clicks.
This means that there are many types of conversions — not just at the end of the funnel when a lead buys a service and becomes a customer.
Why This Metric Matters
- Shows the quality of your website's message and content.
- It’s a great way to measure the value of your customer acquisition strategy.
- By improving the conversion rate, you can achieve greater revenue with the same marketing expense.
As I was working on this section, I took a look at e-commerce conversion rates across various sectors. According to Statista, beauty and health are at the top, with almost 3% in Q2 2024, followed by food and beverage at 2.4%. The overall average sits just above 1.9%.
3. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
CLV is closely related to CAC. It’s one of the customer success metrics that provides insight into the total net profit or revenue derived from a customer.
You can assess where your business is headed in the long term through CLV. A poor CLV indicates that you are targeting irrelevant or poor-fit customers with a high churn rate. Product issues and poor customer support can also result in a low CLV.
Why This Metric Matters
- Focusing on CLV encourages profits by stimulating repeat sales.
- It shows how well you are reaching and retaining customers.
- When combined with CAC, it fuels customer retention and acquisition.
Riccardo Ocleppo, Founder of Docsity & OPIT, pointed out:
“One common mistake I've seen businesses make when analyzing customer acquisition data is focusing solely on the number of acquired customers without scrutinizing the quality or potential LTV of these customers. Consequently, they might attract one-time customers, leading to high churn rates. We combat this by using analytics to forecast the LTV of each user segment, and then, we prioritize the ones with the highest long-term profitability.”
4. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Getting users to notice your ads, engage with you, and click on your content = CTR.
CTR is the percentage of people who saw your ads or links and clicked through. You can track click-through rates on all kinds of media — from social media posts to marketing emails.
Why This Metric Matters
- Shows if your content is relevant and engaging.
- It’s a solid way to measure the effectiveness of your marketing and ad campaigns, including elements like messaging, creatives, and precise audience targeting.
- A high CTR boosts your ad ranking, increasing visibility and traffic.
5. Churn Rate
Losing customers is normal, but the churn rate helps detect an alarming loss. In short, the churn rate is the percentage of people who leave your business over a specific period.
Why This Metric Matters
- Helps you evaluate whether your marketing strategy is effective or needs adjustments.
- Identifying patterns in churn can help you develop stronger customer relationships and tailor your retention efforts.
- A high churn rate directly impacts revenue because it reduces customer lifetime value and increases CAC.
I was curious, so I looked into the average churn rates across various industries in 2024, and here’s what I found:
But I dug deeper and checked out some research from FinancesOnline. Turns out, the average customer churn rate is 18%, but in some industries, it can soar to 30%. The financial and cable sectors are really feeling the pinch, with churn rates sitting at 25%.
6. Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI measures how profitable your investment in acquiring new customers is by comparing the revenue generated to the costs involved.
Why This Metric Matters
- Assess how well your customer acquisition strategies are performing financially.
- Guides effective allocation of marketing budgets by identifying high-return strategies that deserve more investment.
- Provides insights into the long-term profitability of acquired customers.
- Benchmarks performance against industry standards or past campaigns to identify successful tactics.
7. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
ROAS measures your campaign success. It defines the generated revenue for every $ of marketing budget spent.
But don’t mix ROAS and ROI together. The latter calculates the total return on marketing expense, while ROAS is solely focused on what you spend on a campaign.
Why This Metric Matters
- Combined with CLV and CAC, ROAS helps you assess customer value against acquisition costs.
- A strong ROAS helps justify your advertising budget to stakeholders.
- Knowing which ads deliver the highest ROAS lets you refine targeting to the most responsive audience segments.
Plan your ad budget with HubSpot’s Advertising ROI Calculator. It analyzes key metrics like monthly budget, cost-per-click, and conversion rate.
8. Average Order Value (AOV)
AOV measures the average revenue generated per transaction. Many marketers strive for a high AOV, but it shouldn’t be a standalone indicator of your success.
Unpopular opinion: A higher AOV doesn’t necessarily mean higher profitability. You can have a high AOV but low margins if the cost of goods sold is high.
Why This Metric Matters
- Reveals how much customers typically spend, helping you tailor product offerings. For example, an AOV of $50 indicates customers are comfortable spending that amount per visit.
- Highlights opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. If customers who are buying shoes often purchase socks, you can promote socks at checkout.
- Monitoring AOV can signal when to introduce new promotions. A declining AOV might prompt a bundle deal to encourage higher spending.
- Helps you design targeted promotions. If AOV is $30, a discount on orders over $40 can encourage larger purchases.
9. Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate
Do you often add items to your online shopping cart and then forget about them? 🫣
According to Oberlo's research, a whopping 70% of cart abandoners do the same in 2024. But as a marketer, you want to understand how often this happens and why — it can indicate issues with pricing and the checkout process and even impact your CAC.
The latest insight on abandonment rates might scare you, so I’m sharing some quick tips from our guide to help you steer clear of those bad numbers:
- Keep customers engaged while on hold. Ask for info like account details upfront to cut down on time once they reach an agent.
- Offer a call-back option. Let customers save their spot in line without waiting on hold.
- Staff up during peak times. Schedule more agents during busy periods to reduce wait times.
- Give an estimated wait time. Let callers know how long they’ll be waiting to ease frustration.
- Train your team and give them the right tools. Well-equipped agents handle calls faster and better.
- Provide alternative support options. Point customers to FAQs, chatbots, or help centers for quicker solutions.
- Fix recurring problems. Tackle product or website issues to reduce the need for calls in the first place.
Why This Metric Matters
- High abandonment rates can point to issues like complicated checkout processes, unexpected fees, or misleading UI.
- Reducing cart abandonment turns potential buyers into actual customers, boosting sales.
- Knowing when and where users abandon can guide retargeting campaigns to bring them back and complete the purchase.
10. Average Time to Conversion Rate
This shows how fast or slow leads turn into customers. It also refers to how long it takes someone to complete a desired action, like filling out a form or signing up for a newsletter.
A shorter time means your sales process is smooth. However, the ideal conversion time depends on your business goals, industry, and many other factors.
Why This Metric Matters
- A long conversion time can highlight issues in your customer journey funnel that need fixing.
- Understanding how long conversions take helps predict future revenue more accurately.
- Once you identify and reduce conversion time, your potential customers will get a better, faster experience.
How do I Gather Customer Acquisition Data & Metrics?
When I’ve got to consolidate customer acquisition data and metrics, I track it and pull info from different tools and sources. Here’s how:
1. Calculating CAC
- How to gather: Set up conversion goals in Google Analytics to track form submissions, purchases, or newsletter sign-ups. Add up all your marketing and sales expenses over a period — ad spend, salaries, and software costs. Divide that by the number of new customers.
- Example: You spent $10,000 on marketing and brought in 100 new customers. Your CAC would be $100 ($10,000 ÷ 100).
Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s Advanced Marketing Reporting to see the total cost of sales and marketing efforts. Connect each customer interaction to revenue, track conversion rates, and measure the time between steps to create the best possible customer journey.
My favorite part? It lets me generate ready-made attribution and KPI reports, use AI to analyze trends, and optimize campaigns based on real-time insights, all in one dashboard.
2. Conversion Rate
- How to gather: Use Google Analytics or your CRM to track the number of visitors who take a desired action — e.g., signing up, making a purchase, etc.
- Example: If 1,000 people visit your site, and 50 make a purchase, your conversion rate is 5% (50 ÷ 1,000).
💡Pro tip: I prefer to use Hotjar’s visual heatmaps as a supplemental tool to understand how users interact with my site before converting. These heatmaps let me see where users click, scroll, and engage most on my pages, helping me identify areas that may need improvement to boost conversions.
3. Lead Source Performance
- How to gather: Most marketing tools, including HubSpot, can track where leads are coming from. Is it social media, search engines, email campaigns, or referrals?
- Example: You run two Facebook ads — one for a webinar and one for a free ebook. HubSpot shows 300 leads came from the webinar ad, while 200 leads came from the ebook ad. This data helps you understand which content brings in more interest.
Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s Marketing Analytics & Dashboard Software to track all your campaigns in one place. Spot top-performing assets, check site traffic, and view reports across different channels.
My favorite part? I can track the entire customer journey and see how every marketing interaction contributes to revenue. Plus, HubSpot’s tracking code helps me monitor site visitor behavior and automate workflows.
Customer Journey Map Template offers seven free templates to help sales, marketing, and support teams understand their customers better and improve results.
4. Lifetime Value
- How to gather: Take the average revenue per customer and multiply it by how long they stay with your business.
- Example: If a customer spends $100 per year and typically stays with you for 3 years, their LTV is $300 ($100 x 3 years). This data can be pulled from your payment platform like Stripe, which provides detailed reports on customer spending over time.
Pro tip: If you’re owning a subscription business, ProfitWell by Paddle is one of the best options to track LTV and other revenue metrics.
5. Google Analytics for Website Traffic
- How to gather: Set up Google Analytics to track metrics like user behavior, acquisition channels, and goal completions (such as purchases or form submissions).
- Example: You notice that most of your sales come from users who land on your site via Google search, which means SEO efforts are paying off. You can find this data in the “Acquisition” section of Google Analytics.
6. CRM Software for Sales Data
- How to gather: Use a CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot to track interactions with leads and customers, from first contact to closing the sale.
- Example: You see that leads nurtured through email convert faster than cold calls. Your CRM provides a dashboard showing that 20% of email leads convert, compared to only 5% of cold call leads.
Pro tip: Use HubSpot Sales Reporting & Performance Management to track your team’s progress with real-time, accurate data insights. Monitor revenue, track target attainment, and improve performance with deep coaching insights.
My favorite part? The AI-powered tools make it super easy to whip up visual, customizable reports for quick updates on your pipeline, deal status, and more.
7. Surveys for Direct Customer Feedback for Qualitative Analysis
- How to gather: Send post-purchase surveys or integrate in-app surveys in the customer journey step where you’ve discovered a high abandoned rate. Use tools like Typeform or Survicate.
- Example: A survey shows that 40% of your customers found you through Instagram. What will you do? Allocate more budget to Instagram ads. ✔️
8. A/B Testing for Campaign Optimization
- How to gather: Use A/B testing tools like Optimizely to test different variations of your marketing campaigns.
- Example: You run two versions of a landing page: one with a red call-to-action button and one with a green button. After a month, the data shows that the green button led to 20% more conversions. This test data comes directly from your A/B testing tool.
Your Job Becomes Easier with Great Analytics
Here’s my take as someone who’s been working in sales and marketing for over seven years and trying to understand their buying decisions: Without solid customer acquisition analytics, you’ll feel lost.
You won’t grasp why some strategies attract customers while others fall flat. It’ll be pure guesswork on a small budget. But once you start analyzing the numbers, everything starts to make sense.
You’ll spot which channels work best, how to pull in more customers, and how to tweak your tactics for the biggest impact. Equip yourself with the right tools because they will make your job much easier.
Free Customer Journey Template
Outline your company's customer journey and experience with these 7 free templates.
- Buyer's Journey Template
- Future State Template
- Day-in-the-Life Template
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
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