# LTV
> The margin a customer contributes over their whole relationship.
- Canonical: https://xeli.ad/knowledge/ltv
- Type: entity
- Entities: LTV, CPA, ROAS, Attribution
- Topic coverage: 32% · AI citation readiness: 60%
## Definition
Lifetime value is the cumulative contribution margin expected from a customer across repeat purchases, usually expressed over a fixed horizon such as 12 months.

## Why it matters
LTV is what lets you outbid competitors on first purchase without losing money.

## Keyword cluster
- ltv cac ratio
- customer lifetime value ecommerce
- ltv calculator
## Related
- [ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)](https://xeli.ad/glossary/roas): Revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising.
- [Attribution](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/attribution): The rules deciding which ad gets credit for a sale.
- [CPA](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/cpa): What one conversion costs you, all-in.
- [Ad Recall](https://xeli.ad/glossary/ad-recall): The share of exposed users who remember seeing an ad within a defined window.
- [AOV (Average Order Value)](https://xeli.ad/glossary/aov): The average revenue per order across a defined period.
- [Meta Ads Creative Strategy](https://xeli.ad/guides/meta-ads-creative-strategy): A modern, opinionated playbook for building Meta ad creative that scales — hooks, formats, iteration cadence, and the metrics that actually matter.
- [Creative Testing Framework](https://xeli.ad/guides/creative-testing-framework): A statistically-sound, budget-realistic framework for testing paid social creative — how many variants, how much spend, how long, and how to read the results.
- [Ecommerce Scaling Playbook](https://xeli.ad/guides/ecommerce-scaling-playbook): How the metrics, campaign structure, and creative pipeline change at each stage of scaling a DTC brand from $10k to $1M/mo in paid media.
## Entity graph
- [LTV](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/ltv): The margin a customer contributes over their whole relationship.
- [CPA](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/cpa): What one conversion costs you, all-in.
- [ROAS](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/roas): Revenue divided by ad spend — the headline efficiency number.
- [Attribution](https://xeli.ad/knowledge/attribution): The rules deciding which ad gets credit for a sale.
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Source: Xeli AI — the Agentic Creative OS for ecommerce. https://xeli.ad