Beyond ROAS: Rethinking Customer Lifetime Value, Commerce Strategy & Long-Term Growth (Bryan Gildenberg, Founder of Confluencer Commerce)

Every company says they want to build long-term customer value, but then the annual budget shows up and suddenly everyone is focused on this quarter. Why is it so hard for organizations to invest today for a return they may not see until another budget cycle?

Let’s talk about CLV for a minute. The concept makes perfect sense on paper, but the models can sometimes assume a level of customer loyalty that simply doesn’t exist. Where do you think companies get overly optimistic when they try to put a value on a customer?

In highly competitive categories, are we even thinking about the “lifetime” part correctly? If consumers are constantly being won, lost, and won back, should brands start thinking less about Customer Lifetime Value and more about something like “Customer Leasehold Value”?

Once you have a more realistic view of what a customer is actually worth, how should that change the decisions being made around acquisition, retention, promotions, retail media, and where the next dollar gets spent?

So bring it all together for the executive sitting in that budget meeting: if the goal is to build a stronger commerce business rather than simply hit the next reporting period, what questions should leadership be asking before deciding where to place their bets?