Unit Economics
Unit economics answer the fundamental growth question: are you spending less to acquire customers than they're worth? Apex calculates CAC, LTV, ROAS, and payback period by combining your ad spend data with revenue from Stripe, HubSpot, or QuickBooks.
The Four Metrics
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
Total ad spend ÷ Number of new customers in the period.
CAC tells you how much it costs, on average, to acquire one paying customer. Apex pulls ad spend from connected platforms (Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads) and counts customers from contacts with a converted outcome.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
Total revenue ÷ Number of customers in the period.
LTV represents the average revenue per converted customer. Revenue comes from conversionValue on contacts — typically set when deals close in HubSpot, charges land in Stripe, or invoices are paid in QuickBooks.
Info
This is a realized LTV based on actual revenue in the period, not a predictive model. It answers "how much are current customers worth on average?" — useful for comparing against CAC.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Total revenue ÷ Total ad spend in the period.
ROAS measures how many dollars of revenue you earn for each dollar spent on advertising. A ROAS of 3.0 means $3 in revenue for every $1 in ad spend.
Payback Period
CAC ÷ (LTV ÷ 12) in months.
Payback tells you how many months it takes for a customer's revenue to cover their acquisition cost, assuming the average revenue is spread evenly across the year.
Per-Channel Breakdown
Apex calculates these metrics per marketing channel using UTM source data:
- Ad spend is bucketed by the
utmSourceon each ad spend record - Customers are bucketed by their attributed source (from attribution)
- Revenue follows the same attribution
This lets you compare channel efficiency — you might find that Google Ads has a lower CAC but Meta Ads has a higher ROAS, giving you actionable data for budget allocation.
Data Sources
Unit economics depend on connecting the right sensors:
| Data | Source | Required for |
|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads | CAC, ROAS |
| Revenue | Stripe, HubSpot, QuickBooks | LTV, ROAS, Payback |
| Customers | Contact conversions (automatic from lead lifecycle) | CAC, LTV |
Tip
Connect at least one ad platform and one revenue source to get meaningful unit economics. Without spend data, CAC and ROAS can't be calculated. Without revenue data, LTV defaults to zero.
Time Windows
The unit economics dashboard defaults to a 30-day window. All metrics — spend, customers, revenue — are filtered to events within that window. This gives you a rolling view of recent acquisition efficiency.
Relationship to the Funnel
Unit economics sit on top of the conversion funnel. The funnel provides the customer count and revenue total that feed into the formulas. The funnel's per-source breakdown enables per-channel unit economics.
Next Steps
- Connect ad platforms to get spend data flowing
- Connect Stripe or HubSpot for revenue data
- View the funnel to see the full visitor-to-customer journey
- Optimize budget allocation based on per-channel ROAS