Marketing Channel Mix: Customer Acquisition Simulator

Monthly Channel Budget

Paid Search$3,000

Social Ads$3,000

Content / SEO$2,000

Referral Program$1,000

Live Metrics

New customers / mo

Blended CAC

LTV : CAC ratio

0.0 : 1

Total budget

Customer pool

How it works

Each channel shows diminishing returns: pouring more budget into one channel keeps buying customers, but at a shrinking rate as that channel's addressable audience saturates. Monthly acquisitions from channel i follow an exponential-saturation curve:

a_i = A_max,i · (1 − e^(−b_i / k_i))

where b_i is the budget you assign, A_max,i is the channel's monthly ceiling, and k_i is its saturation scale (how fast it fills up). The four channels here have different ceilings, saturation speeds and customer quality — Referral customers cost more per dollar of program spend at low volume but carry the highest lifetime value, while Paid Search and Social Ads scale up fastest at low budgets and taper off sooner.

Every simulated month, the acquired customers join a customer pool that also loses a fixed 4% to churn:

Pool(t+1) = Pool(t) · (1 − churn) + Σ a_i

Blended CAC = total budget ÷ total acquisitions. Blended LTV is the acquisition-weighted average of each channel's lifetime value. LTV:CAC above 3:1 is the classic healthy-growth benchmark; below 1:1 means you are losing money on every customer you buy.

Month 0

Paid Search Social Ads Content / SEO Referral

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