B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
3x
3x -- healthy ltv to cac ratio for DTC/SaaS brands (2026)
A 3:1 LTV to CAC ratio is the widely used standard healthy benchmark across SaaS and DTC.
- Benchmark ratio applies to margin-adjusted CLV against fully loaded CAC
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
·
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
3x
Unit
Ratio
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
50
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
David Skok
Primary
Tier C
https://www.darkroomagency.com/observatory/customer-lifetime-value ↗
Source Article
Customer Lifetime Value: Formula & Examples | Darkroom
RETENTION MARKETING
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): What It Is and How to Calculate It
Written by Darkroom leardership
July 17. 2026
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total profit a business earns from a customer across their entire relationship. It is calculated as average order value × purchase …
Original Research
David Skok
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Popularized by David Skok's SaaS metrics framework
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
DTC/SaaS brands: 3x healthy ltv to cac ratio. Source: David Skok (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/ltv-cac-healthy-benchmark
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ltv-cac-healthy-benchmark" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>3x</strong> -- healthy ltv to cac ratio for DTC/SaaS brands<br><small>Source: David Skok (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/ltv-cac-healthy-benchmark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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