Criteo CLV Report 2019
Criteo CLV Report 2019
Criteo CLV Report 2019
This time last year, Criteo published a driving loyalty through continual
report on Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) iteration of all customer touchpoints to
as a means of measuring the value a drive better outcomes for both the brand
shopper brings to a company over their and the shopper.
lifecycle. 12 months on, we revisited the
topic of CLV to find out how far the measure Returning to our CLV survey, the research
has progressed in terms of adoption, the did however highlight some common
challenges marketers are experiencing challenges or, more accurately, ‘gaps’ in
in making it a functional part of how they optimising for CLV. These we can divide
gauge customer activity, and what missing into three broad categories: a data gap,
elements are preventing it from becoming a business gap, and a skills gap. They
the default measure of value in the industry. have typically manifested as an inability
to bring all stakeholders on board with
To gain this insight, we once again surveyed the measure, challenges around finding
100 senior and C-suite marketers across the and using the data necessary for a
UK with the same questions. More specifically, complete picture of CLV and a struggle to
we asked how CLV is being applied in their retain the appropriate in-house talent to
organisation, which data they are using operationalise the measure.
to formulate the metric, which roles and
departments are responsible for driving CLV We argue that marketers, senior
and what barriers or pain-points they’re management and lines of business
experiencing that are hindering complete heads all have important roles to play in
adoption. bridging these gaps and making CLV an
actionable way to monitor and enhance
Comparing the two years’ data side-by-side, relationships with existing customers and
we can see both encouraging signs and prospects. With deeper understanding
areas for improvement. General awareness and an increased ability to implement, we
of CLV remained consistent (100%) and believe that CLV could replace return on
in fact there was a pronounced increase investment (ROI) as the primary measure
in those who identified as having high for the success of customer relationships
awareness (43% in 2019 vs 34% in 2018) and and a key driver for loyalty in a competitive
in organisational efforts to monitor CLV (32% marketplace.
vs 24%). We also found a promising level of
agreement on the benefits their organisation
was gaining by using CLV, including customer
retention, sales and brand loyalty.
3 Defining CLV
5 Calculating CLV
5 CLV vs ROI
5 CLV vs Loyalty
13 Conclusion
1 |
Introduction
Putting a value on
customer relationships
Every business has its own definition of what evaluation, but doesn’t quite cut it when
constitutes great customer service. Among looking at the fullness of a customer
many admirable examples from UK brands, relationship. It’s for this purpose that
one that stands out relates to a customer Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) has emerged
from whom return business may be many as a powerful means of evaluating the
years away. In this instance, Virgin Trains effectiveness of all strategies and touch
East Coast (now LNER) reacted to a request points over the entirety of the customer
to move a young boy’s day of travel due to journey. It elevates focus from a sales level to
a hospital appointment by upgrading him to a business level, helping to direct and reorient
1st class so he could sleep comfortably on strategies around the customer.
the way. Aside from being a nice PR win for
the company, it also highlighted the value of As marketers look more holistically at
broadening the perspective of what it takes customer relationships, CLV becomes a
to make a customer feel special. natural part of their evaluation toolkit.
Evidence suggests high awareness of the
Across the pond, US online retailer Zappos metric, and indeed its value, but how widely
set the bar especially high with a customer is it being used? In this report, we investigate
call that lasted a record-breaking 10 the current state of CLV. We look at what’s
hours and 43 minutes. This feat wasn’t a changed since we published our 2018 report:
mere coincidence – an employee feeling how it’s being applied and what challenges
particularly hospitable that day – it was marketers are finding in implementing it into
part of a culture that places such value on their marketing programmes. Ultimately, we
customer interactions that it was encouraged. want to know whether CLV is, or can become,
In such a situation, the employee had just to the primary metric for shaping and defining
alert his colleagues so that resources could long-term marketing strategies.
be allocated to facilitate the long discussion.
2 |
Why CLV?
Section 1
Moving beyond ROI in
measuring customer value
3 |
Organisations mainly saw benefits of
monitoring CLV in increasing customer
retention (64%), gaining more sales (59%),
encouraging greater brand loyalty (58%)
and improving personalisation (47%).
4 |
Calculating CLV CLV vs ROI
In its simplest form, CLV is calculated Conventionally, measuring customer value
by adding up the revenue earned from is based on a simple ROI formula: You take
a customer over their lifetime and then the sales growth from that product or service,
subtracting the initial cost of acquiring subtract the marketing costs, and then
them. In short: divide by the marketing cost. It’s a simple
way of calculating value, but lacks the
CLV = (Annual revenue per customer crucial time dimension that’s vital for
* Customer relationship in years) – strategic decision-making.
Customer acquisition cost
CLV looks at a longer time horizon, taking
To take an example, a subscription- into account spending habits and behaviour.
based online grocery firm wants to It’s therefore a superior metric for assessing
boost marketing to create greater long-term profitability as opposed to one-
awareness of their service among time buying activity. ROI can be perfectly
working professionals aged 25-40. useful in the short-term, but over a longer
In order to establish their marketing term could be detrimental to the business as
budget for the campaign, they could it does nothing to encourage a more circular
use CLV to work out how much each sales and marketing process. CLV, on the
new customer is worth for them. With a other hand, has a predictive value in that it
small but loyal existing customer base, helps marketers to make decisions to support
they set out on their calculations. or change their strategies and tactics.
Note that we do not see CLV and ROI
Reviewing their existing customer data, as binary choices; ideally ROI should be
they find the following: each customer captured, but only insofar as it's measured
receives four deliveries per month, at to reinforce CLV as the primary measure of
a monthly subscription cost of £40. customer engagement.
Based on existing churn rates, they
forecast that each customer will use
the service for five years. The average
cost to acquire a new customer (based CLV vs Loyalty
on online marketing tactics, first month
free offer, etc.) is around £60. Brands often obsess over loyalty. And not
without due cause; what better compliment
Applying these figures to our for your product or service than customers
formula shows: coming back time and time again? It stands
to reason that businesses should seek to
(£480 p.a. x 5) – 60 = £23402 encourage repeat custom, supported by
a deeper – though less tangible – sense of
The company can therefore structure goodwill around how they perceive and
their marketing campaign based on interact with your brand.
the anticipation that each customer
converted will produce £2340 in value. However, loyalty does not always equate
to value, and brands should look to apply
2 Note that this calculation assumes marketing and revenue costs remain relatively flat, and so
businesses may have to tweak the formula based on the intricacies of their own sales model. 5 |
more sophisticated metrics to their customer easily replicable by competitors and need
engagement than simply return custom. to be supported and maintained through
Indeed, loyalty doesn’t work like it used to. individually-appropriate strategies. Loyalty
Separate Criteo research3 found that 64% needs to be fostered, but loyalty without CLV
of shoppers are willing to consider a new cannot be indicative of business health.
brand. Of the various reasons that drive
consumer decisions to try new brands, ‘value CLV is more powerful than loyalty as it
for money’ is most prominent (63%). Product provides a more accurate read of true value.
selection (45%), customer service (44%) and Would a business prefer a customer that buys
low prices (43%) are also important factors. frequently and at high volume over a three-
month period, or one that makes intermittent,
Brand loyalty, therefore, is up for grabs. low-volume purchases over a three-year
Customers will still take offers and discounts, period? It’s distinctions of this kind that CLV
but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll still be there helps to manifest.
tomorrow. Loyalty drivers have become
Encouraging loyalty
59% Social media ads 58% Email campagins
Section 2
The barriers to CLV
metric adoption
So far, we’ve established the value of (64%) believing that monitoring CLV would
CLV and have evidenced the fact that help them increase customer retention.
UK marketers understand they should be Specific use cases included using CLV to
looking at their own activities through this increase their customer life span (37%),
lens. The logical question that follows is: increasing purchase frequency (32%) and
why hasn’t it become the de facto way of increasing average order value (29%). Only
measuring customer success? 12% said they didn’t see any value in their
organisation monitoring CLV.
Our 2019 survey provided insight into three
broad ‘gaps’ that are hindering adoption
and value. We will look at the extent to which
marketers are struggling with these three
areas in this section, and compare our new Benefits of CLV
findings with those of the 2018 report.
64%
7 |
Attribution methods
Last click
Data-driven
43% attribution
61%
The results did however highlight some due to users not being signed in (23%), and
significant challenges in getting full value an inability to track single-use products
from data. Key data barriers to increasing (21%). Gaps in these areas can have a high
CLV identified include tracking customers impact on the accuracy of predictive CLV
cross-device (30%), inability to collect data calculations.
8 |
are only part of the puzzle, and without the CLV, 27% find it too complicated to
right talent in place organisations can easily monitor and 18% are unable to implement
find themselves tracking the wrong things, or their learnings. Further, the in-house skills
tracking the right things in the wrong way. gap appears to have worsened from last
Skills are therefore a vital component for year, rising to 40% in 2019 from 26% 2018.
driving CLV. It should be noted that this increase could
align with greater awareness of CLV, i.e.
In this area we found some causes for marketers last year simply weren’t fully
concern. 40% of respondents said their aware of their shortcomings. In any case,
organisation lacks in-house skills to monitor it will be an important issue to tackle.
9 |
Bridging the gaps
Section 3
How to implement CLV
Our research not only highlighted some of How CLV could be improved in
the gaps relating to CLV, but also provided
respondents' organisations
some valuable insight into how organisations
may go about bridging these gaps in order
to make CLV a functional part of their culture
and business processes. It this section
we reveal the findings and provide some
suggestions for how you may address these
gaps in your own organisation.
24%
33%
33%
36%
Improved customer
insight
experience
Improved brand
reputation
Increased comms
for customers
Better internal
communications
It’s therefore crucial that understanding of
CLV is spread across business lines.
10 |
Bridging the Data Gap Recommendations
We’ve established that accurate data is a • Gain a 360-degree view of the
crucial element of calculating CLV. Being able customer; Piece together data from all
to collect omnichannel data with accurate customer touchpoints to ensure that CLV
attribution places a company in a better calculations are as robust as possible.
position to develop a dynamic framework for
calculating CLV, and for making the metric to • Improve data flow; Establish processes
inform their marketing campaigns. to ensure all relevant CLV data is
collected and put to use.
Our respondents showed strong awareness
of where data could enhance their • Commit to becoming a customer-
CLV. Better use of existing data (46%), centric company; CLV is an opportunity
better customer insight (40%), increased for your business to enhance the quality
personalisation (35%) and better integration of the service it provides to customers.
between online and offline (30%) were Making best use of available data can
identified as the key elements that would facilitate this.
enable them to improve CLV for their
organisation in future.
11 |
Effective means for
enhancing CLV
Bridging the Skills Gap
We identified earlier the importance of having
the right skills on hand to collect, blend and
implement data in order to operationalise
CLV. As we saw, in-house data talent is
a challenge for a large portion of the
organisations we spoke to. With intense
competition for scarce talent, we asked
respondents about what could be done to
support their efforts in this regard.
25%
31%
single customer view (25%). The human
element was also highlighted, with nearly a
third of respondents (31%) acknowledging the
importance of dedicated retention teams to
drive CLV through customer relations.
teams to drive CLV
CX management
platforms
Dedicated retention
Recommendations
• Designate responsibilities; Have
clear responsibilities and chains of
command for monitoring, maintaining
and acting upon CLV. These
responsibilities should not only be
held within the marketing team.
How Criteo can support
• Make targeted investments in martech
solutions; Choose which platforms you At Criteo we’re laser-focused on helping our
require based on your specific CLV data clients to achieve their Customer Lifetime
needs. Being able to consume solutions Value goals. Our full-funnel advertising
as-a-service will help create cost solutions provide a range of targeting
efficiency. capabilities to maximise repeat customer
purchases across the web, apps and in
• Consider managed data services; If you physical stores.
lack the required skills in-house, consider
outsourcing or out-tasking as a means of The Criteo Platform allows us to identify and
gaining expert support in a reliable way. target the customers that are most likely
12 |
to become our clients’ new most valuable customer interactions, and use the calculation
shoppers. Our unique commerce data set as the basis for decisions on where to direct
is built from a detailed understanding of resources to further enhance customer value.
1.9B monthly visitors who spend over $800B
in annual ecommerce transactions. We’ve Our research showed that UK marketers are
developed a number of optimisation tools to yet to fully embrace CLV. Comparing with last
answer the needs of clients who wish to move year’s research, we can see that it’s become
beyond simple transactions to maximising even more of a priority, yet implementing it
customer loyalty and lifetime value. hasn’t been any easier a task. We identified
the gaps that the organisation needs to
address in order to make CLV part of its
Conclusion culture, capture the data required to fuel
CLV models and ensure access to the skills
Customer loyalty remains a holy grail for necessary to optimise its use. We then offered
businesses. If we can project with any some suggestions for how a marketer might
degree of certainty what customers will seek to drive progress in these three key areas.
do next week, next month or next year,
we can structure our business operations For any business, regardless of how
to accommodate. We can invest more in advanced they are on their CLV journey, it’s
enhancing our product or service, employ important to remember that CLV reflects the
more staff and with more defined expertise, nature of customer relationships. Customer
and attract more customers through more behaviours and spending patterns are not
creative marketing initiatives. always predictable and so modelling all
elements of customer interactions needs
As we’ve seen in this report, however, loyalty to be dynamic. Monitoring CLV can help to
alone isn’t enough. Intermittent or low- create a self-enhancing system where the
value transactions do little more to facilitate data inputs and outputs are in equilibrium;
business growth and development than the more value you can attract from
simple one-off or offer-led transactions. We customers, the more value you can give to
need a multi-dimensional approach that customers, new and existing.
accounts for the period over which someone
can be defined as ‘a customer’, and we need The research has also highlighted some
methods in place to maximise their value to positive signs on the state of CLV. There’s
the business, whether that means encouraging indication that the concept will receive
them to buy in greater volume, at a faster greater adoption in the coming years as
rate or at a higher unit value. If we’re able to it becomes more widely understood and
identify this multi-dimensional customer, we companies become better able to capture
can optimise the business to attract repeat and process the right data in order to
purchases and more people like them. calculate it easily and consistently.
Through CLV, organisations have a measure ROI, as the primary measure of customer
through which they can gain this perspective. value, is finally being replaced with a metric
They can bring data from across all more suitable for meeting the needs of
customer-facing parts of the business to the customers and businesses of today.
create a dynamic and accurate picture of Farewell, ROI – long live CLV.
13 |
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