ClassBug LTV & Cohort Analyzer

What is Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)?

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV or CLV) is the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer account throughout their entire relationship. It’s one of the most important metrics for understanding the long-term health of your business and making informed decisions about customer acquisition costs.

How does this LTV calculator work?

Our calculator uses cohort analysis to calculate LTV from your actual transaction data:

1. Upload your CSV containing transaction records with date, user_id, and net_revenue
2. Automatic cohort assignment groups customers by their first purchase month
3. Retention tracking monitors which customers return each month
4. LTV calculation sums revenue per customer over 12 and 24-month periods
5. Visualization displays retention curves and cumulative LTV charts

What data format do I need?

Your CSV file needs three columns:

Column	Description	Example
date	Transaction date	2024-01-15
user_id	Unique customer ID	cust_12345
net_revenue	Transaction amount	49.99

What metrics does the analyzer show?

Summary Metrics

• 12-Month LTV: Average revenue per customer in their first year
• 24-Month LTV: Average revenue per customer over two years
• Total Cohorts: Number of monthly cohorts analyzed

Retention Curve

Shows what percentage of customers remain active over time. Each gray line represents an individual cohort, while the bold line shows the average across all cohorts.

LTV Curve

Displays cumulative revenue per customer over time, helping you understand when customers become profitable relative to acquisition costs.

Cohort Performance Table

Detailed breakdown for each monthly cohort including:

• Number of customers enrolled
• Active customers at 12 and 24 months
• Cumulative revenue at 12 and 24 months
• LTV per customer at each milestone

Is my data secure?

Yes. All calculations run locally in your browser using Pyodide (Python compiled to WebAssembly). Your transaction data never leaves your computer and is never sent to any server.

How do I use LTV to improve my business?

Set Acquisition Budgets

If your 12-month LTV is $300, you know you can spend up to $100 acquiring a customer and still maintain a healthy 3:1 LTV:CAC ratio.

Identify Retention Problems

If your retention curve drops sharply at month 3, investigate what’s happening at that point in the customer journey.

Compare Acquisition Channels

Run separate analyses for customers from different sources to see which channels produce the highest-value customers.

Forecast Revenue

Use cohort LTV data to project future revenue based on your customer acquisition pipeline.

What’s the difference between LTV and ARPU?

• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) measures revenue over a specific time period (usually monthly)
• LTV (Lifetime Value) projects total revenue over the entire customer relationship

LTV = ARPU × Average Customer Lifespan

How accurate is cohort-based LTV?

Cohort analysis provides the most accurate LTV calculation because it:

• Uses actual transaction data, not estimates
• Accounts for customer behavior changes over time
• Reveals patterns hidden by simple averages
• Shows how LTV varies by acquisition period

Can I filter the analysis by date?

Yes. Use the “Filter End Date” field to exclude transactions after a specific date. This is useful for:

• Comparing historical periods
• Excluding incomplete recent months
• Running what-if scenarios