Plain answers to the questions worth asking.

Why Marketing is a commercial advisory practice for B2B technology, SaaS and PE-backed businesses. It applies finance-grade rigour to the question most marketing measurement avoids: whether the money spent acquiring customers earns an adequate return. The practice is led by Alan Edwards.

Commercial Logic is the methodology behind the practice. It measures customer acquisition the way finance measures any other use of capital: fully-loaded cost in, discounted lifetime value out, and the ratio between the two. "Commercial logic applied" is the principle in three words.

Mainly CFOs and finance leaders, CMOs and marketing leaders, and the partners who back B2B technology and SaaS businesses. If you allocate, or answer for, a marketing budget, the questions here are yours.

It compares the lifetime value of a customer (CLV) with the cost of acquiring them (CAC). It is the clearest single read on whether customer acquisition creates or destroys value. A widely cited benchmark for a healthy B2B model is 3:1. Break-even is 1:1.

Most businesses count media, events and agency fees and call it CAC. That captures only a quarter to a third of the real figure. Fully-loaded CAC adds the sales and marketing headcount, the technology, and the channel costs that actually go into winning a customer, with retention separated out. Calculated properly, CAC is usually two to three times higher than the number on the dashboard.

The lifetime value of a customer after the cost of serving them, based on gross margin rather than revenue, and discounted to a present value. Revenue-based CLV overstates the number by the inverse of the margin, so we never use it.

Where the CLV:CAC ratio tells you whether the acquisition engine is healthy, Capital Burn Velocity tells you how fast. It is the rate, in pounds per month, at which the engine is creating or destroying value. The ratio tells you if; Burn Velocity tells you how fast. Read the full explainer.

The premium a weak brand adds to the cost of every acquisition. When a business is not known or trusted in its market, each deal starts cold and competes on price, so CAC rises. The brand tax is that avoidable premium, and the diagnostic exposes it.

3:1 is the common benchmark for a sustainable B2B model, and is better understood as a floor than a target. Below 1:1, a business is destroying capital on each customer. Between 1:1 and 3:1 it is creating value, but with a thin margin of safety. A blended ratio can hide a segment running below 1:1, which is why we always calculate it by segment.

Calibrate is a free, ten-minute self-assessment. It gives an indication of whether your marketing is likely to be running up acquisition cost or leaving value on the table. It is an indication, not a measurement: it does not produce your CAC, your CLV, your ratio or your Burn Velocity. It is the no-commitment way to find out whether the full diagnostic is worth your time.

Calibrate signals whether there is likely a problem. The Commercial Logic diagnostic measures it. The diagnostic produces your fully-loaded CAC, your net CLV, your CLV:CAC ratio by segment, your payback and your Capital Burn Velocity, calculated to finance standards and validated with your finance team. Calibrate is the on-ramp; the diagnostic is the answer.

A fully-loaded CAC, an NPV-adjusted CLV by segment, the CLV:CAC ratio against the 3:1 benchmark, the payback period, your Capital Burn Velocity, and a short set of prioritised actions in the order the numbers dictate. A board-ready read, not a marketing audit.

Typically two to three weeks, depending on how readily the data comes together.

Yes. The cost inputs are agreed and signed off with finance before the ratio is produced, which is what makes the number defensible at board level. It is the step that separates this from a marketing estimate.

Calibrate is free. The Commercial Logic diagnostic is a paid engagement. There is no charge to find out, through Calibrate, whether the diagnostic is worth doing.

The diagnostic is a fixed fee, scoped to the size and complexity of the business, so you know the cost before you commit. The simplest way to get a figure for your situation is to ask.

That is your decision. The findings stand on their own. If you want help acting on them, there is an optional advisory engagement to repair what the diagnostic finds, in the order the ratio dictates. No retainer is required to receive the diagnostic.

Optionally. Some clients take the diagnostic and act on it with their own team. Others ask Why Marketing to lead the work, often alongside specialist agency partners. Either way, the diagnostic comes first, and is not conditional on what follows.

Yes. The CLV:CAC tool can be licensed to other advisers and agencies. There is a separate page for practitioners with the detail.

Revenue, EBITDA and churn are lagging indicators: they report decisions taken eighteen to thirty-six months ago. The CLV:CAC ratio is a leading indicator. Good reported numbers and a deteriorating ratio can sit side by side, and by the time the comfortable metrics move, the problem has usually been compounding for years. Looking when things are good is how you catch it cheaply.

Often not. Most CAC figures capture only a quarter to a third of the true cost, and blend acquisition with retention. A ratio built on an understated CAC flatters the business and can send capital to the wrong place.

Forrester's 2024 research found 64% of B2B marketing leaders do not trust their own measurement.

Possibly, and a blended ratio is exactly where a problem hides. A healthy overall figure can contain a segment acquiring customers below 1:1, funded by a strong segment alongside it. Calculating the ratio by segment is what surfaces the difference, and the corrective action with it.