Pest Control Customer Lifetime Value Estimator

Lifetime value answers one question: how much is a single customer worth over the whole relationship? There are two ways to get there, and you pick one with the lifespan toggle.

mrr            = (basis = annual) ? planPrice / 12 : planPrice
annualRevenue  = mrr × 12

retention path:  LTV = mrr × 12 × years          (Monthly Value × Retention)
                 lifespan = years (× 12 = months)
churn path:      LTV = mrr / monthlyChurn         (ARPU ÷ churn)
                 lifespan = 1 / monthlyChurn  (months)

gross-profit LTV = LTV × grossMargin              (shown when margin < 100%)
LTV:CAC ratio    = ltvForRatio / CAC              (gross-profit when margin < 100%)
max affordable CAC = ltvForRatio / 3              (the 3:1 floor)

annual retention → monthly churn (geometric):
  monthlyChurn = 1 − (1 − annualChurn)^(1/12)     annualChurn = 1 − annualRetention

The retention path is the pest-vernacular default (Blue Grid Media's $45/mo × 3 yr = $1,620). The churn path is the subscription-math alternative (SubJolt / miniwebtool: $85 ÷ 0.015 ≈ $5,667). When you reason in annual retention, the conversion to monthly churn is geometric — 80% annual retention is about 1.84%/mo, not the naive 0.20 ÷ 12 = 1.67%, which would understate churn and overstate the lifetime value.

With a customer acquisition cost entered, the LTV:CAC ratio is graded against the 3:1 benchmark cited across the CLV literature: at or above 3:1 is Healthy, 1:1 to 3:1 is Marginal, below 1:1 is Underwater (a customer is worth less than it costs to acquire). Practitioners aspire to ten-to-one; three-to-one is the floor this tool flags against. The max-affordable-CAC is that floor expressed in dollars — the most you can spend to land a customer and still clear 3:1. When you enter a gross margin below 100%, the ratio compares the gross-profit LTV to CAC, because acquisition cost is spent out of margin, not revenue; the headline stays the revenue LTV so it matches the figures pest references publish.

Two definitions do most of the work in that arithmetic. The customer lifetime value entry sets out what the figure does and does not include, and churn rate explains the number that decides how long an average account survives. Since the cadence a customer buys changes both the ticket and the retention, it is worth testing the plans themselves in the recurring plan comparator before assuming a lifetime.