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Good question, but it doesn't (I've updated the comment).

The LTV is in terms of gross profit not net profit. It's the revenue minus the direct cost of fulfilling that revenue (cost of goods sold), so it would include: products, shipping, packaging, payment fees, staff time for handling, etc. It would not include: marketing, customer support (surprisingly!), R&D or creating the product, fixed costs such as offices, staff, etc.

I'm not quite sure what the best practice is on accounting for salaries of the marketing department. I think you wouldn't typically include full time employees managing marketing channels, but if you outsourced marketing to an agency you probably would account for the all-in cost to acquire customers via the agency, as they are almost their own marketing channel in a way. It really varies though, and I could be wrong on the best practice here.




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