Acquisition is the addiction killing cannabis profitability. You can see it in the bottom line: constant ad spend, endless discounts, and another month chasing new customers. In cannabis marketing, the cycle is especially costly, as brands are caught in a loop, spending more each quarter for the same temporary results.
The problem isn’t reach or awareness; it’s retention. The best way to protect your margins as you grow is to maximize existing relationships. Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures how your strategy drives long-term loyalty and thus stability.
Why repeat customers matter more than first-time buyers
It’s easy to focus on acquisition metrics like customer acquisition cost (CAC), or how much it costs to win a new buyer. But in cannabis, CAC is high due to strict advertising regulations and limited paid channels.
Let’s put it into perspective.
If it costs $50 to acquire a new customer who spends $100 once, your CAC ratio is 50 percent. That’s not scalable. But if that same customer buys four times a year, the ratio drops to 12.5 percent, and your CLV increases fourfold.
Each repeat purchase not only offsets CAC but also builds brand familiarity and advocacy. Repeat customers spend more, refer more friends, and require less persuasion over time. They’re the economic backbone of cannabis retail.
Tailoring your cannabis marketing strategy to CLV segments
When you understand your CLV segments, you can start seeing your audience in sharper detail. Not every customer behaves the same way, and treating them like they do wastes marketing budgets. Each group deserves its own approach, built around how they actually engage with your brand.
| Customer segment | What drives them | How to engage |
|---|---|---|
| Loyalists | Emotional connection and brand affinity | Reward with exclusive drops, VIP access, or early launches. |
| Price chasers | Deals, discounts, and value perception | Loyalty points, limited-time promos, SMS offers. |
| Dormant customers | Curiosity and reactivation triggers | New product releases, educational content, timely campaigns. |
| First-timers | Trust, education, and brand discovery | Storytelling, social proof, consistent experiences. |
Building campaigns around real customer behavior pays off. You’ll retain more of the people you’ve already won over and ensure every advertising dollar is directed toward someone ready to engage.
Using data to power brand loyalty and repeat purchases
Retention is built on data. The more you understand your customers’ purchase behavior, preferences, and point-of-sale data, the more effectively you can increase purchase frequency and long-term value.
To keep customers coming back, cannabis brands need consistent, compliant exposure in the places consumers already spend their time. Programmatic advertising makes that possible. It’s a compliant way for cannabis businesses to advertise products and promotions across mainstream websites and mobile apps without relying on social algorithms or coded language.
By activating first-party and point-of-sale data, marketers can personalize messaging, reinforce brand familiarity, and drive repeat sales. Here’s how:
- Personalized recommendations: Target returning customers with new products, preferred terpene profiles, or complementary SKUs.
- Educational storytelling: Use contextual placements to promote strain guides, consumption tips, or product benefits that nurture confidence and loyalty.
- Geo-targeted offers: Deliver local promotions or events to audiences within proximity to a dispensary or delivery zone.
When powered by programmatic, every ad impression reinforces your relationship with the customer instead of feeling transactional. Over time, these micro-connections compound into stronger loyalty, higher purchase frequency, and measurable growth.
How CLV improves the economics of cannabis growth
Focusing on CLV reshapes how cannabis businesses grow. Instead of constantly paying to acquire new customers, you create a compounding effect from your existing ones.
- Lower CAC over time: Each additional purchase increases efficiency.
- Higher revenue per customer: Returning buyers are more likely to experiment with premium SKUs, accessories, and new categories.
- Built-in advocacy: Loyal customers become brand evangelists, driving organic referrals and reviews.
With so few reliable advertising channels, word-of-mouth has never mattered more. The brands that take care of their best customers earn loyalty, and their advantage multiplies over time, showing up clearly in the numbers.
From ROAS to relationship ROI
Traditional return on ad spend (ROAS) focuses on short-term campaign performance. It’s transactional, not relational.
Relationship return on investment (ROI), on the other hand, measures how effectively marketing investments build loyalty and long-term engagement.
When you measure success by CLV instead of clicks, you shift your strategy from conversion to connection. Campaigns become about deepening relationships rather than chasing the next sale.
The cure for acquisition addiction in cannabis marketing
Chasing new customers might feel urgent, but it’s not where long-term profit lives. Brands that focus on acquiring new customers while simultaneously retaining existing ones treat relationships like assets, keeping customers for life. When you focus on customer lifetime value, marketing dollars work harder, campaigns become more predictable, and customers become advocates.
The path to profitability isn’t through constant acquisition; it’s through relationship and retention.
Frequently asked questions about cannabis customer lifetime value
What is customer lifetime value (CLV) in cannabis marketing?
Customer lifetime value (CLV) measures the total revenue a cannabis brand can expect from a customer over the full relationship, not just a single purchase. It helps marketers prioritize retention, loyalty, and repeat purchases instead of chasing one-off transactions.
Why is CLV more important than customer acquisition cost for cannabis brands?
Acquisition is expensive in cannabis due to strict rules and limited ad channels. CLV shows whether that spend pays off over time by tracking how often customers return, how much they spend, and how long they stay loyal.
How can cannabis brands increase customer lifetime value?
Brands can increase CLV by segmenting customers, personalizing offers, using loyalty programs, and leveraging first-party and point-of-sale data to drive repeat purchases through compliant, always-on campaigns.
How does programmatic advertising support customer retention in cannabis?
Programmatic advertising lets cannabis brands reach existing customers across mainstream websites and apps with compliant, targeted messaging—reinforcing familiarity, highlighting new products, and prompting repeat visits without relying on social algorithms.
What is “relationship ROI” and how is it different from ROAS?
ROAS focuses on short-term campaign revenue, while relationship ROI measures how marketing investments build long-term loyalty and engagement. For cannabis brands, relationship ROI aligns efforts with customer lifetime value instead of just click-based performance.
Cortney Brown brings more than fifteen years of experience in agency leadership, SaaS, and digital marketing to the cannabis sector. She specializes in helping highly regulated industries scale responsibly by transforming compliance, data, and customer insights into competitive advantage. Brown currently serves as vice president of growth at MediaJel, where she helps cannabis brands elevate retention, increase customer lifetime value, and drive measurable revenue growth through programmatic media and first-party data activation.
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