Applying sector benchmarks to judge your numbers

The four metrics that decide the verdict

Before comparing anything, define the terms precisely. Banking marketing lives or dies on these four.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). Total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers acquired in the same period.

LTV (Lifetime Value). The total gross margingross marginGross margin is the share of revenue left after subtracting the direct cost of producing goods or services, expressed as a percentage of revenue.View full definition → a customer generates over their relationship with you, discounted for churn. In banking, "margin" here is the marketing-relevant contribution: fees, interchange (the small fee a bank earns each time a customer uses their debit or credit card), and net interest contribution attributable to that customer. We stay on the marketing side of LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →, not the full P&L.

Funnel conversion. The percentage of people who move from one stage to the next: ad click, to application started, to application completed, to account funded (the customer actually deposits money or transacts). "Funded" is the stage that matters, because in banking an opened-but-empty account is worthless.

12-month retention. The percentage of customers acquired 12 months ago who are still active today. Define "active" explicitly: a login is weak, a funded balance or a transaction in the last 30 days is strong.

Why retail banks and neobanks need different benchmarks

The single biggest mistake is comparing yourself to the wrong peer group.

Retail incumbents (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo in the US; BNP Paribas, Santander, Lloyds in Europe) acquire through branches, brand, and cross-sell. Their CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → is higher, but they attach mortgages, cards, and savings to the same customer, lifting LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →.

Neobanks (Chime and Cash App in the US; Revolut, N26, Monzo in Europe) acquire digitally at lower cost but often start with a thin product (a debit card, a spending account). Lower CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition →, but also lower early LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition → and famously fragile retention, because a free account is easy to abandon.

So the same $150 CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → is excellent for a full-service incumbent and alarming for a debit-only neobank.

The benchmark ranges (2026, estimates)

The figures below are widely cited industry estimates as of early 2026, drawn from analyst commentary and public neobank disclosures. Treat them as directional ranges, not precise truths. Your own historical numbers are always the better baseline.

CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition →

• US neobanks: roughly $30 to $200 per funded customer (estimate). Wide range because paid-heavy players sit near the top.
• US retail incumbents: roughly $150 to $400+ for a checking relationship (estimate), reflecting branch and brand costs.
• Europe neobanks: often lower, roughly €20 to €120 (estimate), helped by viral referral and lighter regulatory friction in some markets.

LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →:CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → ratio

This ratio is the headline health metric. It tells you how many dollars of lifetime margin you get per dollar spent acquiring.

• The commonly used rule of thumb across subscription and fintech businesses is 3:1 or better is healthy, below 1:1 is losing money, and above 5:1 may mean you are underspending on growth.
• Mature retail banking relationships frequently exceed 3:1 because of long tenure and cross-sell. Early-stage neobanks often sit below 3:1 until they add revenue products.

FunnelFunnelThe customer journey from awareness to purchase, typically Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Decision, Action, with prospects narrowing at each stage.View full definition → conversion (digital account opening)

• Ad click to application start: often 10% to 30% (estimate).
• Application start to completion: 40% to 70% (estimate); heavy KYC (Know Your Customer, the regulatory identity checks banks must perform) drags this down.
• Completion to funded: 50% to 80% (estimate). This is where neobanks bleed: a customer opens the app, never adds money, and disappears.

12-month retention

• Retail incumbents: primary checking retention commonly 85% to 95% (estimate). Direct deposit and bill pay create powerful stickiness.
• Neobanks: highly variable, often 50% to 75% at 12 months (estimate), and much lower if you count "still funded" rather than "still registered."

For a solid primer on how the underlying unit economics fit together, the a16z classic on the topic is still worth a read: 16 Startup Metrics.

A worked example: judging a neobank program

Let's run real arithmetic on a hypothetical US neobank, "MeridianPay."

Inputs for one quarter:

• Marketing spend: $2,000,000
• New funded customers: 20,000
• Average monthly margin per active customer: $4 (interchange plus a small subscription tier)
• Expected average tenure: 30 months

CAC:

LTV (marketing-relevant, simple version):

LTV:CAC:

The verdict. A $100 CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → is squarely mid-range for a US neobank, so acquisition efficiency looks normal. But the LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →:CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → of 1.2:1 is the alarm. It is above break-even but far below the 3:1 health line. MeridianPay is not acquiring badly; it is monetizing and retaining badly. The lever is not "spend less on ads." It is "raise margin per customer or extend tenure": add a revenue product, drive direct deposit, or improve 12-month retention so the tenure assumption climbs from 30 months toward 40.

Notice how the benchmark changed the entire strategic conversation. Without it, $100 CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → sounds fine and the meeting ends. With it, you find the real problem.

🎬 [VIDEO: "LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition → to CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → Ratio Explained" - youtube.com - a concise walkthrough of how the ratio is built and where teams misread it]

Reading the funnelfunnelThe customer journey from awareness to purchase, typically Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Decision, Action, with prospects narrowing at each stage.View full definition → to find the leak

Benchmarks are most powerful stage by stage. Suppose MeridianPay's funnelfunnelThe customer journey from awareness to purchase, typically Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Decision, Action, with prospects narrowing at each stage.View full definition → looks like this:

• Click to application start: 25% (healthy)
• Start to completion: 45% (low end)
• Completion to funded: 55% (low end)

The top of the funnelfunnelThe customer journey from awareness to purchase, typically Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Decision, Action, with prospects narrowing at each stage.View full definition → is fine. The two lower stages are underperforming. That points at friction in KYC and onboarding, plus a weak reason to fund the account on day one. A well-known fix is the "first deposit incentive" and early direct-deposit nudges, which lift the completion-to-funded stage where the money is actually made.

Compare that to a retail incumbent whose funnelfunnelThe customer journey from awareness to purchase, typically Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Decision, Action, with prospects narrowing at each stage.View full definition → leaks at the top (few clicks convert to starts) but converts strongly once started. Same overall conversion, completely different fix: the incumbent needs better targeting and creative, not onboarding surgery.

Common ways benchmarks mislead you

Blended CAC hides paid CAC. If half your customers arrive through free referral, your blended CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → looks great while your paid CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → may be dangerously high. Always separate organic from paid before benchmarking.

Registered is not retained. Many published neobank retention figures count anyone who has not deleted the app. Benchmark on funded-and-active, or you will flatter yourself.

LTV built on optimistic tenure. LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition → is only as honest as the churn assumption inside it. If you assume 30-month tenure but 12-month retention is 55%, your tenure math is probably too rosy. Rebuild LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition → from your actual observed retention curve.

Wrong peer group. Benchmarking a debit-only neobank against a full-service incumbent, or a US player against a European one with different interchange economics, produces nonsense verdicts.

Turning benchmarks into a decision

Use a simple traffic-light read for each metric against its correct peer range:

• Green: at or above the healthy benchmark. Consider scaling spend.
• Amber: within range but trending wrong, or below the 3:1 LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →:CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition → line. Fix the specific stage.
• Red: below break-even (LTV: under 1:1) or retention collapsing. Pause scaling and repair economics first.

The discipline is not the number. It is the pairing: every metric, against the right peer, at a known date.

Key Takeaways

• A metric is meaningless alone. Judge CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition →, LTVLTVLifetime Value: the total revenue (or profit) a customer generates throughout their entire relationship with your business.View full definition →:CACCACCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total sales and marketing spend divided by the number of new customers gained in a period. It measures how efficiently you grow.View full definition →, conversion, and 12-month retention only against the correct peer group (neobank vs incumbent, US vs Europe).