Attendee Lifetime Value Worksheet

Step 1 — Define Your Cohorts

Segment your attendee database into meaningful groups. Common cohorts:
• Past attendees by year (2023, 2024, 2025)
• VIP ticket buyers vs GA-only buyers
• First-time attendees vs repeat attendees
• High-engagement (opened 5+ emails) vs low-engagement

Step 2 — Calculate Average Orders Per Contact

Formula: Total purchases in cohort ÷ Total contacts in cohort

Pull this from your CRM. In HubSpot use the total_events_attended property. In GHL or Keap, count order records per tagged contact.

Step 3 — Calculate Average Order Value Per Cohort

Formula: Total revenue from cohort ÷ Total orders in cohort

Include ticket revenue + order bump revenue. VIP cohorts typically show 2-3x higher AOV than GA-only cohorts.

Step 4 — Apply the LTV Formula

Most event businesses use 3-5 years as the relationship window.

Step 5 — Compare LTV by Segment

VIP buyers typically show 3-5x lifetime value compared to GA-only buyers. This is because VIP buyers:
• Return at higher rates (40-60% vs 15-25%)
• Purchase higher tiers consistently
• Convert on order bumps at 2x the rate
• Refer more new attendees

Step 6 — Calculate Max Allowable Acquisition Cost

Formula: LTV × 0.30 = Max you can spend to acquire one attendee

This gives you a 30% acquisition-to-LTV ratio, which is healthy for event businesses. If your cost per acquisition is below this number, keep scaling that channel.

Track attendee LTV automatically with Tixified + your CRM