Daily Pulse
Blended CAC hit $81 — but the efficiency was more email than media. Here's what actually happened.
| Channel | Spend | New Customers | CAC | Share of NCs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Ads | $29,542 | 141 | $209 | 28% |
| Google Ads | $2,313 | 61 | $38 | 12% |
| Axon by AppLovin | $1,997 | 13 | $154 | 3% |
| YouTube Ads | $325 | 2 | $163 | <1% |
| Others (Bing, FB CA, Google CA) | $617 | ~2 | — | <1% |
| Paid total | ~$35K | ~219 | ~$160 | 44% |
| Email / organic / direct / affiliate | — | ~278 | — | 56% |
| DTC total (Daily Stand) | $40,462 | 497 | $81 | 100% |
The $81 blended looks magical. But Northbeam only attributes 44% of yesterday's NCs to paid media (Northbeam) — Meta's own attributed CAC was $209, in-line with week average. The other 56% came from email and organic, and the most plausible driver is the LTO launch email cycle: "New LTO Early Access" sent Apr 22 and "New LTO Re-Send" sent Apr 23 (Klaviyo). That's the efficiency trick.
| Campaign | Spend | NCs | CAC | Flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| conv_all_ABO_sandbox | $12,361 | 60 | $206 | |
| conv_og_ASC_scaling_7dc_NC | $9,239 | 45 | $206 | |
| conv_ASC_spring-sale_7dc_NC | $3,996 | 20 | $199 | |
| MUD_CPP_D0_TopAds | $1,417 | 8 | $177 | |
| TQE — CBO acq (tCPA) | $1,272 | 7 | $180 | |
| GeistM MWTR META VsRyze (ABO) | $923 | 5 | $204 | |
| conv_CBO_marpipe_cat_7dc | $815 | 3 | $265 | CAC > $250 |
| og_search-brand | $609 | 43 | $14 | Efficiency hero |
| conv_ASC_coffee_7dc_NC | $605 | 1.3 | $480 | CAC > $250 |
| og_search-nb_mushroom-coffee | $596 | 7 | $84 | |
| og_search-conquesting | $508 | 8.5 | $60 |
Google brand search did the heavy lifting: $609 spend → 43 NCs → $14 CAC (Northbeam). Non-brand mushroom coffee search pulled $84 CAC, and conquesting search $60 — Google owned Apr 23 on efficiency. Meta ran $29K at ~$200 CAC across its big ABO/ASC conversion campaigns — volume is fine, but there's no magical-efficiency moment here. Two campaigns crossed $250 CAC and should be audited.
Meta CTR holding at 1.87% through ~$10K spend is the real read. If that survives the afternoon scaling, the creative efficiency we saw Apr 23 is genuinely durable, not a one-day blip. CPM ticking up to $43 is worth watching — that pressures ROAS even with CTR holding.
Caveat: Northbeam Apr 24 attributes 0 NCs to all paid channels right now (Northbeam). That's standard NB intraday lag — don't read into it until EOD tomorrow. Paid attribution will backfill.
Yesterday was an email-assisted day that looked like a media-efficiency day. The $81 blended CAC (Daily Stand) is real — but it's the product of 497 new customers split across $40.5K of paid spend plus a full-force LTO email push. Northbeam attributes only 219 of those 497 NCs to paid media (Northbeam). The other 278 came from email, organic, affiliate, and direct — and the "New LTO Early Access" (Apr 22) plus "New LTO Re-Send" (Apr 23) (Klaviyo) is the most likely driver of the email lift.
Meta was not the hero. Meta's attributed CAC on Apr 23 was $209 (Northbeam) — right in the middle of its normal range. What did shift: Meta CTR jumped to 1.86%, the highest in the trailing 7 days (Meta API). That's a creative signal, not a CAC signal — the ads are earning more clicks per impression, but the downstream conversion rate is what determines attributed efficiency. CTR up, CPM up, attributed CAC flat. Watch.
The durable efficiency wins were in Google. Brand search at $14 CAC on $609 spend → 43 NCs is the most efficient line on the page (Northbeam). Non-brand mushroom coffee at $84 CAC and conquesting at $60 CAC are also strong. Google is under-funded relative to its efficiency — if there's headroom on brand search impression share, that's the clearest lever.
What to watch next 48 hours: (1) Does Meta CTR hold through Apr 24 close? Right now it's 1.87% through $10K (Meta API) — good sign. (2) When NB backfills Apr 24 attribution, does Meta attributed CAC drop, or just hold at $200? (3) Subscriber net was -214 on Apr 23 (Omni) — we're acquiring, but net subs keeps bleeding. Acquisition masking churn is the structural issue under this "good day."
conv_CBO_marpipe_cat_7dc ($265) and conv_ASC_coffee_7dc_NC ($480) (Northbeam)