• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

B2C marketers tasked with bringing in new customers have a problem: 73% say their customer acquisition costs are rising, no surprise “when margins are shrinking as tariffs and fulfillment costs climb,” says Klaviyo in its 2025 State of B2C Marketing report. 

Despite this jump in acquisition costs, only 14% of brands are focused on retention, the reverse of what has traditionally occurred. And marketers continue to rely on engagement metrics more than customer lifetime value, suggesting that they are “focusing on volume — clicks and open rates--over long-term value like retention and loyalty,” the study adds.

They may want to focus more on integrating marketing and customer service. 

Companies are using the following key performance indicators: 

• Revenue growth — 26%
• Return on investment (ROI) — 24%
• Engagement rates (eg. social media interactions, email open rates, website traffic) — 19%
• Customer lifetime value (SLV or LTV) — 9% 
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) — 6% 
• Conversion rates — 8% 
• Retention and/or churn rate — 5%
• Other — 1% 

What are they seeing? They say:

• Both CAC and CLM have increased — 38% 
• CAO has increased but CLV has remained the same — 23% 
• Both CAO and CLV have remained the same — 16%
• CAO has increased, but CLV has decreased —6%
• Both CAO and CLV have decreased — 2%
• CAC has decreased, but CLV has increased — 1%

Another issue is that they are working with bloated tech stacks — 60% of marketing teams have 6-15 tools. So while companies are embracing cross-channel journeys, many are struggling to unify data.  

Marketers face these hurdles in achieving a comprehensive view of their customers. Each selected one: 

• Data privacy and regulatory restrictions — 19%
• Collaboration challenges across marketing, sales, and customer service teams — 18% 
• Data fragmentation or data silos across multiple systems and/or teams — 14% 
• Resource constraints for appropriate personnel and/or technology — 13% 
• Difficulties in tracking cross-channel customer interactions — 13%
• Limited access to real-time data — 12%
• Inconsistent and/or poor data quality — 11%

What are the priorities for this year? Each respondent selected one:

• Maximizing marketing ROI and efficiency — 16%
• Increasing customer acquisition — 15% 
• Expanding into new markets with customer segments — 14%
• Improving customer retention and loyalty — 14% 
• Increasing brand awareness and engagement — 13% 
• Integrating brand awareness and engagement — 13% 
• Integrating AI or other automation tools into marketing strategy — 12% 
• Enhancing personalization and customer experience — 9% 
• Adapting to data privacy and regulatory changes — 7%

Klaviyo surveyed 1,500 global marketers in March 2025.