Platform ROAS lies, blended CAC doesn't
Every ad platform claims credit generously — Meta counts a sale it showed an ad to, Google counts the same sale, and your retargeting counts a customer who was going to buy regardless. Add the reported numbers together and they often exceed your actual revenue, which tells you how much to trust them individually.
Blended CAC removes the argument. Take everything you spent on marketing this month, divide by the number of genuinely new customers, and compare it to what a customer contributes after cost of goods, delivery, payment fees and returns. That single comparison is the honest answer to whether marketing works.
Contribution margin, not gross margin
Gross margin flatters e-commerce because it ignores the costs that only exist because you sold something: delivery, payment gateway fees, packaging, and — the one most Kuwait stores underestimate — returns and failed cash-on-delivery attempts.
Work out what an average order actually contributes after all of that. Stores routinely discover the real figure is half what they assumed, which changes every decision downstream: what you can afford to pay for a customer, which products are worth advertising, and whether free delivery is generosity or a slow leak.
Repeat rate decides whether any of it compounds
A store where customers buy once is permanently paying full acquisition price for every dinar of revenue, and its costs rise as it grows. A store where a third of customers order again within ninety days can afford to pay more for a customer than a competitor can, which eventually wins the category.
Measure it as the share of customers who place a second order within a defined window, and watch the trend across months. If it is rising, keep investing in acquisition — the maths gets better over time. If it is flat and low, more ad spend is just a faster way to lose money, and the work belongs in product, delivery and the follow-up rather than the ad account.