Media Buyer Case Study
Meta Ads for automotive
subscription. LTV/CAC 16.6×.
Full breakdown of a paid social campaign for a car-as-a-service business in Ukraine and Poland. Real numbers, real mistakes, real learnings.
16.6×
LTV / CAC
market benchmark >3×
market benchmark >3×
$11 312
Total ad spend
for the quarter
for the quarter
$312 228
Portfolio LTV
over 36 months
over 36 months
2.2 mo
Payback period
CAC recovery
CAC recovery
Brief & approach
What needed to be done
Client runs a car subscription service: customers pay monthly and drive without buying. Average ticket $1,735/mo, contract term 36 months. Goal: build lead generation via Meta Ads and set up full attribution from click to signed contract.
Stack
Meta Ads — Facebook + Instagram Lead Forms
HubSpot CRM — lead processing, pipeline, deals
Respond.io — messenger communication
Meta Pixel + Conversions API
Key challenges
Long deal cycle: 2–6 weeks from lead to signed contract
High-ticket product ($1,700+/mo) — narrow qualified audience
Two markets with different languages and behavior
Meta optimizes for first payment, not LTV
Conversion funnel
$11 312
Budget
USD
1.66M
Impressions
Reach
16 839
Clicks
CTR 1.01%
511
CRM Leads
Paid Social
105
MQL
20.5%
5
Deals
4.8% MQL→Deal
3
Closed Won
Win Rate 60%
How leads are counted: exclusively from HubSpot CRM (source = Paid Social), not from Meta Ads Manager reports. Each row in Meta CSV is an ad-set or placement breakdown — not an individual lead. This distinction is critical for accurate CPL and ROI.
Campaign key metrics
CPL
$22.1
$11,312 ÷ 511 CRM leads
Real CPL from CRM. Meta report figure is distorted by row structure — do not use it for CPL calculation.
CPQ
$108
$11,312 ÷ 105 MQLs
MQL = leads that passed qualification and received "In Progress" status or above in CRM.
CAC
$3 771
$11,312 ÷ 3 Closed Won
Calculated on Closed Won. If remaining pipeline closes (2 deals), CAC drops to $2,262.
ARPU
$1 735
Average across 5 deals / mo
Monthly subscription fee. Deal amount is monthly payment — not a one-time charge.
LTV
$62 446
$1,735 × 36 months
36-month contract term. LTV = ARPU × term, without churn or upsell adjustments.
LTV / CAC
16.6×
Benchmark: >3× good, >10× excellent
For every $1 spent on acquisition, the business earns $11 over the contract. Above the "excellent" benchmark.
Payback Period
2.2 mo
CAC ÷ ARPU
CAC is recovered by the 3rd payment. After that — pure margin for 33 months.
ROAS (LTV-based)
27.6×
Monthly ROAS: 0.30× (misleading)
Monthly ROAS is misleading for subscriptions. Correct: portfolio LTV ÷ total ad spend.
Top performing creatives
What the ad copy looked like
Best performers across the campaign set. Copy by Gemini, visuals generated with Nano Banana, then scaled across 16 different car models for testing.
"Your car. No bullshit."
Direct, no-nonsense copy targeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Plain-language honesty as the hook.
Direct, no-nonsense copy targeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Plain-language honesty as the hook.
"Zero paperwork. Crypto funded."
Targets a crypto-native audience seeking discretion and minimal bureaucracy — a different angle on the same no-friction promise.
Targets a crypto-native audience seeking discretion and minimal bureaucracy — a different angle on the same no-friction promise.
Campaign breakdown — what worked
Meta campaigns → CRM leads → MQL
Leads = HubSpot CRM, Paid Social source. MQL% = share of leads that passed qualification. ★ = scale · ⚠ = kill
Campaign
CRM leads · MQL
Leads
MQL
MQL%
Mentality Form UA182179.3%
17
PL Aggressive Copy80911.3%
9
MQL Advantage+46613.0%
6
Mentality Apr Launch4337.0%
3
★ UA LAL (HS база)541935.2%
14
Other / tests
43——
Lifecycle stage
Breakdown of 745 Q2 contacts by HubSpot lifecycle stage.
Deal ROI — portfolio LTV
LTV by deal (monthly subscription × 36 months)
Blue = Pipeline / Pending · Green = Closed Won · Purple = PLN market (Poland, converted)
BMW X6 · UA · Pipeline$2 263/mo
$81 468 LTV
BMW Z4 · UA · Won ✓$2 215/mo
$79 740 LTV
Premium SUV · UA · Pipeline$1 700/mo
$61 200 LTV
Toyota RAV4 · UA · Won ✓$1 343/mo
$48 348 LTV
Toyota RAV4 · PL · Won ✓$1 152/mo
$41 472 LTV
Closed Won (3) — LTV $169 551
Pipeline (2) — LTV $142 668
Total: $312 228
Payback period
CAC $5,656 · ARPU $1,735/mo · CAC recovered at month 4
Month 1
← recovered at month 3
Month 36
-$3 771
CAC invested per customer
+$58 673
Profit after payback (33 mo)
LTV/CAC vs benchmarks
Compared to subscription business and SaaS industry standards.
Methodology & data sources
Spend / Impressions / Clicks: Meta Ads Manager CSV export (Q2.csv)
Leads & Deals: HubSpot CRM API (live data, 29.06.2026)
Currency conversion: 1 PLN = $0.2497 USD (23.06.2026)
LTV formula: ARPU × 36 months (contract term)
CAC: Total Meta spend ÷ number of Closed Won deals
MQL: HubSpot lifecycle stage = marketingqualifiedlead