What Snowflake versions are supported?

Better Analyst supports all current Snowflake editions including Standard, Enterprise, and Business Critical. It works with any Snowflake deployment regardless of cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

What credentials are needed to connect?

You need your Snowflake account URL (e.g., your-account.snowflakecomputing.com), a username, and a password. We recommend creating a dedicated read-only user for Better Analyst with access limited to the databases and schemas you want to analyze.

How do I connect Snowflake to Better Analyst?

Click "Connect Snowflake," enter your account URL, username, and password, then select the warehouse and database you want to query. The entire process takes less than a minute.

What data can I query with Better Analyst?

You can query any table, view, or schema that your Snowflake user has read access to. This includes standard tables, external tables, and views across multiple databases. Ask questions in plain English and Better Analyst generates the SQL automatically.

Is my Snowflake data secure?

Yes. Your credentials are encrypted at rest and all connections use TLS. Read only is the default. If you explicitly enable Read and write, Better Analyst can manage destination tables only in the approved schema, subject to the Snowflake role you provide.

Does it affect my Snowflake warehouse performance?

Better Analyst runs standard SQL queries on your Snowflake warehouse, so they use your warehouse compute resources like any other query. We recommend using a dedicated warehouse (e.g., XS size) to isolate Better Analyst queries from your production workloads.

Customer LTV Analysis in Snowflake by Acquisition Channel

Calculate customer lifetime value from Snowflake order data by acquisition channel and cohort, on a gross-margin basis, with fields, sample output and setup.

By David Bressler
Published November 3, 2026
Updated November 3, 2026

Summary

A customer LTV analysis in Snowflake sums each customer's gross profit over a fixed window, such as 12 or 24 months from their first order, and compares the averages by acquisition channel, first product or region. Fixed windows keep cohorts comparable; gross margin keeps LTV comparable with acquisition cost.

On this page

Who this report is for
What the report includes
How to build it in Better Analyst from Snowflake
Questions to ask
Sample output
Charts to use
Keep it up to date
Further reading
FAQ

Who this report is for

Growth, finance and marketing analysts deciding where to spend acquisition budget, with order history and customer attributes in Snowflake.

What the report includes

Metrics and dimensions in this report

Metric	Source field	Why it matters
Customer	FACT_ORDERS.CUSTOMER_ID (example schema)	The unit LTV is calculated for.
First order date	Calculated: MIN(FACT_ORDERS.ORDER_DATE) per customer	Starts each customer's LTV window.
Gross profit	FACT_ORDERS.NET_REVENUE − FACT_ORDERS.COGS (example schema)	LTV on gross profit is what you can compare with CAC.
Acquisition channel	DIM_CUSTOMER.ACQUISITION_CHANNEL (example schema)	The main lens for budget decisions.
12-month LTV	Calculated: SUM(gross profit) within 365 days of first order ÷ customers	A fixed window that every cohort old enough can be measured on.
Repeat rate	Calculated: customers with 2+ orders in window ÷ customers	Explains whether LTV differences come from repeat buying or order size.

How to build it in Better Analyst from Snowflake

Create a dedicated Snowflake role and user with SELECT on the schemas you want to analyse (the Snowflake connector docs include the SQL).
In Better Analyst, open Connectors, choose Add Connector, then Snowflake, and enter the account identifier, username, password, warehouse and database, plus an optional schema and role.
Click Test Connection (the warehouse must be running) and save.
Ask for 12-month gross-profit LTV by acquisition channel for customers whose first order was at least 12 months ago, with customer counts and repeat rate.

Questions to ask

“Calculate 12-month gross-profit LTV by acquisition channel for customers acquired in 2025.”
“Which first-purchased product leads to the highest 24-month LTV?”
“Compare LTV for customers acquired with and without a discount.”
“Show cumulative gross profit per customer by month since first order, by channel.”

Sample output

Sample data for illustration, not real account data.

Sample data: 12-month LTV by acquisition channel, 2025 cohorts (illustrative)

Channel	Customers	Repeat rate	12-month gross profit	12-month LTV
Organic search	6,420	34.1%	$1,123,500	$175.00
Paid social	9,880	21.6%	$1,195,480	$121.00
Referral	2,150	41.8%	$451,500	$210.00
Marketplace	4,310	15.2%	$353,420	$82.00

Charts to use

12-month LTV by channel (Bar chart): Average gross-profit LTV per channel, sorted.
Cumulative gross profit curves (Line chart): How quickly each channel's customers accumulate value month by month.

Keep it up to date

Rerun the LTV table quarterly as a scheduled task; a Data Flow can write it to a Snowflake table so marketing dashboards and spreadsheets read the same numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Why use a fixed 12-month window instead of lifetime?

Customers acquired last month have had less time to buy than those acquired two years ago. A fixed window measured only on cohorts old enough to complete it keeps channels comparable.

Should LTV use revenue or gross profit?

Use gross profit when comparing with acquisition cost; revenue LTV overstates what you can afford to spend.

What if acquisition channel isn't in Snowflake?

Join it from wherever it lives, for example a CRM export in Google Sheets, or use first-touch source from your web analytics, and document the rule in Data Context.