10 proven ways to improve customer acquisition

Looking to improve customer acquisition? Attracting new customers gets harder every year. Inflation has made consumers more cost-conscious, and digital noise makes it tougher to stand out.

But proven customer acquisition strategies can help you close sales faster and stretch your marketing budget further. Referral programs, cashback offers, online reviews, and targeted campaigns all help B2C brands increase customer acquisition, while lowering CAC and boosting lifetime value (LTV).

How to improve customer acquisition: Diagnose your current channels, prioritize high-impact opportunities, test 2-3 tactics (like referral programs, cashback offers, or UX optimization), measure CAC and LTV, then iterate quarterly. 

This guide covers a simple framework for improving your acquisition program, plus 10 tactics to help you attract and convert new customers more efficiently.

Why improving customer acquisition matters

New customers are the lifeblood of sustainable growth. They generate the revenue you need to cover costs, pay your team, and reinvest in future expansion. Without a steady influx of fresh buyers, even the strongest retention strategy eventually plateaus.

Acquisition also impacts your financial health beyond top-line revenue. A predictable flow of new customers gives you leverage to negotiate better terms with vendors, attract investors, and weather market downturns. It's not just about growth, it's about building a resilient business.

What is a customer acquisition strategy?

Customer acquisition is the process of turning prospects into paying customers. A strategy for customer acquisition focuses on persuading people who are considering your product to make their first purchase.

A successful customer acquisition strategy does four things:

• Attracts new leads to your brand

• Builds relationships with potential customers

• Moves prospects through the funnel toward conversion

• Keeps CAC low relative to customer LTV

The customer acquisition funnel targets consumers who are already considering a purchase. Your job is to give them a reason to choose you.

How to improve customer acquisition in 5 steps

Before diving into specific tactics, here's a quick, actionable framework for improving your customer acquisition program.

1. Diagnose existing strategy: Start by reviewing your existing acquisition channels. Which ones drive the most conversions? Where are your highest CACs? Identify what's working and what isn't.

2. Prioritize opportunities: Focus on the gaps with the biggest potential impact. A channel with high traffic but low conversion rates might need better messaging. A channel with strong conversion but low volume might need more budget.

3. Choose levers: Once you prioritize your goals, choose 2-3 tactics to test based on your diagnosis. The 10 strategies below offer options for different goals, whether you're focused on referrals, reviews, incentives, or channel optimization.

4. Measure progress: Track CAC, conversion rates, and LTV for each tactic. Give tests enough time to generate meaningful data before drawing conclusions.

5. Iterate and scale: It’s hard to know where to start, but if you measure your progress, you’ll know where to head next. Invest more heavily on what works. Cut what doesn't. Repeat the cycle quarterly to keep improving.

The 10 best ways to improve customer acquisition

Here are 10 proven customer acquisition techniques to help you refine your strategy. 

1. Use referral programs to lower acquisition costs

Referral programs deliver strong ROI, often increasing revenue two to five times, depending on your industry. Referred customers are also 61% more likely to refer others, making it one of the simplest ways to increase customer LTV. 

People trust people more than they trust ads. Recommendations are 50% more trusted than banner ads, SMS messages, and paid search. That's why many companies offer $50 to $100 incentives when customers refer friends or family. 

Two examples of successful referral programs:

PayPal used referrals to drive 7 to 10% daily growth. The company spent tens of millions on $40 signup and referral bonuses, but acquired 1 million users by March 2000 and 5 million by summer 2000. By 2015, PayPal reached a $46.6 billion market cap — a 676% return on $60 million in spend.

Dropbox grew from 100,000 to 4 million users in 15 months using referrals. Instead of cash, they offered extra storage space to both referrers and referees. This reduced marketing costs while maintaining a 15% monthly growth rate in the years after launch.

Build a better referral program: offer incentives over discounts

One Friendbuy study found that sending customers digital incentives outperform discounts for driving referrals.

In their A/B test, a $75 Amazon gift card generated 160% more referrals than a $150 discount.

Incentives drove more referrals and protected profit margins. This is especially true for infrequently purchased items. If you've sold someone a mattress recently, a discount on another mattress won't mean much to them.

2. Offer cashback incentives to convert new customers

Cashback offers help convince prospects to try a new product or switch from a competitor. These customer acquisition programs see an average 12.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) when combining acquisition and retention efforts.

Common cashback formats include:

• Gift cards

• Coupons or discount codes for future purchases

• Cash-equivalent incentives (prepaid Visa cards, Venmo, ACH transfers, PayPal)

Which rewards do customers value most? Our 2023 study on cashback offers found clear preferences:

1. Cash (most valuable)

2. Visa prepaid cards

3. Gift cards of recipients' choice

4. In-store credit (least valuable, by a wide margin)

So, when designing your cashback offer, it’s wise to get as close to cash as possible. 

Case study: How a medical aesthetics disruptor took on Botox

When launching a competitor to Botox, a new medical aesthetics company offered first-time customers a $75 Visa prepaid card to try its new product. 

The cashback offer delivered strong results:

• Reached #3 market share position in 6 months

• Acquired 40,000 new customers in the first month

• Gained 180,000+ new customers within 8 months

The company kept CAC low by running the program in-house with a marketing incentives platform. Agencies had recommended a $1 million ad campaign. Instead, using cashback incentives and word-of-mouth marketing, they spent only what was needed to send Visa cards to new customers.

3. Build trust with online reviews

Keeping your current customers happy helps you acquire new ones. 88% of people trust recommendations over marketing campaigns, making online reviews worth the investment.

One challenge: people are more likely to write reviews when they're either delighted or frustrated. Those in the middle (satisfied but not passionate) rarely leave feedback unprompted.

You can change that by making reviews easier and more rewarding.

4. Simplify the review process

There's no guaranteed way to increase reviews. Customers have to choose to write them. But you can improve your odds. 

Three ways to get more reviews:

• Ask at the right time: Research suggests that the sweet spot for when to ask for reviews is typically at least ten days. Timing varies by product — consumers review household goods faster than experiences.

• Make it easy: Use email drip campaigns that link directly to review sites. Drop customers right into the text box where they can write.

• Offer small incentives: Whether it’s a discount on a future purchase or a $15 digital incentive, it’ll encourage them to leave more reviews and create positive brand association. In 2025, 45% of consumers wrote a review because they were incentivized with a gift, service, or cash.

Don't neglect your existing customers while chasing new ones. They're a key part of your acquisition strategy.

5. Build customer personas for better targeting

The better you understand your ideal customers, the easier it is to find and convert similar buyers.

Three ways to deepen customer knowledge:

• Build customer personas with demographics, behaviors, preferences, and needs

• Field surveys or market research to better understand key audience segments

• Create lookalike audiences using customer insights for ad campaigns

6. Optimize your acquisition channels 

Online customer acquisition stalls when you're using the wrong channels — or using the right channels the wrong way.

If you're not doing SEO, start with a content marketing strategy. Then handle technical basics: fast load times, crawlable pages, mobile-friendly design.

To create a channel optimization plan: 

• Gather data on all acquisition channels: paid social, email, display, referral, search, and influencer programs.

• Identify top performers by looking at which channels drive the most sales and their CAC.

• Diagnose underperformers. For channels with low sales or high CAC, examine your creative, messaging, targeting, and offers. Cut channels that consistently underdeliver.

• Reallocate budget toward channels with the best ROI.

7. Use real-time data to inform your decisions

Data helps you make smarter choices about your audience.

• Not sure which products to promote? Revisit customer demographics and purchase history.

• Not sure which messages resonate? Create granular customer segments for better personalization.

• Not sure which markets to target? Run test campaigns against specific audiences and compare results.

8. Improve conversion rates with better UX

Great ads and products only get you so far. A poor e-commerce experience kills conversion rates.

Confusing site designs, missing product details, slow load times, and clunky checkout flows lead to higher bounce rates and cart abandonment. Global average conversion rates sit at 2-3%, but sites with smart pricing, excellent user experience, and clear customer intent can hit 5% or more.

Review your web and mobile analytics to find where customers drop off. Smooth out those friction points. For major issues, consider a formal shopping cart user test.

9. Consider co-marketing campaigns

Coke and Oreos. Scrub Daddy and Dunkin’ Donuts. Airbnb and Chargepoint. Creative collaborations are popular with CPG, retail, and entertainment brands, for good reason.

Co-marketing campaigns offer three benefits:

• Access to new audiences you can't reach on your own

• Borrowed trust from a partner with an established customer base

• Shared costs that stretch your investment further

10. Track CAC, LTV, and conversion metrics

Whatever tactics you use, bake in ways to measure your success so you know what’s working. Data is your early-warning system. Review these metrics monthly and use insights to double down on winners.

Key metrics to track:

What good looks like: An LTV:CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher is considered healthy for most businesses. Payback periods of 12 months or less are generally sustainable, with high performers hitting 5-7 months. E-commerce conversion rates average 1.65-2%, though top performers reach 3-4% or higher.

How to use this data: Track CAC by channel to see which sources deliver customers most efficiently. Measure conversion rates at each funnel stage to pinpoint where prospects drop off. Compare LTV to CAC to ensure you're not spending more than you can earn. Use the insights to invest more heavily in channels that outperform and cut the rest.

Testing keeps your acquisition program healthy. Things change fast online. The TikTok trend getting millions of shares today will be irrelevant in weeks. The tactics your customers loved last year may not resonate the same way now.

Types of tests to run:

• A/B and multivariate tests to compare messages or offers with smaller segments before full rollout

• Timing and frequency tests to find the best moments to reach customers

• Creative and landing page tests to optimize conversion across channels

Start by identifying what you want to learn. Then pick the right test design and channels to get those insights.

Key takeaways

Customer acquisition is harder than ever, but a structured approach helps you get more from your budget:

• Leverage your existing customers. Referral programs, cashback offers, and review incentives turn happy buyers into acquisition engines.

• Optimize channels and UX. Diagnose underperforming channels, fix friction points, and reallocate budget toward what works.

• Measure relentlessly. Track CAC, LTV, payback period, and conversion rates by channel. Test continuously and scale winners.