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CPM Calculator

Enter any two values and the calculator works out the third. Spend and impressions give you CPM. CPM and either one gives you the other.

CPM = (total spend ÷ impressions) × 1,000

Total spend

Impressions

CPM

Fill any two fields —

Compare campaigns

Add each campaign's spend and impressions. The lowest CPM is highlighted.

Campaign	Spend ($)	Impressions	CPM	Remove

How to calculate CPM

CPM is the cost of 1,000 impressions. The formula has three parts, so if you know any two you can solve for the third. These examples use the same campaign: $5,000 of spend delivering 400,000 impressions.

CPM formula

CPM = (total cost ÷ impressions) × 1,000

$5,000 ÷ 400,000 × 1,000 = $12.50 CPM

Total cost from CPM

Total cost = (CPM × impressions) ÷ 1,000

$12.50 × 400,000 ÷ 1,000 = $5,000

Impressions from budget and CPM

Impressions = (total cost ÷ CPM) × 1,000

$5,000 ÷ $12.50 × 1,000 = 400,000 impressions

The last formula is the one to use when planning. If a platform quotes a CPM and you have a fixed budget, it tells you how many impressions to expect before you commit the spend.

What is CPM?

CPM stands for cost per mille, from the Latin word for thousand. It is the price of 1,000 ad impressions, and an impression is counted each time an ad is served on a page, in a feed or before a video.

Because it is priced on exposure, CPM is the standard unit for buying reach. Advertisers use it to compare the cost of reaching an audience across platforms and publishers, even when those platforms sell on different terms.

Many ad platforms, including Google, Meta and LinkedIn, report CPM on every campaign, including campaigns that bid on clicks or conversions. That makes it useful for comparing campaigns that were bought in different ways.

CPM vs CPC vs CPA

The three pricing models charge for different events. The right one depends on what the campaign is for.

Model	You pay for	Best suited to
CPM	Every 1,000 impressions	Reach and awareness: display, video, audio and social
CPC	Each click	Traffic: search ads and social campaigns that send people to a page
CPA	Each conversion, such as a lead or sale	Direct response, where the action can be tracked

To compare them, convert to the same unit. A $12.50 CPM with a 0.5% click-through rate works out to a $2.50 cost per click, because 1,000 impressions produce 5 clicks.

Where CPM pricing is used

Display and programmatic

Banner inventory on websites and apps, bought directly from publishers or through ad exchanges, is usually priced per 1,000 impressions.

Social media ads

Meta, LinkedIn and other social platforms report CPM on every campaign, and awareness campaigns on them bid on impressions directly.

Video and connected TV

Pre-roll ads, streaming services and connected TV sell impression-based video inventory on CPM.

Podcasts and newsletters

Sponsorship rates are often quoted as a CPM against downloads or subscribers, so the calculator works for them too: enter the quoted rate and the audience size to get the cost.

What is a good CPM?

There is no single good CPM. The number depends on what you are buying and who you are reaching. These are the factors that move it most:

Audience precision. The narrower and more valuable the audience, the more advertisers compete for it. Senior B2B job titles cost more to reach than broad consumer audiences.
Platform and placement. A premium publisher, a social feed and an ad exchange price the same 1,000 impressions very differently.
Format. Video and large formats usually cost more per impression than small static banners.
Season. Auctions get more competitive when many advertisers want the same audience, such as the holiday retail period.
Ad relevance. Platforms that run auctions favor ads people engage with, which can lower the price you pay for the same audience.

The most reliable benchmark is your own history. Compare a campaign's CPM with earlier campaigns on the same platform, aimed at the same audience, in the same season.

CPM, RPM and eCPM for creators and publishers

On YouTube, TikTok and other creator platforms, CPM is what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions. It is not what the creator earns. The platform keeps a share, and not every view shows an ad.

RPM, revenue per mille, is the creator's side of the number: total earnings divided by total views, multiplied by 1,000. RPM is almost always lower than CPM for that reason.

Publishers use eCPM, effective CPM, in the same way. It is total ad earnings divided by total impressions, multiplied by 1,000, and it lets a publisher compare ads sold on CPM, CPC and CPA terms on one scale. The calculator above works for both: enter earnings as the spend.

How to lower your CPM

Improve the creative. Ads that earn engagement tend to win auctions at a lower price. Test new images, headlines and formats against the same audience.
Widen the audience where it is safe to. Very narrow targeting limits the inventory you can bid on. Test a slightly broader audience and check that lead quality holds.
Set frequency caps. Showing the same ad to the same people again and again raises cost without adding reach, especially in retargeting.
Compare placements. Break results out by placement and platform, and move budget away from the ones that cost more without producing more.
Plan around busy seasons. Where timing is flexible, run awareness campaigns outside the periods when competition for your audience peaks.

Keep the goal in view while you do this. A lower CPM that brings in fewer qualified leads is a more expensive campaign.

CPM questions

Six questions people ask about CPM.

What does CPM stand for?

CPM stands for cost per mille. Mille is Latin for thousand, so CPM is the cost of 1,000 ad impressions. It is the standard pricing unit for display, video, social and audio advertising.

How do you calculate CPM?

Divide the total cost of the campaign by the number of impressions it delivered, then multiply by 1,000. A campaign that cost $5,000 and delivered 400,000 impressions has a CPM of $12.50.

Is a $20 CPM high?

It depends on the platform and the audience. For broad display inventory, $20 is on the high side. For narrowly targeted B2B audiences, such as specific job titles on LinkedIn, CPMs at or above that level are common. Compare it with your own past campaigns on the same platform and audience.

How much does CPM cost per 1,000 views?

CPM is priced per 1,000 impressions, and an impression is not the same as a view. An impression is counted when the ad is served; a view usually means someone watched a video for a set time. Video platforms often sell on cost per view (CPV) instead, so check which unit your platform bills on before comparing.

Is a lower CPM always better?

No. A cheap impression shown to the wrong audience costs more per result than an expensive one shown to the right audience. Judge a campaign on cost per lead, cost per opportunity or revenue, and use CPM to compare how efficiently you are buying reach.

What is the difference between CPM and eCPM?

CPM is the price an advertiser pays per 1,000 impressions. eCPM, effective CPM, is what a publisher earns per 1,000 impressions across all its ads, whatever pricing model each one was sold on. The formula is the same: earnings divided by impressions, multiplied by 1,000.

Paying too much for impressions?

A CPM only means something next to what it produced. One call about your campaigns shows where the spend is going.

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