CPM stands for cost per mille, which is Latin for thousand. It’s the price advertisers pay for every thousand times their ad is shown, and it’s the standard way to compare ad costs across campaigns.
Know any two of spend, CPM and impressions and the third falls out, whichever way round you need it.
How to use the YouTube CPM Calculator#
- Choose what to find. Pick CPM, total spend or impressions.
- Enter the other two numbers. The calculator hides the field you’re solving for.
- Read the result. The result shows all three numbers together, plus the cost of a single impression.
The CPM formulas#
If you spend 500 and your ad is shown 62,500 times, CPM is 500 ÷ 62,500 × 1,000 = 8. With a CPM of 8 and a budget of 2,000, you can expect about 250,000 impressions.
Advertiser CPM and creator CPM#
The word is used for two different things. For an advertiser, CPM is what you pay. For a creator, CPM is what advertisers pay per thousand ad views on their channel, and creators usually see a smaller number called RPM, which is revenue per thousand views after YouTube takes its share. YouTube has said that creators receive 55 percent of ad revenue from long-form videos in the Partner Programme.
If you’re a creator, the YouTube ad revenue calculator is the better fit.
What moves CPM#
Audience location matters most, because advertisers pay more to reach people in some countries than in others. Topic, season, device and targeting also change it. CPMs tend to rise in the fourth quarter, when more brands compete for the same slots, and fall in January. Treat one campaign’s CPM as a snapshot, not a rule.
Worked examples in all three directions#
An advertiser spends 1,200 and gets 150,000 impressions. The CPM is 1,200 ÷ 150,000 × 1,000 = 8. At a CPM of 8, a budget of 3,000 buys 375,000 impressions. A campaign with a CPM of 12 and 400,000 impressions costs 4,800. The cost of a single impression in the first case is 0.008.
| Spend | CPM | Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | 5 | 100,000 |
| 500 | 10 | 50,000 |
| 2,000 | 8 | 250,000 |
| 2,000 | 15 | 133,333 |
| 10,000 | 20 | 500,000 |
Why costs differ between campaigns#
Advertisers bid in an auction, so CPM rises when many bidders want the same audience. Costs are higher in the fourth quarter, when holiday spending peaks, and lower in January. Narrow targeting, such as a specific age group or interest, costs more per thousand than a broad audience. Video length and format matter too. CPM is a price for being seen, not for results, so look at views, clicks and sales as well. If a cheap CPM gives no one who buys, it was not cheap.
CPM next to other measures#
CPC, or cost per click, is the spend divided by clicks, and CPA is the spend divided by conversions. You can move from one to the other with the click-through rate. At a CPM of 8 and a CTR of 1 percent, a thousand impressions bring 10 clicks, so the CPC is 0.80. Use the CTR calculator to work out the click rate and the Facebook ads cost calculator to plan a full campaign from budget to conversions.
How YouTube advertisers are charged#
Not every campaign is bought by CPM. Advertisers on skippable in-stream ads are usually charged per view, which counts when someone watches 30 seconds (or the whole ad if it is shorter) or interacts with it. Bumper ads of up to six seconds and some other formats are bought by CPM. Cost per view tends to be a few cents to a few tens of cents, depending on the market. If you compare formats, convert everything to the same measure, such as cost per thousand people reached, before you decide.
Frequently asked questions#
Cost per mille, or cost per thousand impressions.
No. CPC is cost per click. CPM is cost per thousand impressions, whether anyone clicks or not.
It varies widely by country, audience and season, so compare against your own past campaigns.
CPM counts impressions. If you pay per view, the cost model is different and the calculation changes.
CPM is the cost to advertisers of 1,000 ad impressions. RPM is what a creator earns per 1,000 video views after YouTube’s share, and it includes all revenue sources. RPM is usually lower than CPM, because not every view shows an ad and the platform keeps a cut.
Broaden a narrow audience, test different creative, avoid the busiest seasons if you can, and set bids carefully. Cheaper reach is only useful if the right people see the ad, so also watch view rate, clicks and sales.