CPM — Cost Per Mille

Mille is Latin for a thousand. CPM is used for reach advertising, where what matters is how many people saw the brand: banners, video, social ads.

CPM is also a handy comparison metric: how much a publisher earned per thousand impressions under any payment model. To get it, divide income by the number of impressions and multiply by 1,000.

Example

For example, the CPM is €4. A campaign of 250,000 impressions costs 250 × 4 = €1,000.

How to calculate it / how it works

Formula: cost = impressions ÷ 1,000 × CPM. The reverse: CPM = income ÷ impressions × 1,000, which is how a publisher estimates what a thousand impressions bring in.

For example, the CPM is €4. Step 1: a campaign of 250,000 impressions. Step 2: 250,000 / 1,000 = 250 thousand. Step 3: 250 × €4 = €1,000. The reverse calculation: if a store earned €30 on 2,000 gift block impressions, its CPM is 30 / 2,000 × 1,000 = €15.

Where it shows up in ThanklyClub and common mistakes

In ThanklyClub, impressions are free and not paid for, but they are counted: one impression per request, offer and placement. For a store, CPM is a convenient summary metric: what a thousand block impressions bring in at any CTR and conversion rate.

• Calculating CPM from all page views instead of gift block impressions.
• Comparing stores with different traffic and different placements: the thank-you page and the email give different numbers.
• Treating a high CPM as a guarantee of income. It depends on CTR, conversion and rate, and those change.
• Confusing CPM as a payment model with CPM as a calculated metric of income per thousand impressions.

FAQ