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28 July 2013

What is CPM?

The abbreviation CPM is an advertising term that stands for “cost per thousand impressions” and is used to compare the cost of reaching potential customers.

In online advertising, an impression is when an ad is displayed to a person on a webpage. So, if a person is viewing a webpage that has your ad somewhere on it, that counts as one impression.

To calculate the CPM of an advertising campaign, you need to divide the cost by the number of impressions. Here’s an example:

If your one-month advertising campaign cost $200 and had 5,000 impressions, you paid 4 cents per impression. (Calculation: $200/5,000 = $.04)

The M in CPM stands for a thousand impressions. In the example above, you would multiply the cost per single impression by 1,000 to find the cost per thousand impressions:

Calculation: $.04 x 1,000 = $40 per thousand impressions ($40 CPM)

Sarah Griffith is Executive Editor of BubbleLife.com, an Advice Interactive Group product. She’s worked with BubbleLife since 2011, transitioning to Advice during BubbleLife’s acquisition in 2017. Sarah has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism-Public Relations from Baylor University and has a passion for all things related to content. She has formerly served in multiple roles at BubbleLife, including Digital Marketing Consultant, Account Executive, Business Editor, and Neighborhood Editor, helping expand the company from eight community websites in Dallas-Fort Worth to more than 250 nationwide. When out of the office, Sarah can typically be found listening to live music and engaging in a never-ending hunt for the best queso in Dallas.