Why is my CPM so high?

The usual causes: a narrow audience, high advertiser competition for that audience, Q4 seasonality, creative fatigue, or a campaign still in the learning phase. CPM is an auction output, not a menu price.

One metric, defined and computed

What is CPM?

The short answer

CPM stands for cost per mille: the price of 1,000 ad impressions. Divide spend by impressions, multiply by 1,000. Pay $500 for 40,000 impressions and your CPM is $12.50. Whether that number is good depends on the channel; the sourced benchmarks are one scroll down.

CPM = spend ÷ impressions × 1,000

$500 ÷ 40,000 × 1,000 = $12.50

Mille is Latin for thousand. You are quoting the price of exposure, not of clicks.

Deeper: the formula and its traps · what the letters stand for · not the CPM you meant?

Total spend

Impressions

CPM (solving)

your CPM

$8.33

$1,000 across 120,000 impressions is a $8.33 CPM.

Full version with every preset documented: /calculator

Is your number normal? July 2026 benchmarks

Full rate table

Every chip carries its source and retrieval date. Channels with no published benchmark say so; we do not infer rates for quote-only channels.

Meta$13.48Meta (Facebook) average CPM, global, all placementsGupta Media Facebook ads cost trackerretrieved July 2026

Google Displayno published rateGoogle publishes no rates, minimums or CPM figures; bidding amounts are up to youGoogle Ads bidding pageretrieved July 2026

YouTubeno published rateYouTube publishes no CPM or CPV rates; buying runs through the Google Ads auctionYouTube Advertisingretrieved July 2026

TikTokno published rateTikTok publishes billing mechanics and minimum budgets in its help center, not average CPMsTikTok Ads Manager help centerretrieved July 2026

LinkedIn$33.80LinkedIn average CPM, aggregated advertiser dataTheB2BHouse LinkedIn ad cost aggregationretrieved July 2026

Podcast$18Podcast 30-second host-read ad, average CPM per 1,000 downloadsAdvertiseCast podcast advertising ratesretrieved July 2026

DOOHno published rateDOOH rates are quoted per screen network; no industry-wide published CPM existsOAAA industry resourcesretrieved July 2026

At Meta's $13.48 average, $1,000 buys about 74,184 impressions. Verdicts by channel: is my CPM good?

One number, two sides

CPM is a price with a buyer and a seller. This site ledgers both: what advertisers pay per channel, and what creators are paid per platform.

/buy · what advertisers pay

/earn · what creators are paid

The flip-side worked example: advertiser CPM to creator RPM on one video

What CPM is not

The metric wiki keeps the acronyms straight, with worked conversions between each pair.

Worked scenarios

Real buying situations, computed end to end by the same arithmetic as the solver.

Where the money goes~35%Share of open-display advertiser spend captured by adtech intermediariesUK CMA online platforms and digital advertising market study (2020)retrieved July 2026

The supply-chain story: programmatic CPM and the fee chain

Quick answers

What is CPM in advertising?

CPM is cost per mille: the price an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions. Mille is Latin for thousand. It prices exposure, not clicks or sales. Compute it as spend divided by impressions, times 1,000.

How do I calculate CPM?

Divide total spend by total impressions and multiply by 1,000. $500 spent on 40,000 impressions is a $12.50 CPM. The same formula rearranges to solve budget or impressions from the other two numbers.

What is a good CPM?

It depends on the channel. Gupta Media's tracker puts Meta's global average at $13.48, while aggregated LinkedIn data runs $33.80. A good CPM is one at or below the median for your channel, region and objective.

Is CPM what I pay or what I earn?

Both exist. Advertisers pay a CPM per 1,000 impressions. Creators and publishers earn an RPM per 1,000 views, which is lower because the platform keeps its share and not every view carries an ad.

All 15 questions · every figure's provenance lives in the source ledger. Maintained by Oliver Wakefield-Smith.