CPM (Cost per Mille)
Cost per 1,000 impressions — the core pricing unit for paid media.
Cost per Mille (CPM) is the cost of 1,000 impressions on an advertising platform. 'Mille' is Latin for thousand. Most paid-media platforms auction inventory on effective CPM even if the advertiser is bidding on clicks or conversions.
Context
CPM varies enormously by platform, audience, format, and season. LinkedIn CPM runs $30–$80 for B2B audiences; Meta runs $5–$20 for most consumer targeting; programmatic display can be under $2 CPM.
Rising CPMs are a persistent industry trend as more advertisers bid on the same inventory. This is why creative performance has become more critical than targeting precision — the only way to beat rising CPMs is higher engagement rates that improve effective cost per outcome.
Average Meta CPM for US consumer audiences reached $14 in Q4 2024 (Revealbot data), up from $8 in Q4 2019 — a 75% CPM inflation in five years even as the platform grew.
CPM alone tells you nothing about campaign success. A high CPM on a highly-qualified audience can produce lower CAC than a low CPM on broad targeting. Effective cost per outcome is what matters.
Related terms
Services that apply this
More Paid Media terms
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The fully-loaded cost of acquiring a new paying customer.
CAC Payback Window
The number of months until a new customer's contribution margin equals the cost to acquire them.
LTV:CAC Ratio
Customer lifetime value divided by customer acquisition cost.
MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio)
Total revenue divided by total marketing spend — a blended metric that resists attribution gaming.