Marketing
Definition
CPM is the cost an advertiser pays per 1,000 ad impressions — the standard pricing model for brand awareness campaigns where reach and visibility are the primary goal, not direct clicks or conversions.
Mille is Latin for thousand, so CPM literally means cost per thousand impressions. If a publisher charges a $10 CPM and you run a campaign that delivers 500,000 impressions, your total spend is $5,000. CPM is the dominant pricing model for display advertising, video advertising (YouTube, connected TV), and social media brand awareness campaigns. It prioritizes reach and frequency — how many unique people see your ad, and how many times each person sees it — over direct response metrics like clicks or conversions.
CPM benchmarks vary significantly by platform, audience, and ad format. LinkedIn CPMs for B2B audiences can run $30–$80+ due to high audience value; Facebook/Instagram CPMs typically range $5–$15; programmatic display CPMs can be as low as $1–$3. High CPMs are not inherently bad — they often reflect premium, highly targeted audiences that convert at much higher rates. The relevant metric for evaluating CPM campaigns is not the CPM itself but the effective cost per outcome: cost per brand lift, cost per website visit, or ultimately cost per acquisition.
CPM is compared against CPC (cost per click) and CPA (cost per acquisition) pricing models. Awareness-stage campaigns at the top of the marketing funnel typically use CPM buying; performance-focused campaigns targeting users with high purchase intent lean on CPC or CPA models. A sophisticated media buy uses a mix of all three depending on the funnel stage being targeted.
Choosing the wrong pricing model — or misinterpreting CPM performance data — is one of the most common and costly mistakes in paid media. Businesses that run brand awareness campaigns without understanding CPM benchmarks, audience quality signals, or how to measure brand lift can spend significant budget with nothing to show for it. A paid media specialist understands when CPM buying is the right tool, what CPM is competitive for your specific audience and platform, and how to connect awareness spend to downstream business outcomes.
For growing businesses building brand recognition in competitive markets, CPM-driven awareness campaigns can be a highly efficient way to establish mental availability at scale — but only when planned and measured by someone who knows how to set appropriate KPIs and optimize creative for impression-based buying.