Term
CPM (Cost per Mille)
Advertising KPI: cost per thousand impressions. Standard billing model for Display, Video, and awareness campaigns where visibility is the goal.
CPM (Cost per Mille) — in more detail
CPM stands for “Cost per Mille” (Latin for “per thousand”) and represents the cost of 1,000 ad impressions. Formula: (cost ÷ impressions) × 1,000. CPM is the default billing model for Display, YouTube In-Stream, and Demand Gen — everywhere reach and exposure matter more than clicks. vCPM (viewable CPM) counts only impressions that were actually viewable per MRC definition (≥ 50 % of pixels for ≥ 1 second on display, ≥ 2 seconds on video). Pure impression optimization risks buying cheap but worthless inventory.
Example / In practice
A display campaign for a product launch runs at a target CPM of €4. Five million impressions result in €20,000 of spend. Clicks and brand lift are tracked secondarily, but the reach price remains the primary lever.
Distinction from similar terms
CPC counts clicks, CPV video views, CPM deliveries. vCPM = viewable CPM. eCPM is a derived metric — when billing was not originally CPM-based, it represents the theoretical CPM-equivalent for comparison.
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CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
Advertising KPI: average cost per conversion. Central efficiency metric for lead gen and performance marketing, and the steering input for tCPA bidding.
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