What is CPM in advertising?
Read cost per thousand impressions with the exposure definition and campaign purpose kept visible.
CPM expresses advertising spend per thousand impressions. It describes the cost of recorded exposure, not the cost of reaching a thousand distinct people. Repeated impressions and different placement contexts make the distinction important.
How to read this metric
Use spend and impressions from a compatible report and one currency. Confirm the reporting level and date range.
Divide spend by impressions and multiply by 1,000. Show the impression count alongside the ratio.
Inspect reach, frequency and relevant response separately when they are available. A low exposure cost does not establish useful attention.
Make it concrete.
An illustrative campaign spends 150 for 30,000 impressions. CPM is 5 in the account currency, while the unique audience may be much smaller than 30,000.
What to keep in mind.
Comparing CPM across unrelated formats can hide major differences in attention and audience. It is not a universal measure of creative effectiveness.
Your next useful step.
Use CPM to investigate delivery cost within comparable contexts. Choose the business outcome separately before making a campaign recommendation.
Working with this in Liftaven
A metric needs a numerator, denominator, reporting period and source. Record those alongside the result. The examples in these notes are invented to explain the calculation; they are not industry benchmarks or Liftaven customer results.
Explore the workspaceSources & context
This note combines original practical guidance with the reporting references below. Follow provider documentation for current definitions and availability; suggested investigations are not guarantees of a particular result.