Glossary/CPM
What is CPM?
Short answer
CPM is the cost of reaching a thousand people. You work it out by dividing the amount paid to the creator by the reach of the material and converting it to a thousand people. It lets you compare a creator’s offer with other forms of advertising and weigh up profiles of different sizes. It does not tell you whether these are the right people or whether anyone reacted.
How exactly do you calculate CPM?
You take the amount paid for the post and divide it by the number of people who saw the material. You convert the result so that it refers to a thousand people — and that is CPM. What matters is that the numerator holds the full amount including surcharges, and the denominator holds reach, not views. Views count repeat plays, so they understate the cost and spoil the comparison.
How is CPM different from the rate per post?
The rate per post is the price you pay — the figure on the invoice. CPM is a conversion that relates that price to reach, which makes it possible to set a micro-influencer’s offer against a large account’s. A profile that looks expensive can turn out cheaper than a smaller one once converted, if its material really does reach a lot of people.
Why should you not pick a creator on CPM alone?
Because the cheapest reach usually means reaching random people. A large account on a general topic will almost always come out better than a narrow industry profile, even though it is the second one talking to people ready to buy. So treat CPM as a filter, not a criterion: it screens out offers clearly detached from the market, but the choice is decided by audience fit and by what happens after the viewing.
Where to order it or find tasks
Related terms
Words that come up in the same conversations. Each has its own definition in the glossary.
- Reach
- The number of people who saw the material. It does not say how many of them reacted or bought — which is why it is read together with engagement, not instead of it. Read more
- Views
- The number of times the material was played, repeats by the same people included. Always higher than reach, which is why it is easy to mistake for the number of viewers. Read more
- Rate card
- A creator's price list: what a story, a video or a post costs with them and what is included. A starting point for the conversation, not always the final price. Read more
- Rate per post
- The amount a creator expects for one published piece of material. It depends on the format, the topic, the reach and on whether the brand wants to use the material in advertising later. Read more
Frequently asked questions
Where do you get the reach to calculate CPM?
From the creator’s statistics, ideally as a screenshot once the post has run. Before the start you can rely on the average reach of recent material in the same format — a single post can be atypical.
What is a good CPM?
There is no single value: a story comes out differently from a video, and differently again in a narrow industry campaign. A sensible reference point is your own earlier posts and the cost of reach in advertising bought through the ad system.
Can CPM be compared between platforms?
Carefully. Each platform defines contact with the material differently, and a story disappears after a day while a blog post works for months. Compare within one format, otherwise the conclusion will mislead you.
