CPM Calculator
Work out CPM, total ad cost or impressions from the other two, plus CPC and CPA when you add clicks and conversions. CPM here is cost per mille: the price of a thousand ad impressions, not a cost per mile driven. A fourth mode prices a podcast, newsletter or video sponsorship from its downloads or views.
Your numbers
What the campaign cost for the impressions below.
Times the ad was shown.
Adds the cost per click.
Sign-ups, calls or sales. Adds the CPA.
CPM (per 1,000 impressions)
–
Arithmetic on the numbers you typed. Platforms may count impressions, clicks and conversions differently.
The calculation runs in your browser and ParrotNotes does not store your numbers. They sit in the page address so you can bookmark or share the result.
Looking for what a car, van or pickup costs per mile? Use the Cost per Mile Calculator.
How to calculate CPM
CPM = total cost ÷ impressions × 1,000. A campaign that cost $1,500 and was shown 250,000 times has a CPM of $1,500 ÷ 250,000 × 1,000 = $6: each thousand impressions cost $6. CPM stands for cost per mille, mille being Latin for thousand, which is why it has nothing to do with miles.
An impression is one showing of the ad, not one person: the same person scrolling past twice counts twice. Take the cost and the impressions from the same report and the same dates, or the CPM mixes two campaigns.
Total cost and impressions from a CPM
Turn the formula around to plan. At a $12 CPM, 400,000 impressions cost $12 × 400,000 ÷ 1,000 = $4,800. The other way, a $2,000 budget at an $8 CPM buys $2,000 ÷ $8 × 1,000 = 250,000 impressions.
Use the CPM of your own past campaigns on the same platform and audience where you have it; a quoted rate card is a starting point, and the price you pay in an auction moves with demand.
CPC and CPA from the same spend
Add clicks and conversions and the calculator divides the same spend by them. The $1,500 campaign with 1,000 clicks has a cost per click (CPC) of $1,500 ÷ 1,000 = $1.50, and with 30 conversions a cost per conversion (CPA) of $1,500 ÷ 30 = $50.
A conversion is whatever you count as the goal: a form, a booked call, a sale. The three numbers answer different questions: CPM what attention costs, CPC what a visit costs, CPA what a result costs. The share of impressions that became clicks is the click-through rate, and the share of clicks that became conversions is the conversion rate; each has its own calculator, linked below.
Pricing a podcast or newsletter sponsorship by CPM
Sponsorships are often quoted as a CPM on downloads, opens or views. Price per episode = downloads ÷ 1,000 × CPM: 5,000 downloads an episode at a $25 CPM is $125 an episode, and a four-episode package is $500.
Agree on the count before you quote: downloads in the first 30 days, average views per post, or newsletter opens give different numbers for the same show. Write the count and the CPM into the agreement so the invoice matches.
Turning ad leads into deals? See sales KPIs, trade show leads, podcast transcription.
The ad buys the impression; the call makes the sale
Impressions and clicks are where a lead starts. The deal is made on the call that follows. Record that call on your phone with ParrotNotes and you get the transcript and summary, so the follow-up goes out the same day.
Get ParrotNotes freeRelated tools
- CTR CalculatorWork out click-through rate from clicks and impressions, or the clicks or impressions you need for a target CTR.Open the tool
- ROAS CalculatorWork out return on ad spend from revenue and ad cost, plus the break-even ROAS for your margin.Open the tool
- Conversion Rate CalculatorWork out the conversion rate at each stage of a funnel, from leads to meetings to deals, and how many leads you need for a target.Open the tool
- ROI CalculatorWork out return on investment, annualized ROI and payback period from what you put in and what you get back, for a purchase or a customer's business case.Open the tool