CPM (Cost Per Mille)
The cost to show your ad to 1,000 people, a standard metric for measuring the efficiency of paid social campaigns.
CPM stands for Cost Per Mille (Latin for thousand) and represents the price you pay for 1,000 ad impressions on a social platform. It's one of the most common pricing models in social advertising alongside CPC (cost per click) and CPL (cost per lead).
CPM is most useful when your goal is brand awareness and you want to maximize exposure within a budget. It doesn't tell you anything about whether people engaged with the ad — just that they were shown it.
CPMs vary significantly by platform (LinkedIn CPMs are often $50-100+, while Facebook/Instagram might be $5-15), audience targeting precision, and competitive demand during your campaign window.
Related Terms
Paid Social
Social media advertising that uses budget to show content to targeted audiences beyond your organic followers.
Impressions
The total number of times your content was displayed on someone's screen, including multiple views by the same person.
Reach
The total number of unique people who saw your social media content during a given time period.
ROI (Return on Investment)
The financial return generated from your social media efforts relative to the cost of those efforts.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between CPM and CPC?
- CPM charges per thousand impressions (views), regardless of whether anyone clicks. CPC charges per click. Use CPM for awareness campaigns where you want to reach many people. Use CPC for conversion campaigns where you want to pay only when someone engages.
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