Marketing Glossary

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

What you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown, regardless of clicks — the standard pricing unit for visibility.

Used in context
3.2 — Awareness Campaign Pricing

…For the brand-awareness phase, we’ll buy media on a CPM basis to maximize efficient reach across your target market.…

What it means

CPM, or Cost Per Mille (from the Latin for “thousand”), is the price an advertiser pays for every 1,000 impressions an ad receives, independent of whether anyone clicks.

It’s the standard pricing model for awareness-focused campaigns, since the goal is exposure and recall rather than an immediate click or conversion.

Built for visibility goals

CPM is the right metric when the objective is brand exposure, not immediate action.

Easy cross-platform comparison

Because it’s standardized, CPM lets you compare media efficiency across very different platforms.

Predictable budgeting

CPM makes it straightforward to forecast reach for a fixed budget.

DNA’s Take

DNA's Take: We use CPM to plan and evaluate the top-of-funnel awareness layer of a media mix, then hand off warmed audiences to click- and conversion-priced campaigns further down the funnel.

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