CPM & Ad Cost Calculator

How to use

1. Choose what you want worked out: the CPM, the budget it implies, or the impressions a budget buys.
2. Enter the two figures you already have.
3. Add clicks, conversions and revenue if you have them, for the rest of the funnel.
4. Copy the metrics into your report or your media plan.

Features

• Solves in all three directions, so it plans a budget as readily as it reports on one.
• Adds CTR, CPC, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS and profit as soon as the figures they need are there.
• Leaves a metric out rather than showing zero when the figure behind it is missing.
• Flags impossible combinations — more clicks than impressions, more conversions than clicks — instead of quietly reporting a 150% click-through rate.
• Reads 1,5 and 1.5 the same way, so it works whichever decimal mark your keyboard produces.

Frequently asked questions

What does the M in CPM stand for?

Mille — Latin for a thousand. CPM is cost per thousand impressions, not cost per million and not cost per impression. The thousand exists because cost per single impression would be a string of leading zeros that nobody can compare at a glance, so the industry multiplies by a thousand and reads it as money.

Is a lower CPM always better?

No, and treating it as a score is the most common mistake in media buying. CPM measures what you paid for attention, not what the attention was worth. A tightly targeted placement at three times the CPM that converts five times as often is the better buy, which is why CPA and ROAS are here beside it. Judge the CPM against the audience it bought.

What counts as a good ROAS?

It depends entirely on your margin. ROAS of 3 means three units of revenue for every one spent, which is comfortable at a 60% gross margin and a loss at 20%. Work out your gross margin first — the margin calculator does that — and the break-even ROAS is simply one divided by it: at a 25% margin you need a ROAS of 4 just to stand still.

Why is my cost per click blank?

Because clicks are either missing or zero, and dividing by zero gives no answer. The tool leaves the metric out rather than printing an infinity or a zero that reads like a measurement. Fill in the clicks and it appears.

Related tools