--- title: "What Is CPM? Cost per Thousand Impressions Explained" description: "CPM is the price an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions. See the formula, how it turns into streaming ad revenue and what raises or lowers it." url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/cpm" markdown_url: "https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/cpm.md" category: "Advertising" updated: "2026-10-05" --- # What is CPM? CPM (cost per mille) is the price an advertiser pays for one thousand ad impressions. It is the standard unit for pricing video advertising, and the rate a streaming service earns for each thousand ads it shows. ## How CPM is calculated CPM is the cost of a campaign divided by its impressions, multiplied by 1,000. An advertiser who pays $2,000 for 200,000 impressions has paid a $10 CPM. For a publisher the formula runs the other way: revenue is impressions divided by 1,000, multiplied by CPM. 560,000 impressions at a $10 CPM earn $5,600. ## From CPM to revenue per viewer Impressions come from viewing. Multiply watch hours by ads per hour and by fill rate, the share of ad slots actually sold. A viewer who watches 10 hours a month at 8 ads an hour and a 70% fill rate sees 56 ads, worth 56 cents at a $10 CPM. Use net CPM in planning: the rate after ad networks, sales partners and ad-tech fees have taken their share. ## What moves CPM - Audience: country, age and income; high-income markets command far more - Screen: television generally earns more than mobile - Targeting and data available to the advertiser - Content: premium, brand-safe programming over user uploads - How it is sold: direct deals above open programmatic auctions - Season: demand peaks before year-end holidays and dips in January ## CPM vs eCPM CPM is the price of the ads that were sold. eCPM, effective CPM, is total ad revenue divided by all available impressions, sold or not, so it reflects fill rate as well as price. eCPM is the better measure of what your inventory really earns. ## CPM on RentAnOTT The revenue calculator turns CPM, fill rate, ads per hour and watch hours into monthly AVOD revenue, and compares it with SVOD and TVOD. Advertising is included on every RentAnOTT plan. [Try the revenue calculator](https://www.rentanott.com/tools/ott-revenue-calculator). ## Related terms - [eCPM](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ecpm) — eCPM (effective cost per mille) is the advertising revenue a publisher actually earns per thousand impressions, across every ad source and pricing model. It converts mixed and partly unsold inventory into one comparable figure. - [Fill rate](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/fill-rate) — Fill rate is the percentage of ad requests that are answered with an ad. If a service requests 1,000 ads and receives 700, its fill rate is 70%. Unfilled requests earn nothing. - [Ad load](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ad-load) — Ad load is the amount of advertising shown per hour of viewing, expressed either as minutes of ads per hour or as the number of ads per hour. It is the main lever an ad-supported service has over both revenue and viewer tolerance. - [AVOD](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/avod) — AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) is a streaming model where viewers watch on-demand video for free and the service earns from the ads shown before, during or after it. - [Programmatic advertising](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/programmatic-advertising) — Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of ad impressions through software, in place of orders negotiated by sales teams. Each ad opportunity is offered to buyers and sold, often by auction, in the fraction of a second before the ad plays. - [CTV advertising](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ctv-advertising) — CTV advertising is video advertising delivered inside streaming apps on connected televisions: smart TVs, streaming sticks, set-top boxes and consoles. It combines the full-screen impact of television with the targeting and measurement of digital advertising. - [Ad-supported tier](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ad-supported-tier) — An ad-supported tier is a plan on a streaming service that is free or priced below the standard plan because the viewer watches advertising. The service earns from the advertiser as well as, or instead of, the viewer. - [Watch time](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/watch-time) — Watch time is the total amount of time viewers spend actually playing video on a service, usually reported in hours per month. It is the most direct measure of how much a service is used. - [SSAI](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary/ssai) — SSAI (server-side ad insertion) is a way of delivering video advertising in which the ads are stitched into the stream on the server before it reaches the viewer. The player receives one continuous stream containing both program and ads. ## Further reading - [Content monetization platforms compared](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/content-monetization-platforms) - [OTT subscription plans and tiers](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs/ott-subscription-plans) - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing) ## Frequently asked questions ### What does CPM stand for? CPM stands for cost per mille. Mille is Latin for thousand, so it means cost per thousand impressions. ### What is a good CPM for streaming video? It varies too widely by market, device and audience for one figure to be useful. Get quotes for your own audience from ad partners, and plan with a conservative net rate. ### Why is my revenue lower than CPM multiplied by ad slots? Because not every slot is filled and intermediaries take a share. Multiply by fill rate and use the net CPM you actually receive. All 163 terms: [Streaming and OTT glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary). ## Book a demo Tell RentAnOTT what you are launching. The team walks through the platform and maps the path to go-live around your catalog, markets and revenue model. Book a demo: https://www.rentanott.com/contact ## More from RentAnOTT - [Home](https://www.rentanott.com/index.md) — What RentAnOTT is, what every plan includes, and how launch works - [Features](https://www.rentanott.com/features.md) — Every core feature and optional add-on - [Pricing](https://www.rentanott.com/pricing.md) — Platform tiers, apps, add-ons, usage rates and example bills in INR and USD - [Free tools](https://www.rentanott.com/tools.md) — OTT app builder and calculators for streaming revenue, bandwidth, bitrate and pricing - [Insights](https://www.rentanott.com/blogs.md) — All streaming business articles - [Glossary](https://www.rentanott.com/glossary.md) — Definitions of streaming and OTT terms - [Book a demo](https://www.rentanott.com/contact.md) — Talk to RentAnOTT about your launch Full site in one file: https://www.rentanott.com/llms-full.txt