Cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) is the amount you pay to show your ad 1,000 times, whether or not anyone clicks.
You’ll see CPM most often in display, video, and paid social campaigns where the goal is reach and awareness, like staying in front of homeowners in Orlando before termite season ramps up, or keeping your brand visible while prospects compare options. CPM is different from click-based pricing because you’re paying for exposure, not traffic.
Here’s the simple math: CPM = (total cost ÷ total impressions) × 1,000. Example: if you spend $200 and get 50,000 impressions, your CPM is $4.00. A lower CPM means cheaper reach, but it does not automatically mean better results, because you can buy a lot of impressions in the wrong places or to the wrong people.
| Pricing metric | What you pay for | Best fit | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM | 1,000 impressions | Awareness, reach, video views, retargeting | Frequency, click-through rate, cost per lead |
| CPC | Click | Lead gen search and high-intent traffic | Landing page conversion rate, lead quality |
| CPA | Conversion (lead or sale) | When tracking is solid and the conversion is valuable | Conversion definition, attribution, call tracking |
If you’re comparing CPM to other pricing models, our cost-per-click (CPC) explanation is a helpful companion because it shows how “pay for views” and “pay for clicks” behave differently once you start filtering by audience, location, and device.
In practice, CPM moves up or down based on competition, targeting, placements, ad quality signals, and how tight your geography is. A 5-mile radius around Downtown Orlando, Winter Park, or Lake Nona can cost more than a wider Central Florida footprint because the audience is smaller and competition is heavier.
To get more value from CPM campaigns, we usually focus on: tightening creative to match the offer, keeping frequency in check so people do not burn out, excluding junk placements, and sending clicks to a page that matches the ad promise. If your CPM looks fine but results are soft, look next at click-through rate (CTR) and what happens after the click.
If you want CPM to support real leads, tie it to a clear goal and tracking plan, then connect it to search or retargeting that captures intent. That’s the kind of mix we build inside our PPC services.
And if most of your impressions are happening on Meta or TikTok, CPM is often one of the main buying models, so pairing it with strong creative production and testing matters a lot, which is where our social media marketing services come in for many Orlando brands.
