CPM (Cost Per Mille, from the Latin mille, thousand) is the price a brand pays for every thousand impressions a piece of content generates. It's a metric borrowed from traditional advertising, widely used in influencer marketing to compare a creator collaboration against other paid media channels.
How to calculate it
CPM = (collaboration price / total impressions) × 1,000
For example, if a brand pays €500 for a reel that generates 100,000 impressions, the CPM is €5.
What it's used for
- Comparing channels: it lets you put an influencer collaboration and an Instagram or TikTok Ads campaign side by side.
- Justifying rate card pricing: a creator can back up their rates by showing their CPM is competitive versus the market.
- Negotiating objectively: it turns "how much do I charge" into a comparable number.
Its limitation
CPM measures reach, not engagement quality or actual conversion. An account with high reach but low engagement rate can have a low CPM and still drive little real business impact, which is why it's usually analyzed alongside a campaign's actual ROI, not in isolation.