CPM Calculator Free
Enter any two of budget, CPM and impressions, and this solves the third, then estimates reach from your average frequency.
How it works
- The three numbers are locked together. CPM is the price of 1,000 impressions, so impressions = budget / CPM x 1,000. Give it any two and the third is fixed.
- Reach is impressions divided by average frequency. Frequency of 1.0 means every impression hit a different account, higher frequency means the same accounts saw the ad more than once.
- Use it to sanity check a plan before it goes live. If the impressions the budget buys cannot cover the audience you need at a sane frequency, the budget or the audience has to move.
Reading frequency
Under 1.5
Wide and shallow. Good for a launch or a reach buy, weak for anything that needs several exposures before a decision.
1.5 to 3.0
The working range for most GCC prospecting. Enough repetition to be remembered, not enough to annoy.
Above 3.0 in 7 days
Fatigue territory. CPM climbs, click through rate falls, and the fix is new creative, not more budget or a tighter audience.
What a budget buys at different CPMs
CPM is a buying price, not a performance metric. It moves with country, placement, season and how hard the auction is competing for the same account.
| Budget | CPM 15 | CPM 25 | CPM 40 | CPM 60 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | 333,000 | 200,000 | 125,000 | 83,000 |
| 10,000 | 667,000 | 400,000 | 250,000 | 167,000 |
| 25,000 | 1,667,000 | 1,000,000 | 625,000 | 417,000 |
| 50,000 | 3,333,000 | 2,000,000 | 1,250,000 | 833,000 |
Impressions, rounded to the nearest thousand. Same currency for budget and CPM, the maths is currency neutral.
Questions
What does CPM mean?
CPM is the cost of 1,000 ad impressions. Spend AED 500, get 20,000 impressions, and the CPM is AED 25. It is a buying price, not a performance metric, so always read it next to click through rate and cost per result.
How do I get impressions from a budget?
Divide the budget by the CPM, then multiply by 1,000. A budget of AED 5,000 at a CPM of AED 25 buys 200,000 impressions. Set this calculator to solve for impressions and it does that live as you type.
What is the difference between impressions and reach?
Impressions count every delivery of the ad, repeats included. Reach counts the unique accounts that saw it. Divide impressions by average frequency to estimate reach, so 200,000 impressions at a frequency of 1.8 is roughly 111,000 reached.
Why did my CPM go up without any change to the campaign?
CPM is an auction price, so it moves with demand rather than with your settings. Ramadan, White Friday, a competitor's launch and a narrow audience all push it up. Judge a CPM rise against the same weeks last year, not against last week, and act on cost per result rather than on CPM alone.
Next step
Impressions are cheap. Converting them is where the plan is won.
Run the free analyzer on the page your media points at and see the SEO, GEO, schema and speed problems draining the traffic you just paid for.