CPM, CPC & CTR Calculator
Type in the ad numbers you have, like spend, impressions, clicks and sales, and get every other ad metric. Or plan a budget, or see what your views earn.
Fill in the numbers you have and leave the rest blank. Two or three are enough: we work out the others.
What you paid for the ads.
Times your ad was shown. 50k and 1.2m work too.
Sales, sign-ups or leads: whatever you count as a win.
Sales value those conversions brought in.
Mix them with the numbers above: a budget and a CPM give impressions; a CPC and conversion rate give the budget for your sales target.
What's left of each sale after product and delivery costs. Gives your break-even ROAS and the most you can pay.
Splits spend, clicks and sales into a daily figure.
Page views or video views. 50k and 1.2m work too.
Find it in YouTube Studio or your ad network's reports. It varies a lot by topic, country and season.
Ad blockers, unsold space and videos without ads lower this.
Your ad funnel
How your ad numbers are worked out
Each metric is one number divided by another: spend by views, clicks or sales; each funnel step by the one before.
- 1
Cost per 1,000 views
$1,000 ÷ 200,000× 1,000= $5.00 CPM
- 2
Clicks and their cost
2,000 ÷ 200,000= 1% CTR$1,000 ÷ 2,000= $0.50 a click
- 3
Cost per sale
50 ÷ 2,000= 2.5% convert$1,000 ÷ 50= $20.00 CPA
- 4
Return on ad spend
$4,000 ÷ $1,000= 4× ROAS (400%)
Read more: every formula, a worked example, planning a campaign and publisher earnings
Every ad metric is one number divided by another. Spend split by impressions, clicks or sales gives a cost (CPM, CPC, CPA). One step of the funnel divided by the step before gives a rate (CTR, conversion rate). Revenue divided by spend gives your return (ROAS). Because they're all linked, any two or three numbers are enough to find the rest.
The formula
CPM = ad spend ÷ impressions × 1,000
CPC = ad spend ÷ clicks
CTR = clicks ÷ impressions
conversion rate = conversions ÷ clicks
CPA = ad spend ÷ conversions
ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend
revenue per click = revenue ÷ clicks
CPC = CPM ÷ (1,000 × CTR)
CPA = CPC ÷ conversion rate
break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin
publisher earnings = views ÷ 1,000 × RPM
RPM = CPM × ads per view × share of views with ads × your share
Worked example
A campaign costs $1,000 and is shown 200,000 times. That's a CPM of $1,000 ÷ 200,000 × 1,000 = $5.00. It gets 2,000 clicks: a CTR of 2,000 ÷ 200,000 = 1% and a CPC of $1,000 ÷ 2,000 = $0.50. 50 of those clicks buy something: a conversion rate of 50 ÷ 2,000 = 2.5% and a CPA of $1,000 ÷ 50 = $20.00. The 50 sales bring in $4,000, so ROAS is $4,000 ÷ $1,000 = 4× (400%), each click earns $4,000 ÷ 2,000 = $2.00 and each sale is worth $4,000 ÷ 50 = $80.
If 40% of each sale is left after product costs, the break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.40 = 2.5×. The most you could pay per sale is $80 × 40% = $32, and per click $2.00 × 40% = $0.80. Profit after product costs is $4,000 × 40% − $1,000 = $600.
Planning a campaign
Work forwards from a budget: $2,000 at a $10 CPM buys 200,000 impressions. At a 0.8% CTR that's 1,600 clicks; at a 3% conversion rate, 48 sales. At $60 a sale that's $2,880 of revenue, a ROAS of 1.44×. Or work back from a goal: 100 sales at a $1.20 CPC and a 4% conversion rate need 100 ÷ 4% = 2,500 clicks, so a CPA of $1.20 ÷ 4% = $30 and a budget of $3,000.
Publishers: blogs and YouTube
If you show ads rather than buy them, you earn your RPM for every 1,000 views: 100,000 views a month at a $4 RPM is $400 a month. If you only know the CPM advertisers pay, allow for ads per view, the views that show no ad and the platform's share. 10,000 views a day with 2 ads each, 80% of views showing ads, a $5 CPM and a 68% share (AdSense pays publishers 80% after the advertiser platform's fee, which works out to about 68% of what the advertiser pays) give 16,000 ad impressions, $80 paid by advertisers and $54.40 for you: an RPM of $5.44.
What each metric means
| Metric | In plain words |
|---|---|
| CPM | Cost of 1,000 ad views (M is Latin for 1,000). Good for comparing reach. |
| CPC | What each click costs. Many search ads are bought this way. |
| CTR | Share of people who saw the ad and clicked it. Shows how well the ad grabs attention. |
| Conversion rate | Share of clickers who bought or signed up. Shows how well your page sells. |
| CPA / CPL | Cost of each sale, sign-up or lead. The number most businesses watch. |
| ROAS | Revenue for every 1 spent on ads. Compare it with your break-even ROAS. |
| ROI | Profit for every 1 spent: (revenue − spend) ÷ spend. Here it counts ad spend only. |
| RPM / eCPM | What a publisher earns per 1,000 views (or per 1,000 ad impressions for eCPM). |
Typical ranges
There are no fixed prices: CPM, CPC and RPM change with the platform, country, audience, topic and time of year (they often rise before holidays). As a rough guide, display and social ads typically get click-through rates well under 1% to a few %, and search ads typically more. Use your own past campaigns as the best benchmark, and treat any published average as a starting point only.
ROAS and ROI here count ad spend only. Your real profit also depends on product, delivery, staff and tool costs, refunds and repeat sales. If you enter a rate that doesn't match your counts (say a CPM of $7 when spend and impressions give $5), we use your counts and tell you. Revenue shares shown for YouTube and AdSense are starting points; check your own account.
Common questions
How do you calculate CPM?
Divide what you spent by the number of impressions, then multiply by 1,000. If $1,000 of ads were shown 200,000 times, CPM = $1,000 ÷ 200,000 × 1,000 = $5. It is the price of 1,000 ad views, so you can compare campaigns of any size. Turn it around to plan: a $500 budget at a $8 CPM buys 62,500 impressions.
What is the difference between CPM, CPC and CPA?
They split the same spend in different ways. CPM is cost per 1,000 impressions, CPC is cost per click and CPA is cost per conversion (a sale, sign-up or lead). With $1,000 spent, 200,000 impressions, 2,000 clicks and 50 sales, CPM is $5, CPC is $0.50 and CPA is $20.
How do you work out CTR and conversion rate?
CTR is clicks ÷ impressions: 2,000 clicks from 200,000 impressions is a 1% click-through rate. Conversion rate is conversions ÷ clicks: 50 sales from 2,000 clicks is 2.5%. Multiply them to see how many impressions turn into a sale: 1% × 2.5% = 0.025%, or one sale for every 4,000 impressions.
What is a good ROAS?
ROAS is revenue ÷ ad spend: $4,000 from $1,000 of ads is 4×, or 400%. Whether that is good depends on your margin. If 40% of each sale is profit after product costs, you need a ROAS of 1 ÷ 40% = 2.5× just to break even, so 4× leaves a profit of $4,000 × 40% − $1,000 = $600.
How do I get CPC from CPM and CTR?
CPC = CPM ÷ (1,000 × CTR). A $6 CPM with a 1.2% click-through rate gives $6 ÷ (1,000 × 0.012) = $0.50 a click. The same link works the other way: CPM = CPC × CTR × 1,000. So a better CTR makes each click cheaper even when the CPM stays the same.
What is the difference between CPM and RPM for a blog or YouTube?
CPM is what advertisers pay for 1,000 ad impressions. RPM is what you, the publisher, actually earn per 1,000 views after the platform takes its share and allowing for views with no ads or with more than one ad. With 100,000 views a month and a $4 RPM you earn 100,000 ÷ 1,000 × $4 = $400.
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