What Is CPM?!?

What is CPM? This is a question that we get all the time here at DropbackTV, and this article sets out to answer that question!

What does CPM stand for?

CPM stands for Cost Per Mille or Cost Per Thousand. Why “Milie” instead of “Thousand” because the roman numeral for one thousand is “M” which stands for “Mille”. Thus, in modern day terms CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand. On YouTube more specifically, however, it stands for Cost Per One Thousand monetized views. If you don’t want a monetize view is, look below. We have that question answered in-depth for you.

What are “Monetized Views”?

Monetized views are views that have advertisements on them, and they are the only views you get paid for. If you’re placing ads on your videos, you might be wondering why all of them aren’t getting monetized. There are a few possible reasons for this, and they are outlined below.

Some people don’t get ads because they are using an Ad Blocker that prevents ads from showing up on videos.
YouTube occasionally stops showing ads to users after they have watched a certain number of videos, so the viewer isn’t overwhelmed with advertisements.
Skippable TrueView in-stream ads being watched for less than 30 seconds before being skipped don’t count towards monetized views.
The viewer of a video leaves the video before watching anything, and the view still counts towards the overall view counter and analytics.

What if I don’t get 1,000 views?

You will still be paid, but the amount will scale down. Let’s say you get 100 monetized views in a month and your CPM is $10.00. To figure out how much you will make per 100 views, you would dived your CPM, in this case $10.00, by 10. Thus, your CPM, using the numbers above, would be $1/100 monetized views. That being said, if you ever talk about revenue on YouTube in terms of 100 monetized views, no one will know what your are talking about. The important thing to note here is that no matter how many monetized views you get, you will be paid for them!

Why does my CPM never stay the same?

CPMs are impacted by literally thousands of different factors, and for that reason they are constantly fluctuating. One month your CPM may be over $20, and the next month, it may be less than $2. This could be for many different reasons, but there are a few main factors that influence CPM. We have an entire tutorial here on Dropback.tv on how to earn more CPM. I recommend you check it out by clicking here, and following everything that is in it. It could help your CPM tremendously.

Additionally, I want to mention that CPM changes drastically from region-to-region, and that monetized views that originate from english speaking countries, such as the U.K. or U.S., usually earn more than those from non-english speaking countries.