cost per mille

Beginner 📣 Marketing / Advertising

Definition

The cost per thousand impressions in advertising, from the Latin 'mille' meaning thousand. It's the pricing model where you pay for eyeballs, whether or not those eyeballs care about what they're seeing.

Example Usage

We're paying a $12 CPM, which means every thousand people who scroll past our ad costs us twelve dollars we'll never see again.

Origin

Borrowed from Latin via traditional print advertising, where circulation numbers made thousand-unit pricing practical

Fun Fact

Despite being called 'cost per mille,' everyone pronounces it 'cost per M' and just accepts that we're using Roman numerals for our digital advertising metrics.

Source: Standard advertising pricing terminology

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