Cost Per Thousand - CPM

"Coste Par Mille." That's the misspelled French translation of CPM, anyway.

It refers to the way in which advertising is priced. Think: “cost per thousand.” It’s exactly what it sounds like. Markets pay a fixed cost for 1,000 impressions on a website.

An advertiser might pay $3.00 for 1,000 banner ads on a site. It does not require a click...simply the appearance of the ad on the website. That's an impression.

Same deal with a 30-second TV spot. That's an impression. An ad in the SuperBowl which garners some 20 million impressions goes for millions.

Note that an impression, i.e. just a vague, faded "oh yeah, the kids in the minivan were cute" is vastly different in value to advertisers than an actual click to buy on a website, which is today dominated by Google. That direct marketing click is usually worth 10 to 100 times the vague impression unit of a CPM.