Can someone explain CPM for me

1. 79

   Seth Winterposted 13 years ago

   I recently signed up for hubpages Ive written a few articles and so far I have about 500 views and my CPM shows about 7.50. I assumed the 7.50 was how much money ive made on people visiting ads on my page but a friend said otherwise...I know read something about CPM being you hubs per thousand impressions...does that mean that 7.50 isnt mine til i get 1k views?

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   1. 37

      TIC Publishingposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Seth.
      
      CPM is just a ratio showing you the rate at which you're getting paid for impressions, not actual earnings... and it changes over time - you need a lot of data over some time for that information to be very helpful.
      
      In your Hubpages Ad Program screen, in the Earnings report from your account screen, there are 3 items shown: Impressions, CPM, and Dollars.
      
      Impressions is the actual number of times Hubpages has displayed an ad on one of your pages that you're getting credit (paid) for.  This number is always lower than the number you see in your main account screen of how many visitors you've had, because search engine crawlers, and people who leave your page before it finishes loading are not shown, and so not counted, towards your ad impressions.
      
      Dollars is the actual amount of money you have earned through this program.
      
      The CPM is the rate at which you're getting paid for a particular time - it is simply the number of impressions you are getting credit for divided by how much you made.
      
      For e.g., if you see:
      
      Last Seven Days:
          99 Impressions
          $3.86 CPM
          $0.38 Dollars
      
      That means Readers were exposed to Hubpage ads 99 times in the past 7 days, and you earned 38 cents.  The $3.86 CPM is just showing you the rate at which you made that money.
      
      I'm pretty new here myself, so I'm not too familiar with Hubpages' program, but if it's like Adsense, and many other online advertising programs, the amount you get paid per impression depends on the keywords on your Hub that the ad is intended for.  I can tell you that with Google AdSense, the amount they pay you depends on how popular your keywords are with advertisers, how pages on the Internet have those keywords specific to a given ad, and how much the advertiser wants to pay for the ad (Google allows advertisers to spend extra money for preferencial placement).  I imagine Hubpage's ad program calculates how much you make per impression in a similar fashion.
      
      Your $7.50 CPM seems rather high, and is probably due to insufficient samples to base a reliable average on (for example, on one of my first days I had only 1 impression, but the ad displayed must have been a high value one because my CPM for that 1 impression was about 3 times higher than my average day).
      
      Again, I'm not very familiar with HubPages ad program, but I would suspect in the long run for CPM rates to average between $2 - $4, though the amount will depend on your article and your keywords, as discussed above.

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      1. 37

         TIC Publishingposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Oh, by the way, you may find it clearer if you select 'All Pages' under Date Range in your Hubpages Ad Program Earnings screen.  This will show you the number of impressions and the number of $$'s you're getting paid for each day since you signed up for the program.

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   2. 79

      Seth Winterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks all I think I have finally grasped the concept of what CPM means.  Its the average estimate amount I will make if I get 1k views.

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2. 0

   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   That is not an actual amount earned, but an estimate:
   
   "Essentially, effective CPM represents your estimated earnings for every 1000 impressions you receive." (Source: AdSense)

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3. 80

   Sally's Troveposted 13 years ago

   This is a good question.
   
   CPM means cost per thousand.
   
   But cost and earnings are two different things. Cost means what you pay for something, while earnings means what you get paid for something.
   
   So, it would stand to figure that an acronym like EPM (earnings per thousand) would make more sense when looking at our earnings on HP (or anywhere else).
   
   WE...maybe you can explain this better.

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4. 0

   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   Sally's Trove, I think that is a very good explanation and point you are making. Somehow, I don't think it is a coincidence that AdSense "confuses" the two concepts in the explanation I quoted above.
   
   The CPM is what the AdWords advertiser is expected to pay, and that is the same for the AdWords keyword suggestion tool. Many people think it shows what they can expect to earn, but it is incorrect.

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   1. 80

      Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think it's a coincidence, either. For the most part, Google does a good job of communications, within the corporate concept, when it comes to something like TOS or Help, but I did get the suspicion that this was meant to confuse, deliberately, and so that makes me wonder whether that CPM amount REALLY means cost, and not earnings to you (obviously, Google wouldn't pay out the same amount that it took in). More insight on this? Just a matter of semantics, or something else?
      
      I don't keep track of earnings in a methodical way, and I don't track earnings against cost...maybe some have, maybe you have. So, I have to wonder if the CPM published on earnings really is the CPM, and not the EPM.
      
      (Bear with me, I can beat things to death.)

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5. 0

   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   Since CPM is used for the AdWords keyword selection tool, which advertisers use to plan their AdWords campaigns, I think it safe to conclude that it means estimated costs, not earnings.

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      Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Well, your answer does leave open the question of what that CPM means when it shows up in a stat that's supposed to represent earnings.
      
      So, are we, as earners, seeing the cost an advertiser pays, or the potential earnings we can expect?

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6. 0

   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   Excellent point again, Sally's Trove.

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   1. 80

      Sally's Troveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm thinking I need to move to CA and get a job at Google, but under cover.

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