CTV CPM & eCPM Calculator
Calculate cost per mille, effective CPM with fill rate, and impression volume for connected TV campaigns.
CPM
$25.00
eCPM (at fill)
$29.41
Filled impressions
850,000
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CPM — cost per thousand impressions — is the foundational pricing unit in CTV advertising, but the relationship between CPM, effective CPM (eCPM), fill rate, and total spend is frequently confused in campaign planning. CPM is the price you agree to pay per 1,000 ad impressions delivered. eCPM is a derived metric: it accounts for fill rate, calculating the effective cost per 1,000 of available inventory rather than delivered inventory. A $30 CPM with 60% fill rate delivers an eCPM of $18 across all available ad slots — the publisher receives $18 per 1,000 available impressions, not $30. The CTV CPM calculator makes this relationship explicit so you can plan campaign budgets and evaluate publisher proposals with accurate numbers.
CTV CPM benchmarks vary widely by platform, audience, and deal type. Roku open exchange programmatic CPMs average $18–$45 for standard in-stream video. Fire TV runs $16–$42. Samsung TV Plus and Vizio WatchFree+ run $13–$36. Apple TV premium inventory commands $22–$55. Direct-sold campaigns with first-party audience data layered in — household income targeting, purchase intent segments, ACR-based TV viewer profiles — typically run $35–$75. Addressable campaigns targeting individual households with CRM data can reach $80–$120 CPM. Understanding where your campaign falls in this spectrum is the starting point for budget-to-impression planning.
Frequency planning is where CPM calculations become campaign strategy. A CTV campaign targeting 1 million unique households with a 3× frequency cap needs 3 million impressions. At a $30 CPM, that's $90,000 in gross spend. But if the inventory has 70% household coverage of your target audience and 65% fill rate, your effective reach is 70% × 1M = 700,000 households, requiring 2.1 million impressions to achieve 3× frequency, at a cost of $63,000. The calculator lets you model these scenarios — adjusting CPM, fill rate, household coverage, and frequency target — to find the budget that achieves the reach and frequency goals your campaign requires.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CPM and eCPM in CTV advertising?
CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is the price per 1,000 ad impressions delivered. eCPM (effective CPM) is the revenue or cost per 1,000 available impressions, accounting for fill rate. If a publisher has 10,000 available ad slots and fills 7,000 (70% fill rate) at $25 CPM, their eCPM is $17.50 — they earn $175 per 1,000 available slots, not $250. For advertisers, eCPM is less commonly used; it matters more for publisher yield analysis. Advertisers use CPM directly: you pay $25 per 1,000 impressions actually delivered, regardless of how many went unfilled.
What CPM should I expect to pay for CTV advertising?
Standard CTV open exchange CPMs range $14–$45 depending on platform and targeting. Premium programmatic guaranteed deals run $30–$65. Direct-sold campaigns with audience targeting (ACR, purchase intent, household income) command $35–$80. Addressable CTV targeting individual households with CRM match can reach $80–$120. For most brand campaigns, planning at $25–$40 CPM is a reasonable starting estimate for US CTV open exchange inventory across Roku, Fire TV, and mid-market platforms.
How do I calculate total impressions from a CTV budget?
Impressions = (Budget ÷ CPM) × 1,000. A $50,000 budget at $25 CPM delivers 2,000,000 impressions. For reach estimation, divide by your target frequency: 2M impressions ÷ 3× frequency = 666,667 unique households reached. Adjust downward by your estimated household coverage — if your target demographic represents 60% of the platform's household base, multiply by 0.60 to get realistic unique reach within your audience.