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CPM to CPC Conversion Chart

What each CPM costs per click once a click-through rate is applied — every cell derived from one division, none of it observed data.

CPM to cost per click

Read across from a CPM to the click-through rate you are assuming.

Cost per click for each CPM at click-through rates of 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 5%
CPM	CTR 0.5%	CTR 1%	CTR 2%	CTR 5%
2.00	0.40	0.20	0.10	0.04
5.00	1.00	0.50	0.25	0.10
10.00	2.00	1.00	0.50	0.20
15.00	3.00	1.50	0.75	0.30
20.00	4.00	2.00	1.00	0.40
30.00	6.00	3.00	1.50	0.60
40.00	8.00	4.00	2.00	0.80
50.00	10.00	5.00	2.50	1.00
75.00	15.00	7.50	3.75	1.50
100.00	20.00	10.00	5.00	2.00

Method

The arithmetic

Every cell is the same division: a CPM buys a thousand impressions, a click-through rate says how many of those thousand become clicks, and the cost per click is the CPM spread over them. Written out, that is the CPM divided by the click-through rate times ten. No figure in this table was observed anywhere — each one is derived, so the whole chart can be checked with a calculator.

CPC = CPM ÷ (CTR% × 10) · equivalently CPC = CPM ÷ (1000 × CTR% ÷ 100)

Worked example

One run through the numbers

A CPM of 10 buys a thousand impressions for 10. At a 0.5% click-through rate those impressions yield five clicks, so each click cost 2.00. Double the click-through rate to 1% and the cost per click halves to 1.00; at 2% it is 0.50, and at 5% it is 0.20. The cost per click is inversely proportional to the click-through rate, always.

Working from your own report rather than a rate card? The CPM, CPC and CTR calculator takes impressions, clicks, and spend directly.

Before you act on this

Where this number misleads

This chart contains no market data and is not a rate card. It is an identity tabulated across a range, and the ranges were chosen to be readable rather than to represent what any placement costs. What a CPM should be in your market is not a question this site answers.
Read the inverse proportionality first: at a fixed CPM, doubling click-through rate halves cost per click, and there is no diminishing return in the arithmetic. That is the whole argument for testing creative on an impression-priced buy.
A CPM buy and a CPC buy transfer risk in opposite directions. On CPM you carry the click-through rate risk; on CPC the platform does, and prices accordingly. Comparing the two fairly means converting one into the other first, which is what this table is for.
Cost per click is not cost per customer. To get from one to the other you need a conversion rate and an order value — the ad budget calculator carries the chain the rest of the way.
Every figure here is unit-free. Read the CPM column in whatever currency you buy in and the cost per click comes back in the same one.

Asked often

CPM to CPC Conversion Chart: questions that come up

How much is a CPM of 10 per click?

It depends entirely on the click-through rate, which is why this is a table rather than a number. At 0.5% it is 2.00 per click, at 1% it is 1.00, at 2% it is 0.50, and at 5% it is 0.20.

Why does the chart not show what a typical CPM costs?

Because we have no sourced figures for that. CPMs vary by platform, placement, country, audience, and season, and publishing an unsourced range would be inventing data. Every cell in this table is derived from the formula printed above it.

Can I go the other way, from CPC to CPM?

Yes — multiply the cost per click by the click-through rate times ten. A cost per click of 1.50 at a 1.5% click-through rate is a CPM of 22.50.

Which click-through rates does the chart cover?

0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 5%, chosen to span a wide range rather than to describe any particular placement. If your own figure falls outside them, the formula above extends the table in either direction.

Carry on

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