CPM is what you pay for 1,000 ad impressions. The formula is CPM = (spend / impressions) x 1,000, so $10,000 for 160,000 impressions is a $62.50 CPM. Enter any two of spend, impressions and CPM below and the calculator works out the third, plus your reach and how you compare with 2025 B2B medians for LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
2025 B2B CPM medians (Metadata, 153 B2B advertisers)
What is the CPM formula?
CPM stands for cost per mille, where mille is Latin for thousand. It is the price of 1,000 impressions, and the same formula can be turned around to plan a budget or forecast delivery:
| To find | Formula | Example |
|---|---|---|
| CPM | (Spend / Impressions) x 1,000 | $10,000 / 160,000 x 1,000 = $62.50 |
| Spend (budget) | (CPM x Impressions) / 1,000 | $63.19 x 250,000 / 1,000 = $15,797.50 |
| Impressions | (Spend / CPM) x 1,000 | $5,000 / $15.50 x 1,000 = 322,581 |
For a full definition and how CPM fits next to other paid metrics, see our glossary entry on cost per mille.
What is a good CPM for B2B ads in 2025?
The most useful public B2B data we found is Metadata's 2025 benchmark, built on $57.6 million of 2025 ad spend across 153 B2B advertisers. It reports medians across advertisers, which keeps a few huge accounts from skewing the result.
| Channel | Median CPM | Median CPC | Median cost per lead | Advertisers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $63.19 | $9.39 | $202 | 138 | |
| $18.25 | $2.82 | $138 | 49 | |
| $15.50 | $1.95 | $145 | 71 | |
| Google Ads | $617.91 | $9.76 | $524 | 56 |
Source: Metadata, "What LinkedIn Ads Cost in 2025", medians across advertisers for 2025 campaigns.
LinkedIn costs about four times Facebook per thousand impressions. That gap buys targeting by job title, seniority and company, which Meta cannot match for B2B. The lead cost gap is much smaller than the CPM gap ($202 against $145), which is why comparing channels on CPM alone sends budget to the wrong place.
Why is the Google Ads CPM so high?
The $617.91 Google figure is correct as published. Metadata notes that search impressions are not comparable to social impressions: a search ad is shown only when someone types a matching query, so far fewer impressions are served and many more of them get clicked. Judge search on CPC and cost per lead. We left Google Display CPM out of this page because we could not find a B2B display benchmark with a published method.
Does audience size change LinkedIn CPM?
Yes, a lot. Kiin's LinkedIn CPM benchmark (thought leader ad campaigns from US-weighted B2B tech advertisers, September 2025 to September 2026) found that on the brand awareness objective, median CPM falls from $127.28 for audiences under 10,000 people to $29.46 for audiences of 100,000 or more. Those two medians come from small groups of accounts (17 and 16), so read them as a direction, not a price list. Account-based campaigns aimed at a few hundred companies sit at the expensive end of that range by design. Our guide to LinkedIn ads pricing covers bid types and minimum budgets.
How do you use CPM to plan a B2B campaign?
Illustrative, not a benchmark. Ledgerline, a fictional accounts payable software company, wants every finance leader at 400 target accounts to see its ads six times a month on LinkedIn. It counts about 8 relevant people per account.
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| People to reach | 400 accounts x 8 people | 3,200 people |
| Impressions needed a month | 3,200 x 6 views | 19,200 impressions |
| Budget at the LinkedIn median ($63.19) | $63.19 x 19,200 / 1,000 | $1,213 a month |
| Budget at the small-audience awareness median ($127.28) | $127.28 x 19,200 / 1,000 | $2,444 a month |
An audience of 3,200 people is under Kiin's 10,000-person line, so Ledgerline should plan on the higher number. Budgeting a small account list at the all-advertiser median would leave this plan about half funded.
How do CPM, CPC and cost per lead connect?
CPM, click rate and cost per click are tied together: CPC = CPM / (CTR x 1,000). Dividing Metadata's LinkedIn medians gives a rough implied click rate of about 0.67% ($63.19 / $9.39 / 1,000), and about 0.79% for Facebook. Medians do not divide exactly, so treat these as a sense check, not a target.
- CPM tells you the price of attention. Use it to plan reach and frequency.
- CPC adds how well the ad earns a click. See cost per click, or run the numbers in our CPC calculator.
- Cost per lead and cost per opportunity show whether the clicks were the right people. Run the result through our CAC calculator to see what a customer costs.
Our guide to B2B paid media covers how to split budget across LinkedIn, Google and Meta. If you would rather hand the work off, our paid ads service runs campaigns and landing pages on your buyers' channels, reads results in your CRM each week and moves spend to the campaigns that book calls.
Frequently asked
How do you calculate CPM?
Divide the total ad spend by the number of impressions, then multiply by 1,000. CPM = (spend / impressions) x 1,000. A campaign that spent $10,000 for 160,000 impressions has a CPM of $62.50.
What does a $20 CPM mean?
You pay $20 for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. At a $20 CPM, $1,000 buys 50,000 impressions and each single impression costs 2 cents. It says nothing about clicks or leads: those depend on the creative, the offer and who saw the ad.
What is a good CPM for LinkedIn ads?
Metadata's benchmark of 2025 B2B campaigns puts the median LinkedIn CPM at $63.19 across 138 advertisers, about four times its $15.50 Facebook median. Small, tightly targeted audiences cost more per thousand (Kiin measured a $127.28 median brand awareness CPM for audiences under 10,000 people), so judge CPM next to cost per lead and pipeline, never alone.
Is CPM the same as cost per mille?
Yes. Mille is Latin for thousand, so CPM, cost per mille and cost per thousand impressions all name the same number. Some ad platforms call it CPM, others call it cost per 1,000 impressions.
How do I work out impressions from a budget and a CPM?
Impressions = (budget / CPM) x 1,000. With a $5,000 budget and a $15.50 CPM you can expect about 322,581 impressions. Choose "Impressions" in the solve-for menu above and the calculator does it for you.
Should B2B advertisers buy on CPM or CPC?
Buy on CPM when the goal is to reach a fixed list of accounts or people again and again, for example account-based campaigns and retargeting. Buy on CPC when you want visits and leads and the audience is broad. In both cases, report cost per lead and cost per opportunity next to CPM, because a cheap impression shown to the wrong person is wasted money.
