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Overview

The CPM report shows how efficiently your paid media budget is buying reach. CPM stands for cost per 1,000 impressions. In Provalytics, this report turns that basic metric into a more useful planning and benchmarking view by combining:
  • blended CPM
  • channel-level CPM
  • trend over time
  • prior-year comparison

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What you can do

In the CPM report, you can:
  • Review blended CPM for the selected time window
  • See current CPM trend over time
  • Compare current CPM against the prior-year period
  • Compare CPM by channel
  • Review impression share by channel
This report is helpful when the question is not:
Did the channel convert?
but:
How efficiently are we buying audience reach?

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What the page looks like in practice

The CPM report is easiest to understand as two connected views:

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Overview view

The top-level page gives you:
  • a blended CPM card
  • a short explanation of what the report is measuring
  • a current-versus-prior-year trend view
This is the best starting point when you want a fast answer to whether audience reach is getting more or less expensive. CPM report overview

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Detail view

The lower-level view expands into:
  • a table comparing current CPM vs prior-year CPM by channel
  • a chart showing each channel’s share of impressions
That makes it easier to see where your cheapest or most expensive reach is coming from and how the mix has changed. CPM report detail view

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What the report is showing

The report gives you three useful lenses:

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Blended CPM

This is the overall paid media CPM across the selected period. It helps teams understand whether media costs are generally becoming more or less efficient from a reach perspective.

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CPM Trend

This view shows how CPM is moving over time. That makes it easier to spot:
  • rising media costs
  • seasonal cost shifts
  • short-term efficiency improvement or deterioration

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CPM by Channel

This shows how expensive each channel is relative to the impressions it delivers, with a current-period view and prior-year comparison. That helps reveal where your budget is stretching furthest and where reach may be getting more expensive than expected.

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How to interpret it well

A lower CPM usually means more reach per dollar. But lower CPM does not automatically mean better business performance. A practical reading rule is:
  • use CPM to understand reach efficiency
  • use incrementality and efficiency reports to understand business impact
That distinction matters because some channels are worth paying more for if they drive stronger downstream impact.

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What this report is best for

CPM is most useful for:
  • benchmarking paid media cost efficiency
  • media mix reviews
  • vendor and platform cost conversations
  • identifying whether reach is getting more expensive over time
  • comparing current economics with the prior year
It is especially valuable in planning conversations where teams need to understand whether a reach-based channel is becoming more or less expensive before deciding how much budget to allocate.

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Important interpretation note

CPM is a cost-of-reach metric, not a proof-of-impact metric. Use it together with: That way you can judge both:
  • what audience exposure costs
  • and whether that exposure is creating meaningful business results