---
title: 'YouTube CPM vs RPM Explained (2023)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GMkcteK-x9o'
video_id: 'GMkcteK-x9o'
date: 2026-06-18
duration_sec: 448
---

# YouTube CPM vs RPM Explained (2023)

> Source: [YouTube CPM vs RPM Explained (2023)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GMkcteK-x9o)

## Summary



## Transcript

so two of the most important metrics for
any youtube creator to fully understand
are their cpm and their rpm these
metrics tell you a ton about your
channel as a whole and determine how
much you actually get paid on youtube
however most creators don't actually
understand how these metrics work so in
this video i'm going to break them down
very simply and show you how you can
actually use them to your advantage to
make more money on the youtube platform
so starting off what is your youtube cp
at well this was actually the only
metric we had as creators to figure out
how much we were getting paid on youtube
until about mid 2020 when rpm was
actually rolled out now cpm measures how
much advertisers are actually paying
google to get in front of your videos on
the youtube platform see because youtube
ads run as an auction okay so the more
bidders there are and the more demand
there is for ad space on a particular
video the higher the price is going to
be and the more the creator is going to
make that drives the cpm up higher and
higher when there are more people
bidding for that same ad spot now cpm
stands for cost per mil and it's the
cost that the advertiser actually pays
for 1 000 impressions on your channel
now an impression is anytime someone
sees an ad on one of your videos so to
break that all down okay your cost per
mil your cpm is driven by an auction
process on your channel where
advertisers are bidding against each
other the higher the bids go the higher
the cpm goes and the more money you take
home in your pocket now youtube is gonna
be taking a 45 cut of all of this money
so your cpm is not how much money you
are actually making it is before
youtube's cut comes into play so for
example 1 000 views on a 100 cpm channel
would translate to 55 in your pocket as
the creator and 45 of those dollars
going to youtube however creators wanted
a better metric to understand how much
money they were actually making and so
that's how the rpm metric came around
which we'll get to in just a little bit
now a common question a lot of newer
youtubers have is what is a good cpm
well it's a common question but there is
no firm answer on this because your cpm
depends on a whole number of factors
this includes your audience demographics
the topics of your videos and even
whether or not you swear in your content
say because all of these factors
influence how much companies are
actually willing to pay for ads on your
channel now the average us cpm is
anywhere from six dollars to eight
dollars as of the recording of this
video personally my cpm is closer to
about 25 to 35
because i'm making videos on finance
taxes and things that advertisers are
more willing to pay to get in front of
my audience versus something like a
gaming channel where the demand for
those ads is a little bit lower because
they're not quite as targeted at a
particular audience but that being said
there are some methods you can use to
actually increase your cpm so let's dive
into three of the most effective methods
you can use right now now in the past
there were a number of scares on youtube
about very unsafe content being posted
to the platform and advertisers having
their ads shown before this unsafe
content very bad for brands brands do
not want to associate themselves with
that type of content so brands have
gotten a lot more careful with the
videos that actually put ads on within
the youtube platform so that being said
if you swear in your videos you have a
smaller pool of advertisers willing to
put their ads on your videos because a
lot of brands are trying to be family
friendly trying to appeal to a younger
audience they don't want to put their
ads on videos of people who swear same
thing if you're talking about illegal
substances a lot of brands don't want to
be associated with that so you're really
reducing your pool of available
advertisers when you talk about these
particular topics now the next method
you can use to increase your cpm is to
target high cpm countries see because
advertisers are willing to pay a very
different amount of money for 1 000
views in the us versus 1 000 views in
india and this is actually why many
international creators choose to make
their videos in english both to appeal
to a broader audience but then also to
potentially capitalize on those higher
cpms than they would get if they were
making videos in their native language
for some context here some of the
highest cpm countries are the us the uk
australia and the united arab emirates
okay so speaking english can potentially
give you a huge leg up compared to
whatever country you are in maybe the
cpms are a lot lower there so if you can
appeal to an english-speaking audience a
lot of times that can increase your cpm
now the third method you can use to
actually increase your cpm is to choose
a desirable niche now most creators
already have a niche and most of them
didn't choose that niche based on the
cpm they chose it based on something
that they were actually passionate about
and interested in that's why most
creators get into this because they
actually want to talk about stuff that
they are interested in but that being
said there are some ways to slightly
tweak your niche in order to capitalize
on a dramatically higher cpm here's a
quick example so like i said before
entertainment gaming channels typically
have a very low cpm because they're
appealing to a very broad audience
advertisers can't get as targeted with
the particular ads that they're showing
and a lot of these viewers are actually
on the younger side and might not even
have the money to buy their products now
business and entrepreneurship channels
typically have much higher cpms because
advertisers can really target this
audience and this audience typically has
more money to spend than the typical
viewer of a gaming channel so if you had
seen an entertainment channel that
focused on doing different challenges
you could potentially weave in more
business and entrepreneurship maybe some
make money challenges in order to
capitalize on the higher business and
entrepreneurship cpm while also staying
true to your niche which is
entertainment and doing different
challenges so if you've just kind of
told yourself well i'm just in a low cpm
niche that's not necessarily the case
and there are ways for you to tweak what
you're doing just a little bit to really
dramatically increase your pool of
advertisers that want to get in front of
your audience but that being said
there's this constant balance between
your potential audience size and your
cpm because with a gaming channel or a
general entertainment channel a mrb's
channel things like that there's
generally a much broader appeal for that
content okay like mr beast is pulling 50
million views of video i'm not gonna get
50 million views on a video talking
about taxes for youtube okay so you have
to kind of balance that and see okay i'm
probably getting a much higher cpm than
mr beast is but he's getting tens of
millions of views on his videos so even
if you do have a low cpm niche it's
still possible to make a significant
amount of money because you can reach a
much wider audience with that type of
content but now let's dive into what
your youtube rpm actually is well this
number actually describes how much you
as the creator are making this takes
into account youtube's 45 cut of your
adsense income and as a result it's
typically lower than your cpf now i say
typically lower because there are
certain cases where your rpm may
actually be higher for your cpm on a
particular video or on a collection of
videos and i'll have more on that in
just a second so rpm stands for revenue
per mil and represents the amount of
money you are making per 1000 views on
your channel now this includes other
things other than just your youtube
adsense things like super chats channel
memberships and your youtube premium
revenue and so if these additional
income streams are significant enough
they can potentially push your rpm above
your cpm and i've seen that with a
couple of my clients channels from time
to time they'll get a really high
performing video that will have an rpm
actually higher than the cpm typically
happens with like live streams where you
get a lot of super chats but for the
most part your cpm is typically going to
be higher than your rpm now quick
example a 5 rpm means that for every 1
000 views on your channel you are taking
home five dollars in your pocket so when
you're looking at your youtube cpm
versus your rpm both of these are very
important metrics for creators to know
your rpm is typically going gonna be
more important though because that is
focused on how much money you are
actually taking home at the end of the
month that's because it factors in
youtube's split of the ad revenue and a
bunch of other income sources that you
can make on the youtube platform now
keep in mind though that neither of
these metrics takes into account any
other income streams you're doing
outside of the youtube platform things
like affiliate marketing brand deals
sponsors all of that good stuff so it's
gonna be useful to continue to
experiment on your channel and see how
you can improve both of these metrics
over time so now that you know how your
youtube cpm and your rpm work the next
thing you should do is check out this
video over here where i break down
exactly how to get sponsors on youtube
my step-by-step process that i've used
for myself and for dozens of clients to
land them sponsorship deals on the
youtube platform it's actually a lot
easier than most creators things so
check out this video and i'll see you
over there