What is a good YouTube CPM?
Short answer
A 'good' YouTube CPM is $8–$15 for most niches. Above $20 is excellent (finance, B2B, insurance). Below $4 typically means international audience or entertainment-coded content. Your RPM is roughly 55% of CPM after YouTube's cut.
CPM = what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions. RPM = what you take home per 1,000 video views. YouTube takes 45%, plus only a portion of your views are monetized — so RPM is typically 50–60% of CPM.
A $15 CPM in tech translates to roughly $8 RPM. A $40 CPM in finance translates to $22 RPM.
| Segment | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entertainment / gaming | $2 | $5 | $10 |
| Lifestyle / vlog / how-to | $4 | $10 | $18 |
| Tech / education | $10 | $18 | $35 |
| Finance / B2B / insurance | $20 | $40 | $80 |
| Tier-3 international (any niche) | $0.50 | $2 | $4 |
Caveats
- CPM is recorded only for monetized impressions — playback rate matters too.
- Studio shows both CPM and 'Playback-based CPM' — the latter is what RPM derives from.