How CPM pricing works

A CPM campaign pays for reach instead of clicks. You bid what 1,000 viewable impressions are worth to you, and you are charged for each viewable impression your ad gets. You usually pay less than your bid, and clicks on a CPM campaign are free.

Every advertiser can choose CPM ("Per impression") or CPC ("Per click") separately for each campaign, including agencies running campaigns for clients. Not sure which to pick? See Should I choose CPC or CPM?

What counts as a viewable impression

An impression is billed only when at least 50% of the ad's pixels are on screen for at least one continuous second, in a browser tab the reader is actively looking at. An ad that loads below the fold and is never scrolled to, sits in a background tab, or flashes past in a fast scroll is not billed.

Viewability is measured by Mintfunnel's own code, which ships with the ad. Every billable impression carries a signed token, so an impression cannot be replayed or invented by a third party.

How the price is set

Your bid is the most you will ever pay per 1,000 viewable impressions.
What you actually pay is set by a second-price auction: just enough to beat the next-highest bid competing for the same slot. You never pay more than your bid, and never less than the platform minimum.
Minimum bid and bid steps. The minimum CPM bid is currently $1.00, and bids move in steps of $0.10. The Pricing card on your campaign page always shows your bid, the platform floor and the bid step in effect.
Publisher minimums. A publisher can set a minimum CPM on a widget. Your ad shows on that widget only if your bid is at least that minimum, and you never pay less than it there.

One auction for CPC and CPM

CPC and CPM campaigns compete in the same auction, ranked by effective CPM (eCPM): what each campaign is worth per 1,000 impressions. For a CPM campaign that is its bid. For a CPC campaign it is estimated from its click bid and how often its ad gets clicked. So a CPM bid competes fairly against a click bid, and neither model gets a built-in advantage.

When you are charged

Charges come off your campaign budget as impressions accrue, at your cleared price divided by 1,000 for each one. They settle into your spend and billing about every 5 minutes, so the figures on your campaign page can trail live delivery by a few minutes.

Your daily and total budgets work the same way as for a CPC campaign, with one extra rule: each budget must cover at least one impression at your bid. The campaign pauses when its remaining budget cannot pay for another impression.

Clicks are free

Clicks on a CPM campaign are still counted, so you can see your click-through rate and how the ad performs, but they are never billed. Conversions and onchain attribution keep working exactly as they do for CPC campaigns.

Invalid traffic is never billed

Impressions that Mintfunnel filters as invalid traffic (bots, repeated or replayed views, floods of views from one address or device, and similar) are never billed. If an impression is found to be invalid within 72 hours of being billed, the charge is credited back to your Mintfunnel wallet automatically. Credits go to your account balance, not back to the original payment method.

The Impressions panel on your campaign page shows how many viewable impressions were counted, billed, and filtered, and how much was credited back.

What you see in reports

On a CPM campaign, the campaign page, the campaign list and Analytics show:

Viewable impressions: what you paid for.
eCPM: what you actually paid per 1,000 viewable impressions (spend divided by viewable impressions, times 1,000). This is usually below your bid.
Clicks and CTR: counted, never billed.
Spend: the same spend figure used everywhere else, so totals across your CPC and CPM campaigns add up.

Questions? Contact the Mintfunnel Team from the Support page in your dashboard.