CPV Calculator
Calculate cost per view for video and CTV campaigns. The formula is a single division — the difficulty is that 'a view' means something different on almost every platform, so two correct CPV figures can be entirely incomparable.
CPV
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Enter both figures to calculate.
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Formula
CPV = Total Spend ÷ ViewsSpend divided by views. The arithmetic is trivial; the definition of the denominator is not, and it is where nearly every CPV comparison goes wrong.
A view is not a standard unit
Different platforms count a view at different moments: some at a fixed number of seconds watched, some at a proportion of the creative completed, some effectively at start. The MRC viewability standard for video — two continuous seconds with at least half the player in view — is a different measurement again, and is not what most platforms mean when they bill a view. The practical consequence is that a $0.02 CPV on one platform and a $0.04 CPV on another may represent the same value, or may not, depending entirely on how much video each side required before counting it.
Match the definition before comparing
Before putting two CPVs on the same slide, write down what each platform counted and at what threshold. If the definitions differ, either normalise to a common one — completed views are usually the safest shared basis — or report cost per completed view instead. Where the platform allows it, quoting CPCV alongside CPV removes the ambiguity entirely, which is worth doing on any campaign where the two numbers will be compared by someone who was not in the trafficking conversation.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between CPV and CPCV?
- CPV divides spend by views under whatever threshold the platform uses. CPCV divides by completed views only. CPCV is always the higher number and the more comparable one, since completion is defined consistently while a partial view is not.
- Is a view the same as a viewable impression?
- No. A viewable impression means the ad met a viewability standard — for video, MRC requires two continuous seconds with half the player in view. A billable view is a platform's own commercial threshold. The two are measured by different systems for different purposes.
- Why is my CTV CPV so much higher than my online video CPV?
- CTV inventory is scarcer, largely non-skippable and sold at higher CPMs, and CTV views are usually counted as completions. You are comparing a completed view on premium inventory with a partial view on open-web inventory — a real difference, but not the one the raw numbers suggest.