What Is a Good Cost Per View on YouTube?
2026-09-19 · Nik · updated 2026-09-18
A good cost per view depends almost entirely on where the viewer is. Worldwide targeting sits around 0.60 cents for video and 0.40 cents for Shorts. The US, UK, Canada and Australia run near 1.32 cents. If you're paying much above the rate for your country, targeting is usually the reason.
Work out your own first
Divide what you spent by the views you got.
Spend $100, get 12,000 views, and your CPV is 0.83 cents. Multiply by a thousand and that's an $8.30 CPM, which is the same number ad platforms report back to you in a different unit.
Both matter for comparison. Neither tells you whether the campaign was any good on its own.
The benchmark table
Published rates, in US cents per view:
| Promotion type | Worldwide | US / UK / CA / AU | Europe | Asia | Latin America | India |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube video | 0.60¢ | 1.32¢ | 1.08¢ | 0.54¢ | 0.48¢ | 0.42¢ |
| YouTube Shorts | 0.40¢ | 0.88¢ | 0.72¢ | 0.36¢ | 0.32¢ | 0.28¢ |
| Channel growth | 2.00¢ | 4.40¢ | 3.60¢ | 1.80¢ | 1.60¢ | 1.40¢ |
| Music / artist | 0.80¢ | 1.76¢ | 1.44¢ | 0.72¢ | 0.64¢ | 0.56¢ |
The spread across that top row is more than three to one. Same video, same week, same money, wildly different volume, and none of it is negotiable because the price comes out of a live auction.
Three reasons a campaign pays over the odds
Over-narrow targeting. This is the big one. Stack a small country with one interest and a single placement, and there aren't enough people left for anyone to bid against. The auction charges a premium for the few who qualify, delivery falls behind, and the same handful of viewers see your ad repeatedly. Widening the country usually fixes it within a day.
Buying the wrong placement for the content. In-stream wants a hook in the first five seconds. In-feed lives or dies on the thumbnail. Put a slow-building tutorial in front of in-stream traffic and you'll pay for a lot of views that leave immediately.
Chasing a country you don't need. Plenty of creators target their home market by reflex. If you're not selling something there, you're paying two or three times the worldwide rate for viewers who are worth exactly the same to you.
A cheap CPV isn't automatically a win
This is where the number misleads people.
You can always get your cost per view down. Target the cheapest countries, run Shorts, go as broad as possible, and the figure drops. If those viewers watch four seconds and leave, you've bought nothing except a lower number in a spreadsheet.
Read CPV next to average view duration in YouTube Studio. The campaign worth scaling is the cheapest one whose viewers still stay. A campaign at 1.3 cents with strong retention is doing more for your channel than one at 0.4 cents with none, because only the first one is generating the data YouTube needs to start recommending the video by itself.
What to do with the number
After a week, compare three things:
- Your CPV against the published rate for the audience you picked. Much higher means targeting, not pricing.
- Average view duration during the campaign against your channel average. Higher means the targeting found better-matched people than your organic reach does.
- Subscribers per thousand views. Above three is strong; under one usually means the audience was too broad.
If CPV is in line and retention is good, scale it. If CPV is in line and retention is poor, the video needs work before more money goes into it. If CPV is way above the benchmark, widen the targeting and run it again.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CPV and CPM?
CPV is the price of a single view. CPM is the price of a thousand. A 0.60 cent CPV is a $6 CPM. Same number, different scale.
Why do Shorts cost less per view?
Vertical inventory is plentiful and viewers move through it quickly, so there's more supply than demand relative to long-form. That makes Shorts the cheapest reach on the platform.
Is a $0.01 CPV realistic?
Not through YouTube advertising. Anything advertising a cent per view or less is not buying auction placements, which means the views won't carry the watch time or audience data that make a campaign worth running.
Should I aim for the lowest possible CPV?
No. Aim for the lowest CPV that still delivers viewers who watch. Those are different targets and only one of them grows a channel.
Check your own figure with the cost per view calculator, or see what a budget buys at each rate on the pricing page.