RPM

What it means

RPM is revenue per thousand — the money a site earns for every thousand impressions or, more usefully, every thousand sessions. Session RPM is the figure that matters for valuation, because it tells you what a visitor is worth regardless of how many pages they view or how many ad slots the page carries. A site with 40,000 monthly sessions and a $20 session RPM earns $800 a month.

RPM versus CPM

CPM is what an advertiser pays per thousand impressions; RPM is what the publisher actually receives per thousand of their own units. The gap between them is the ad network's cut, unfilled inventory and viewability. Confusing the two is the most common reason a site owner's projection does not match their payout, and buyers reading a listing should always establish which figure is being quoted.

Why it varies so much

Three factors dominate. Niche, because an advertiser will pay far more to reach someone comparing insurance than someone reading about houseplants. Country, because traffic from high-spending advertising markets is worth several times traffic from low-spending ones, which is why a geography breakdown belongs in any listing. And placement quality, because viewable ad units above the fold earn multiples of what units nobody sees do.

What counts as good

There is no universal answer, which is why the question is usually the wrong one. Content sites commonly sit somewhere between $5 and $30 session RPM, with finance, legal and insurance niches capable of far more and broad entertainment content far less. The useful comparison is not against a global benchmark but against sites in your own niche and geography, because that is the number a buyer will judge you on.

How buyers use it

RPM tells a buyer whether there is headroom. A site with strong traffic and a weak RPM for its niche is an opportunity, because ad layout and network changes are among the fastest improvements available to a new owner. A site with an unusually high RPM invites the opposite question: whether the layout is aggressive enough to be suppressing engagement, which shows up later as declining traffic.