- Formula
- (Ad revenue / impressions or pageviews) x 1000
- Unit
- $
- Models
- Media
| All | Varies too much by inventory type for a clean band; treat eCPM as the rigorous cousin. | vendor data |
What it is
RPM (revenue per mille) measures ad revenue earned per 1,000 impressions or pageviews. Defined as: (ad revenue / impressions or pageviews) × 1,000.
How to calculate it
Divide total ad revenue by the number of impressions or pageviews over the same period, then multiply by 1,000. The denominator choice — impressions versus pageviews — must be held constant for comparisons to be meaningful.
Why it matters
RPM is used in content publishing and web media contexts to gauge overall monetisation efficiency of an audience. It blends fill rate and eCPM into a single number, making it useful for top-level yield tracking even when impression counts aren't granular.
Benchmarks & pitfalls
Vendor data indicates RPM varies too much by inventory type for a clean numeric band; eCPM is the more rigorous and comparable cousin metric. Because this is a directional heuristic rather than a figure from a rigorous study, no specific numeric range should be cited as a target. Teams should benchmark their own RPM against prior periods and against eCPM to isolate whether fill rate or yield-per-impression is the primary driver of change.