How To Increase AdSense RPM

AdSense RPM is one of the key performance metrics that publishers are often chasing. Here, a major difficulty publishers face is the fluctuating nature of RPM as a metric. One day, it might shoot sky high, and the other day, it might fall down to the ground.

Basically, when it comes to the RPM of AdSense, any kind of prediction is unreliable. That’s why most Google AdSense publishers end up asking, “How to increase AdSense RPM?”

In addition to this, a lot of publishers tend to confuse RPM with CPM, thereby complicating things. 

Before moving on to tips about increasing RPM in AdSense, we are going to talk about what RPM is and how it is different from CPM.

What Is Page RPM?

Page RPM is an estimation of total revenue generated by a site for every 1000 views on a page. It is an important metric that can provide useful insights and help optimize factors such as page layouts and number of units per page. 

Here’s how you can calculate page RPM: 

Page RPM= (Estimated earnings/number of page views) X 1000

What Is Page RPM vs CPM?

As is stated above, RPM is the estimated revenue you will earn by the number of views on your website’s page. CPM (cost per thousand impressions), on the other hand, is the cost the advertiser pays for 1000 impressions.

Basically, CPM is an advertiser/marketer-centric metric that is often misconstrued by web publishers. RPM is meant to give publishers a sense of direction on how much they can earn with the received value for ad impressions.

How To Increase AdSense RPM

There are a number of ways to start experimenting when we talk about increasing RPM. We have mentioned here nineteen ways that will give you some idea about how to increase RPM.

As you go through the list, you will notice that all points are interdependent and we advise you to consider all of them for getting better results.

#1 Increase targeted traffic

Attracting high-intent, well-targeted traffic is the key to getting started with the AdSense RPM gamut. A high amount of relevant traffic will lead to maintaining best value CPMs, which, in turn, will result in higher RPM.

Contextual targeting is becoming important in the ad tech industry by the day, therefore, as a publisher, you should be paying attention to it.

#2 Strengthen your SEO

SEO caters to search as per intent. Therefore, for increasing relevant traffic, SEO should be the priority. You can get quality users to your website via search and SEO proficiency helps you achieve just that.

#3 Improve content quality score

The next step after you have visitors on your website is to make them stay. Make sure your content or the content curation does not repel your visitors. Navigate through your own site as a user and ask yourself if your content does 100% justice to the search context.

#4 Bet on real-value CPC keywords

After organic, you have to put in paid efforts. Find high-paying CPC keywords which are also in sync with the content you publish on your website. Tools like Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush help you discover the right keywords.

#5 Use section targeting

Everything revolves around content. Because you’re leveraging content and relevancy, using the section targeting the AdSense feature can help increase the relevancy of your ads by showing more contextual and content-focused ads to users.

#6 Use geotargeting

When you have strong hold over contextual ads, narrowing down the targeting as per geography may yield even better. For example, if you know that the US region brings you the most relevant traffic, consider narrowing your targeting for this location to leverage better impressions.

#7 Use category blocking

If it hasn’t been said enough already, ad relevance and revenue go hand in hand. The showing ad may serve a good number of impressions. However, if it is at the cost of a very low CPC/CPM, consider leveraging the blocking section in your AdSense account and put the category on hold.

#8 Excel your user experience

Your website’s primary purpose is to serve ads. But your visitors’ key focus area is the content. So it’s obvious to place ads in a way that they don’t hamper visitors’ reading experience. Again, navigate through your own site, or ask your colleague for feedback. Next, ask if you’re doing 100% justice to the user experience. Also, user experience can be a great way to enhance your SEO.

#9 Experiment with ads

The ad formats you choose to show, the spot where you place them, their proximity to the content, the appearance of ads, and the quantity of ads you show are important aspects to consider. All these factors help visitors comprehend how much they want to engage with your website; better time on-site results in better CPMs.

#10 Start header bidding

Header bidding is an improved alternative to the traditional publisher waterfall technique where each ad request was passed on from one ad network to another for fill rates; and on and on. Header bidding, on the other hand, intensifies competition for your ad inventory and maintains high CPMs by enabling you to reach numerous demand partners simultaneously.

#11 Blacklist the under-performers

Gathering the list and chucking out the non-performing advertisers (the ones with very low CPC) can actually be an addition to your overall ad yield. Moreover, you can also block your competitors from showing their ads on your website.

#12 Try AdSense YouTube

These days, videos and video ads are on the roll. Hence, if you’re a video publisher, don’t forget you can always leverage the YouTube platform to make efficient use of video ads, depending upon your traffic and audience type. Other than this, rich media ads are also worth considering.

#13 Fix all the broken links

If your webmaster tool shows you broken links, fix them immediately. Broken links have a gradual impact on SEO, which can eventually affect your traffic. The effect may go unnoticed, but you should ideally take care of broken links as soon as possible. A lot of broken link checker tools can help you detect external links which you can just remove.

#14 Rework your site’s crawling structure

Apart from broken links, the webmaster tool also allows you to analyze and restructure the crawling method of your website. As it is a free search console tool by Google, many publishers are already utilizing it.

#15 Place ads between the content

Ads between content is more likely to be seen as the visitors are reading through. But high ad frequency can take your overboard and ruin the experience as well. So make sure to place an ideal number of ads on your website.

#16 Try image and text ads at the same time

Serving display and text ads individually is quite common. However, some publishers meticulously plan the placement of both image and text ads together. This may give your advertisements a creative edge and increase RPM.

#17 Give optimization a chance + a week’s time

If you’re A/B testing with the ad formats, placement, or other factors, ensure that you don’t rush. Any kind of testing takes time to show the effect. You at least need to wait for a week before checking if the changes are performing better. If not, you can always reverse the action. But for positive results, you should make sure that you never stop experimenting with different factors.

#18 Keep looking, tracking, and analyzing

For all the efforts you may make一be it related to SEO, content, ad formats, ad placement, or ad buying method一don’t forget that you have to keep tracking everything you are doing. Leaving out even a single activity will provide you inaccurate knowledge and hamper your understanding of what worked and what didn’t.

#19 Fix technical issues to keep all things running

Lastly, you need to fix all the technical errors. You may be working on SEO and content, and all other things consistently. Though at the end, there shouldn’t be loose technical ends that invalidate all your efforts. The most common technical aspects include page/ad load time fixes and mobile-friendliness.

Why Does Page RPM Change? What To Do About It?

Following all the best practices to increase AdSense RPM is the best thing. But what are the factors that affect your AdSense RPM, both in a positive and negative way? 

There are two metrics that influence page RPM.

1. CTR (Click Through Rate): CTR is an advertiser/marketer metric used to calculate the percentage of clicks by dividing the total number of ad clicks from the total number of ad impressions. For example:

→ 50 (clicks) / 800 (impressions) * 100 = 6.25% CTR

2. CPC (Cost Per Click): It defines the amount the advertiser/marketer is willing to pay you for each click.

So, how can you deal with the changing nature of AdSense RPM?

The higher the CTR and CPC, the higher will be the revenue. You should primarily consider working on improving ad CTR in order to increase your RPM. For improving CTR as well, factors including ad placement, relevancy, and better content are significant. These factors are key to improving ad viewability, which will result in high CTR/CPC.

In Closing

RPM denotes the possible revenue you can earn by taking the value of impressions/page views in the account. There’s no fixed number that says “This is a great RPM.” It absolutely depends on your website type and the numbers backing your ads (metrics, costing, ad strategy, etc.).

It’s also a metric that helps publishers identify and compare their revenue across channels. The only catch is, that experiments would need time and you’d need patience. Whether you’re an AdSense publisher or you use alternate ad networks, the above-mentioned practices can help you improve RPM. 

FAQs

What does page RPM mean?

Page RPM is the metric used to measure the total revenue a website generates for every 1000 views on one page. 

How can you calculate page RPM?

The formula for calculating page RPM is:
Page RPM= (Estimated earnings/number of page views)*1000

What is vCPM?

vCPM (viewable cost per mile) calculates how frequently the user views an advertisement. While CPM measures the cost for thousand impressions, vCPM measures the cost for viewable thousand impressions. 

What is the difference between page RPM and impression RPM?

Impression RPM calculates the actual revenue generated for every ad that is served to the user. It calculates the revenue per thousand impressions.

Page RPM is dependent on impression RPM, along with the number of impressions that are served on a page. Publishers should pay more attention to page RPM, as it is more useful for optimizing ad layouts. 

What is the average AdSense RPM?

Average AdSense RPM will differ for every publisher and is dependent on the niche, content on your website, and various other factors. 

What influences AdSense page RPM? 

CTR and CPC are the two most important metrics that have a direct effect on your RPM. Higher CTR and CPC will result in higher RPM, which is why publishers are advised to pay attention to these metrics.