Definition: Page RPM [Revenue Per Thousand Pages]

What does Page RPM mean?

In digital marketing, the Page RPM is the amount a publisher receives from advertisers every time 1,000 pages are viewed. This is calculated by adding up all the revenue from all ads on every page shown, and then dividing by page views and multiplying by 1,000.

It is a useful measure as most analytics platforms will report on page views (as opposed to ad impressions). Being able to understand how much revenue 1,000 page views translates to is therefore very useful.

For example: Imagine you have 200,000 page views in a month, and earn $2,400 from advertising in that month. This means your Page RPM will be $12. This is because 200,000 page views divided by 1,000 is 200, and 2400 divided by 200 is 12.

Work out the Page RPM of your site with our Page RPM Calculator >

Page RPM Definition

RPM stands for Revenue Per Thousand (M is the roman numeral for 1,000). Therefore Page RPM is the Revenue Per Thousand Pages visited.

Websites are not actually paid directly for page views however, they are paid for advertising. More page views will likely equal more advertising revenue, however, ad campaigns will almost never actually refer to page views (except for sponsorship deals).

Page RPM is, therefore, a convenient calculation rather than a payment model.

Page RPM Formula

The Page RPM equation is:

Click to enlarge

Page RPM = (Ad Spend ÷ Page Views) x 1000

Alternate Equations

You can calculate RPM in the following ways (as well as by using our RPM calculator):

• Revenue divided by page views. Then multiply the result by 1000.
• Weird version: CTR multiplied by CPC multiplied by 1,000.

What it looks like

Click to enlarge

Technical Information

Consider this more complex example:

A website runs three ad units: 728×90, 300×600 and 300×250. In January it receives 33,620 page views over the month.

The amount the site earns breaks down as follows:

The Impression RPM ranges from $2.15 to $3.93 and the overall Impression RPM is $3.25.

If every time a page loaded all three of these ads loaded too, then you could simply add up the Impression RPMs to get the Page RPM. Unfortunately due to technical problems (and other reasons), this is rarely the case. Find out more about discrepancies and fill rates to understand why.

The total revenue for the month is $270, and the total page views were 33,620. This means the Page RPM is actually $8.03.

As you can see, this is significantly higher than the Impression RPM of any ad unit. This is because it is the revenue of all ad units combined.

What you will also notice is that it is less than the three RPMs combined (which would be $9.46). This is a trend you should always expect – Page RPMs are much higher than impression RPMs but not as high as simple maths assumes!

Note: These Impression RPMs will actually be calculated from smaller deals too.

For example, the 728×90 won’t have just sold a single deal for $124 – it will have sold lots of small deals likely made of up CPC, CPA, CPE and CPM campaigns. The money it makes from all those campaigns is added together, and calculated as an Impression RPM.

Top Tips

Page RPMs are most convenient to compare the value of different time periods (eg January 2017 vs January 2016). By using this measure you can tell easily whether you are making more money per page as well as more money overall.

Page RPMs are also useful to compare the value of different pages or sections of a site – as they can, of course, be calculated on smaller scales. This could be useful if you are trying to determine which section of your site earns the most money and is, therefore, most worthy of your attention (or of emulation).

Note: Revenue per thousand pages is calculated instead of revenue per individual page as so many pages are seen on the internet per day, and interacted with so little that the amount paid per advert is actually minuscule. It is only by grouping in sets of 1,000 like this that any notable figures can be gathered.

In other words, the revenue per page would usually be a fraction of a penny and it is disheartening to work with such small figures!

Not to be confused with

Impression RPM, RPM or REM.