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January 27, 2014 ,

 Updated January 5, 2020

Want the Best CPM Rates?

MonetizePros has been reviewing the best ad networks since 2013 and we've built up quite the database. If you're looking to get the best CPM rates for your needs, check out our recommendation. Our readers also get a 10% earnings bonus for the first year!


Updated June 20, 2018

Anyone monetizing a website through display ads wonders at some point how their earnings compare to their peers. Display ad earnings can be standardized through the CPM metric–or, more appropriately, revenue per thousand impressions (RPM). This figure refers to the cost to advertisers (which equates to revenue for publishers) for 1,000 ad impressions. In other words, it makes it possible to compare the earnings rates for sites regardless of audience sizes. The higher a site’s RPM, the more money it will earn for every thousand page views generated through ad networks (check out our media.net review). If you don’t have a site yet, click here.

CPM Rates By Channel

Calculating an “average” CPM (or RPM) is of course very difficult. For starters, online advertisements are of course not served exclusively on desktop computers using Internet Explorer anymore; there are multiple mediums through which web traffic consumes content and ads. More specifically, a growing number of ads are served on mobile devices, within online videos, and within emails. Each of these channels has a number of unique characteristics that impacts the value of the ads to advertisers (and therefore the expected revenue to the publishers). We’ve compiled detailed information about average CPMs across various channels in our detailed CPM Rate Guide. A summary of this information is below:

Ad TypeAverage CPMVerified Data Points
Display Ads$2.804
Email Ads$5.00 [a]3
Mobile AdsVarious [b]8
Video Ads$3.008
[a] Reflects an estimated banner ad CPM for sent emails. [b] This guide contains multiple data points, including averages for iOS, Android, Interstitials, and Banner Ads

In addition to the simple averages, each individual CPM rate guide contains:

  • Education of general trends and nuances of generating revenue through each medium
  • Commentary on the role of networks and impact on bottom line revenue to publishers
  • Details of and links to each data point included in the analysis

Average CPMs: Traditional Display

Though ads are served in multiple environments, the most interest exists around traditional display ads. The following section takes an in-depth look at some data points for average RPMs here.

The revenue earned and RPMs generated will depend in large part on the demographics of the audience and the focus of the site. When it comes to display advertising, not all Web traffic is created equal. Some audiences are much more attractive to advertisers than others, and some verticals can command much higher rates. The more valuable the audience (i.e., the wealthier and more likely to be making a purchase), the more a site will make per visitor.

Even among similar sites, the earnings from traditional desktop display ads depend quite a bit on the site layout; the positioning and appearance of ad units can have a major impact on clicks and earnings. (See How to Place Banners: 11 Proven Layouts.) A poorly structured site in a valuable niche could very possibly make less than an optimized site in a less valuable vertical. All this to say: figuring out an “average CPM rate” is not as simple as it seems!

Research on Average CPMs (including Google CPM)

Despite the difficulty in computing averages and establishing benchmarks, there are several data points we’ve assembled that hopefully shed some light on what types of CPMs sites are generating in 2015:

  • Average CPM for video ($24.60), mobile ($3.00), general display ($1.90), and premium display ($10.40) — Source: ZenithOptimadia
  • Estimated video eCPMs, for indirect, midtier, and premium sites — Source: Credit Suisse
  • Average CPMs to rise from $2.66 in 2012 to $4.68 by 2017 — Source: Forrester
  • General AdSense Benchmarks for generic, content rich, and product sites — Source: Webglide
  • DoubleClick Display Benchmark Tool — Source: DoubleClick
  • Estimated CPMs for BleacherReport, HuffingtonPost, TechCrunch, SBNation, and more — Source: MonetizePros

One of the best tools for figuring out an average CPM is BuySellAds.com. Their interface is designed for buyers looking to place ads, but has some great information for publishers as well. You’re able to filter by channel to find sites generally comparable to yours, and see what they’re charging (and, in many cases, receiving). Here’s an example from their Entertainment channel:

Top Peforming CPM Zones 2015
Not surprisingly, there’s a pretty wide range in the CPMs that different publishers are earning here. But the data from this tool helps to give some timely and targeted real-world data on CPMs. We analyzed the public data on this site to add some more detail to the average CPMs being seen in the market now. Below is a summary of the top performing ad units for several different verticals. For each, we took the top ten sites listed under the “best performing” screen described as “top” (i.e., appearing at the top of the page). Note that these rates reflect the gross amount charged to the advertiser, and are for a single above-the-fold ad unit:

Based on our experience, the ad network Media.net gets publishers the highest average CPM rates – click here to read our review.

Updated: 15th December 2015

VerticalLowHighAvg.
Web Design & Development$0.75$7.00$2.47
Technology$0.25$12.50$5.25
Entertainment$0.30$4.50$1.48
Business & Finance$0.30$12.50$4.97
Weddings [1]$2.50$8.00$6.16
Travel$0.29$5.00$2.62
Gaming$0.99$2.50$1.77
Sports$0.45$3.00$1.27
Beauty & Fashion$0.30$2.75$1.61
Family & Parenting$1.00$4.95$2.26
Food & Drink$0.25$5.00$1.48
Government & Politics$1.00$2.80$1.33
Home & Architecture$0.25$8.00$2.89
Total  $3.56
[1] Only 3 sites   

While this data is extremely useful, there are a few points to note:

  • It reflects the gross amount paid by the advertiser; the net amount to publishers will be reduced by the ad network’s take.
  • It is a relatively small sample size.
  • These are the prices shown by the publishers; it’s tough to know how much demand there is at these price points (though some of the placements are currently “sold out,” indicating that there are some buyers at these prices).
  • In 2014 our data showed the average CPM to be $3.10. After updating our data in 2015, the above shows the average CPM has risen by nearly 15% to $3.56.

Another data point (from a small sample size) comes from Hochman Consultants. They’ve tracked advertising costs for their clients over the past several years:
Again, this data contains a fair amount of volatility. But the general range of CPMs is fairly consistent with the other data points highlighted above.

Average PPC Costs

While a 2015 article by Wordstream puts the average CPC (in Google AdWords) between $1-2.

RPM vs. CPM

It’s worth expanding upon the differentiation between cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and revenue per thousand impressions (RPM). The former (CPM) refers to the amount paid by an advertiser. The latter (RPM) refers to the amount earned by the publisher. In some instances, these amounts will be equal. For example:

  • An advertiser pays a $10 CPM to run 100,000 ads (a $1,000 total expense).
  • The publisher earns a $10 RPM for serving those 100,000 ads ($1,000 in total revenue).

In other cases, there may be a meaningful difference between the CPM and an RPM. This occurs for two primary reasons:

  1. An ad network takes a cut of the amount paid (i.e., the ad spend is split between the publisher and the network).
  2. A publisher has a fill rate of less than 100% (i.e., some pageviews have no ads served–or an effective RPM of $0).

To use our example above, let’s assume that the advertiser spends the $1,000 to get 100,000 ad impressions–their RPM remains constant at $10. The publisher, however, serves a total of 200,000 pageviews. Half of those show the ad, while half are blank because no ad was sold. (I.e., supply was greater than demand; in reality, this is a pretty rare occurrence given the sophistication of ad networks.) Further, the publisher used an ad network that takes 50% of gross spend. The result is $500 in revenue to the publisher for 200,000 pageviews, or an effective RPM of just $2.50. This is obviously quite a bit less than the advertiser CPM of $10.

Bottom Line & Further Reading

Determining an average CPM for benchmarking your site is a very tough process. The rates earned can vary significantly by vertical, and even among sites with different layouts. For improving the earnings of individual sites, the following MonetizePros articles may be useful:

If you’re looking for ways to maximize revenue through direct sales, these might provide some value:

And lastly, if you’d like to see further information on average CPM rates (including by channel, i.e. Google CPM), don’t forget to check out the MonetizePros CPM Rate Guide.

RELATED POSTS

  • thanks michael can you help me to understand who are the best advertisers in DoubleClick For Publishers (dfp), as I can see a huge list their, need your opinion

  • when it refers to CPM ads, I have been using Adtomatik for two months ago and I have given very good results, with them I received advice to improve monetization with highly effective strategies such as image ads, native ads, etc… highly recommended.

  • Your numbers correlate well with our experience. On our web site we’ve gotten around $2 CPM in the past. Now we’re using AdSense (Google) CPC and are not permitted to disclose the results with them. Note that 99% of our visitors are from the U.S.

  • Thank you for stopping by!
    We are pleased to hear you had similar results to ours.

  • To help me with determine my costs , budget etc I usually use a CPM calculator
    The following might be useful:
    globalblue.com/advertising/cpm-calculator/

    Theres a few others on the web too

  • I’m looking to add CPM ads network to my site, this is a great ‘starting point’ article for me to negotiate my rate. thank you so much!

  • This very helpful to my cost-of-sale testing. If my client can spend a few dollars on a thousand impressions and make one $10 sale, they will increase their ad budget exponentially.

  • I am sorry, I am confused… I am developing an app …and I am under the impression that we receive
    payment per 1000 ads that show (before they are clicked to explore into) on the free app when the app opens. Is this correct?

  • Thank you! This article is a wonderful introduction into the subject of online advertising. I must now return to reading it more attentively. 😉

  • Difference between RPM and CPM is well detailed, thanks. Thanks too for interesting data about average CPM rate. I’m just on it 🙂

  • “In CPM the advertiser pays the publisher for every 1000 times the advertisement is displayed to a consumer.”
    If a user opens an app and sees the ad, that counts as a display.
    If the same user closes the app, re-opens it and sees the same ad, does that count as a different display making it two displays for that same user or is there a certain amount of time that the ad has to be shown to each user?
    How does it work?

  • That’d count as two displays! 🙂

    It’s usually based on pure impressions, so if a user visits two pages for example and sees the same ad, that’s two views of the ad as well.

  • WOW! Awesome tips and ideas. Thank you for sharing this valuable information. It is very distinctive and well written.

  • I have been looking for some actual data analysis regarding average CPMs, this is by far the best info I have found. Thank you for providing such useful insights. It certainly is a minefield!

  • Nice article 🙂 I’m looking to add CPM ads network to my site, this is a great ‘starting point’ article for me!!

  • impressive figures on CPM rates there, am beginning to believe CPM rates fluctuate a lot and can only be improved for the benefits of Publishers if the smaller players in the Advertising industry are able to compete with the Big companies like Google and Yahoo.
    So Ads Networks like AdsTargets are paying high CPM for publishers too but if you are interested, you can visit them and experience it your self. they allow monetization for websites, Blogs and Android Apps

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  • Cost per thousand is a marketing term used to denote the price of 1000 advertisement … CPM is the most common method for pricing web ads.

  • Social media ads CPM worldwide Q2 2018 – Q3 2019 The cost-per-mille of advertising on social media was 5.35 U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2019.

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