The metric in one formula
RPM = earnings ÷ audience units × 1,000
$600 earned on 50,000 pageviews = 600 ÷ 50,000 × 1,000 = $12 page RPM
Mille is Latin for thousand: revenue per mille, earnings per 1,000. AdSense defines Page RPM exactly this way Google AdSense Help2026-08, and YouTube Studio applies the same shape to views YouTube Help2026-08. Two properties of the number matter more than its size. It is post-cut: the platform's share is already gone. And it is an average: one high-value visitor and nine worthless ones read the same as ten middling ones.
Same acronym, different denominators
| Variant | Denominator | Dashboard | Deep page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page RPM | 1,000 pageviews | AdSense | /revenue/page-rpm |
| Impression RPM | 1,000 ad impressions | AdSense | /revenue/impression-rpm |
| Session RPM | 1,000 sessions | Mediavine | /revenue/session-rpm |
| YouTube RPM | 1,000 views (all views) | YouTube Studio | /revenue/youtube-rpm |
| EPMV | 1,000 visitors | Ezoic | covered with session RPM |
The single most common benchmarking mistake is comparing across rows of that table. A session usually contains more than one pageview, so a session RPM will read higher than a page RPM on identical earnings. Normalize the basis before you compare anything.
What actually moves RPM
- Niche and advertiser demand: what advertisers bid for your audience.
- Geography: the same page earns differently per 1,000 US visitors than per 1,000 visitors from low-CPM markets.
- Season: ad budgets peak in Q4 and reset in January, visible in the dated Ezoic Ad Revenue Index series Ezoic Ad Revenue Index (dated series)2026-08.
- Ads per page and layout: more units raise page RPM until they degrade the site; see the levers page.
The wing continues with the two questions everyone asks next: is my RPM good, and why did it drop. When you want to act on the answer, the network pages hold the published thresholds and shares, and the calculator turns any RPM into money.