whatisrpm.com

Revenue wing / benchmarks

Average RPM by niche: the sourced version

Reviewed08·2026

Here is the uncomfortable truth this page refuses to paper over: no ad network publishes a per-niche RPM benchmark table. What exists publicly is a dated market-wide index, network seasonality posts, and demand logic. This page gives you exactly that, with names and dates, and marks everything else not published.

By Oliver Wakefield-Smith. Oliver Wakefield-Smith runs a portfolio of ad-monetized publisher sites and reads these dashboards weekly.

What is actually published

Who publishes what, verified 2026-08-01
SourceWhat it publishesNiche-level RPM?
Ezoic Ad Revenue Index Ezoic Ad Revenue Index (dated series)2026-08A dated, continuously updated index of ad-revenue movement across its network: seasonality and year-on-year directionMarket-wide series; per-niche cuts as Ezoic publishes them on the index page
Mediavine blog Mediavine blog2026-08Named, dated posts on seasonality: the Q4 ramp and the January reset pattern its publishers seeDirectional posts, not a benchmark table not published
AdSense, YouTube Google AdSense Help2026-08Metric definitions and revenue-share termsNo RPM benchmarks at all not published
Monumetric, SHE Media, FreestarEligibility thresholds and program terms onlynot published

Why finance out-earns entertainment anyway

The niche ordering everyone repeats is real even though the dollar tables are not. It follows from who bids. Advertisers pay for intent and customer value: a reader comparing insurance policies is worth more per 1,000 than a reader browsing memes, because the advertiser behind the first can recover hundreds of dollars from one conversion. Demand-side pricing logic is documented on the buy side Google Ads Help2026-08; the ordering it produces is stable:

  • High demand: personal finance, insurance, legal, B2B software. High advertiser value per conversion.
  • Mid demand: food, home, parenting, travel in season. Broad commercial intent, strong Q4 response.
  • Lower demand: entertainment, celebrity, general news. Attention without purchase intent.

The dollar width of each band on your site depends on your geography mix, ad density and RPM basis, which is why this page ranks and refuses to price. Any table that prices these bands to the dollar without naming a source is fiction with formatting.

Geography and season shift everything

The same niche reads differently per country because bids differ per country; your blended RPM tracks your traffic mix. And ad budgets are quarterly: the Ezoic index shows the Q4 climb and the new-year reset in its dated series Ezoic Ad Revenue Index (dated series)2026-08, the pattern Mediavine explains to its publishers every January Mediavine blog2026-08. Compare your March to last March, not to December.

How to benchmark yourself honestly

  1. Fix the basis first: page, session or impression RPM. See session RPM.
  2. Compare year over year within your own dashboard: it holds niche, site and basis constant.
  3. Watch the Ezoic index for market direction Ezoic Ad Revenue Index (dated series)2026-08: if the market rose and you fell, investigate; if both fell, it is weather.
  4. Turn any RPM into money with the calculator before deciding whether a difference matters.