Before you add more ads, check what your RPM counts. Two reports can show $10 and $5 for the same earnings. One counts pages. The other counts ads shown. Neither has to be wrong.
Open your report and find three totals from the same dates: earnings, pageviews and ad impressions. Put them into the free ad-report checker. It shows the two rates beside each other. No account connection is needed.
Page RPM vs ad impression RPM: a quick check
Worked example: these are example inputs for showing the calculation, not measured publisher earnings or a forecast. The cover illustrates the different counting units; the example below supplies the actual calculation.
| From one report | Example input |
|---|---|
| Ad earnings | $100 |
| Pageviews | 10,000 |
| Ad impressions | 20,000 |
Page RPM: $100 ÷ 10,000 × 1,000 = $10.
Ad impression RPM: $100 ÷ 20,000 × 1,000 = $5.
You still earned $100. The second rate is smaller because the number you divide by is larger. A page can show several ads, so ad impressions and pageviews are different counts.
These formulas follow Google’s RPM definition and ad impression RPM definition. You can download the example inputs and check the maths yourself.
AdSense RPM vs CPM: which number is yours?
RPM is an earnings rate. CPM is a cost or bid rate. Do not assume they describe the same payment.
Your page RPM answers: “How much did I earn for every 1,000 counted pages?” An advertiser’s CPM answers a different question about the cost of 1,000 ad impressions. Fees and payment arrangements sit between the advertiser’s spend and the publisher’s earnings.
Google’s ad-price reporting guide separates advertiser payment, fees and publisher payout. Total earnings and ad impressions alone cannot tell you an advertiser’s bill. The checker therefore does not label your impression RPM as advertiser CPM.
Comparing Mediavine or Raptive with AdSense?
Read the full field name before comparing the numbers.
Raptive’s reporting guide explains that its RPM uses sessions, while Page RPM uses pageviews. Mediavine’s ad-tech glossary also defines session RPM. A session is a visit; that visit may contain several pages.
A $12 session RPM and an $8 page RPM can describe the same earnings if the report has 1.5 pageviews per session. That ratio is an example input, not a rule for every website. Our session RPM vs page RPM guide walks through the calculation.
If RPM fell, check these five things first
- Dates: use the same complete reporting period for earnings and traffic.
- Currency: compare dollars with dollars, or record how you converted them.
- Count: compare page RPM with page RPM, not session RPM or ad RPM.
- Traffic measurement: check for a changed analytics setup or duplicate counting.
- Total earnings: did you earn less, or did the rate change while income held up?
Mediavine’s traffic-spike guide explains why rising traffic and falling RPM can appear together. It also flags duplicate analytics as a possible counting problem. This is something to check, not a diagnosis of your website.
If total earnings fell too, use our traffic-up, revenue-down guide to separate a traffic change from a rate change.
Check coverage with requests, not impressions
Coverage asks how often an ad request returned an ad. It does not ask how many ads were shown per page.
For example, 20,000 matched requests out of 25,000 total requests gives 20,000 ÷ 25,000 × 100 = 80% coverage. Use the matched-request count. Do not substitute ad impressions, even if the two totals happen to be equal.
Google’s coverage definition uses this request-based measure. The checker leaves coverage blank until you supply both request counts. It also keeps page and ad click rates separate.
More ads is a layout decision, not a quick fix
A low rate alone is not a reason to fill a page with more ads. Reader experience matters too.
The Coalition for Better Ads standards identify poorly received experiences, including pop-ups, auto-playing sound and large sticky ads. Review the standards for the type of page you run. Our ad-impressions-per-page result describes your report; it does not recommend an ad layout.
There is also a separate question: who is allowed to sell your ad space? IAB Tech Lab’s ads.txt guide explains that public record. Use our ad-seller checker if the setup itself needs checking.
Your next step: check your report totals, then change one thing you can explain. If the reports still do not agree, ask our team for a free manual review. Share the field names and dates; never share an account password.