This post was most recently updated on December 28th, 2023

As a publisher, you’re always looking for ways to increase your page RPM. Here are 13 strategies that can help you do just that. Some are simple and easy to implement, while others may require a bit more effort, but they’re all worth trying out. So get started and see what works best for you!

What is Page RPM?

How to Calculate Page RPM?

You can calculate your page RPM by dividing your total ad revenue by the total number of page views. After that you multiply the result by 1000:

Page RPM = (gross ad revenue/total no. of page views) * 1000

Let’s say, you get 100,000 page views each month and your estimated earnings are $1000

Page RPM = (1000/100,000)*1000 = 10

Click-through rate (CTR) and Cost per Click (CPC) directly influence publisher’s page RPMs. As the CTRs increase, your ad revenue will also increase. High CTRs signify high-quality ad placements allowing publishers to earn more for each click on the ad placement bid. Cost per Click (CPCs) depends on the ad type, content, and genre. Increasing both CPC and CTR will increase your page RPM.

Here are 13 ways to increase Page RPM:

1. Increase ad viewability

Most of the time, over 40% of the ads are never viewed with the average viewability rate ranging between 50-60%. Ad Viewability is an important metric the ad industry uses to evaluate ad campaigns. Viewability scores should be kept in mind since publishers’ main goal shouldn’t just revolve around achieving a decent viewability score, but also maximizing returns. Viewability has a powerful correlation with CPM, so increasing your viewability will directly increase your page RPM. In addition to reducing ad latency (making ads load faster), you can also improve your ad placement and optimize your ad layout to increase the viewability of your ads.

2. Site speed rescue

Once you’re done improving your ad viewability, it’s time to look into your site speed and look into technical issues that may be affecting your site performance. Issues like broken links and AMP issues degrade site speed. As a result of these technical issues, your SEO efforts will gradually deteriorate, which will adversely affect your page RPM. You can improve your site speed by optimizing your blog post’s images, using a content distribution network (CDN), leveraging browser caching, etc.

3. Good content recommendations for user engagement

The purpose of content recommendation engines is to provide users with pathways to related content so they remain engaged and spend more time on the site. You can increase your RPM by increasing the number of page views, as it increases the chances of your site visitors clicking on an ad.

4. The higher the content quality the better the RPMs

If your content is trash, your traffic will be disappointed! Focusing on creating quality content regularly is the best way to attain higher page RPMs. Creating valuable content that your audience will always sway back to will have a compound effect on skyrocketing those RPMs. While content alone is not a guarantee for better RPM, if you look at all the enterprise-level publishers, their content is fire! So, focus on creating high-quality content regularly.

5. Pubguru Header Bidding

Header bidding is a technique of programmatic advertising that lets you place your ad inventory in front of multiple ad networks that then bid to place an ad in your blog. Letting ad exchanges show your ad placements to advertisers around the world so they can bid for them & buy them for a high price is a lucrative way to maximize your ad revenue.

With Pubguru header bidding, it’s about selling your ad inventory to the highest bidder, unlike the traditional waterfall model where ad space is sold to ad exchanges based on size. Making the switch to Pubguru header bidding will also minimize ad loading time, improve ad viewability, profit attribution, and more.

6. Get access to better ad networks

Fill rate is an important metric explaining the number of ad units publishers can fill with ads. Having a high fill rate is going to maximize your page RPM. Due to external factors such as network problems or visitors closing the page before the ad has loaded, reaching a 100% fill rate is not possible. One tip you can use to increase your fill rate is to partner with an ad server that will help you diversify your ad networks. Ad placements could be filled first with your own direct campaigns, and then with advertising placements from multiple ad networks. Thus, you can decide which advertisement is the most profitable in each case and maximize your fill rate by having tonnes of options to choose from.

7. Try out ad refresh

Ad refresh lets you serve several ads on the same ad placement to the same person. An ad is refreshed and replaced with another ad when a condition is met, such as a time on page, an action by the visitor, or any other event. Publishers should only refresh the ad unit that the person is currently viewing. Your page RPM will improve even though your CPMs will be lower for those impressions than for the first ad served.

8. Bye Bot Traffic, Hello real user traffic!

You should aim to increase traffic quality instead of just quantity as part of your traffic acquisition efforts. The reason organic users visit your site is that the content you offer is relevant to their search query, so they tend to be high-quality users. However, depending on the content you are putting out, the best strategy would be to create a profile with all your referral sources and see which traffic source will garner users that are likely to engage or convert. With this profile, your traffic acquisition efforts will not go in vain since you can get a tonne of high-quality traffic sources.

Advertisers will increase their bids for ads on your ad inventory if you have a highly engaged audience thereby increasing your RPM. Additionally, never buy bot traffic to increase your traffic as this will only result in AdSense bans and revenue clawbacks.

9. Delivering a 5-star user experience

The audience on your site didn’t come to view ads and notifications. They came to view and consume the content you create. A great user experience will make your audience more loyal and engaged, although it is challenging to quantify and measure. You can always keep track of metrics like bounce rates, user sessions, repeated visitors, etc to check for improvement scope in your site’s user experience. Never add too many ads to your site. For ideal user experience, it’s best to keep it 50% content and 50% ads if you want the best of both worlds. It’s a more sustainable approach than suffocating your audience with ads or implementing obtrusive ad formats that interrupt the user on their task.

10. Are the ads relevant to your visitors?

A critical step in increasing your page RPM is to correctly target your users. Ads that are relevant to your audience are much more likely to be clicked since they are more likely to match their interests and convert. To increase the relevance of your ads, you can set up 2-3 targets for different categories on your blog.

11. Optimize ad formats, ad layouts, & ad placements

You can accept a variety of ad formats on your site, including text, display, video, rich media, or expandable advertisements. Some ad formats will get you higher prices per click or impression. However, it doesn’t mean that implementing video ad serving templates (VAST) or rich media will guarantee page RPM increase. That’s why you’ll need to do some split testing and find the best combination of formats in order to maximize your RPMs.

In addition, a range of ad sizes is available which are defined & standardized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Always go for the ad sizes that drive higher CPCs compared to others. The use of certain ad sizes by advertisers generates greater competition, driving the CPC of these ads up, ultimately resulting in a higher page RPM. Regardless of what ad size is best for you, wider ad sizes are generally associated with higher CPC.

12. Sign up for Google Ad Manager

We recommend that you sign up for Google Ad Manager (GAM) if you have done all you can and have good traffic (at least over 200K page views). Google Ad Manager is a hybridized ad server (Google Ad Exchange + Doubleclick for Publishers) that lets you set up direct campaigns along with ad networks & indirect campaigns as well. For direct deals, you can first deliver these direct ads & then fill the remnant unfilled ad inventory with the help of ad networks. Using GAM, you can partner with multiple ad networks to fill up your ad impressions, even if you don’t have any direct deals. So, if Google AdSense cant fill an ad slot, the request falls back to another ad network, ensuring nothing goes unfilled.

13. Partner with MonetizeMore

Let us take care of boosting your page RPMs while you can relax and focus on creating the best content. MonetizeMore has got your back with highly detailed reports, smart notifications, and making sure you are not losing ad revenue money on the table.

As many of you probably know, our publisher support team is top-notch and the reason we’re an industry-standard and award-winning Google Certified Publisher Partner. So, what are you waiting for?

Partner with MonetizeMore today and increase your page RPMs up to 50%.

Aleesha Jacob

With over seven years at the forefront of programmatic advertising, Aleesha is a renowned Ad-Tech expert, blending innovative strategies with cutting-edge technology. Her insights have reshaped programmatic advertising, leading to groundbreaking campaigns and 10X ROI increases for publishers and global brands. She believes in setting new standards in dynamic ad targeting and optimization.