Guide · Updated 2026-09-01
What is a good website RPM?
AdSense sites often see $1 to $5 Page RPM. Premium networks pay much more. What counts as good depends on network, niche, and traffic source.
A useful website RPM names three things: Page RPM or Ad RPM, which network paid it, and how much of the traffic was search.
Planning bands
| Network | Typical Page RPM | Publisher share |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdSense | $1 to $5, higher in finance and legal | 68% display |
| Ezoic | Often 1.5 to 2x AdSense. Needs 250,000 monthly users to join | About 90% |
| Journey by Mediavine | Often $7 to $20, from 1,000 Tier 1 sessions | About 70% |
| Mediavine | Often $10 to $30, higher in Q4 | 75% typical |
| Raptive | Often $12 to $32, higher in Q4 | 75% typical |
Food, home, and personal-finance sites with Google search traffic sit toward the top of a network's range. Entertainment slideshows fed by social sit toward the bottom. The network change is usually larger than the headline tweak.
Search traffic usually pays more than social
Someone who typed a query is closer to a purchase or a problem. Ads on that page clear at a higher price. Someone who arrived from a share button is closer to a bounce. Our website calculator applies a 1.15× factor for search-heavy traffic and 0.70× for social-heavy traffic. That is a planning knob. Your own Page RPM overrides it.
Affiliates and sponsors can out-earn display
A comparison article can earn more from affiliates than from display. A newsletter with 8,000 subscribers can earn more from one sponsor than from a week of AdSense. If you only optimize RPM, you will overbuild ad density and underbuild the things that pay.
Questions
What is a good AdSense RPM?
For many content sites, $2 to $5 Page RPM is ordinary. Finance, insurance, and legal can run higher. Social-heavy traffic can run lower. Compare against your niche, not against a screenshot from a personal-finance site in Q4.
Why did my RPM drop this month?
Check traffic mix and season first. A viral social post dilutes RPM. January is quieter than November. Then check whether you accidentally compared Ad RPM to Page RPM.
Related calculators
Related guides