CPM is Cost per Mille meaning the amount that is paid for 1,000 impressions. An impression is when an ad is loaded on an article/web page and is seen by the reader. The cost is what the advertiser pays per 1,000 impressions. That cost is determined by what the advertiser is willing to pay for its advertisement with whom displays the ad.
Above explanation is a good one.
An example would be if your CPM is $10 and you receive 100 impressions, your payment would be 10 (CPM dollars) divided by 10 (because 100 is 10% of the CPM 1000 figure), which equals one dollar.
Thanks. I understand already
But what causes changes in CPM, for example if it reduces or increases significantly, what may be the cause?
Internet advertising is based around keywords. These are the words that search engines use to direct traffic when someone uses Google or whatever.
Keywords vary in value. For instance, advertisers will pay more for "financial advice" than "poems" because people searching for financial advice are more likely to spend money and in larger amounts, so the advertisers will pay more.
The CPM is an averaged out amalgamation of the keyword values and associated views. Therefore if you get a surge in views for a hub chasing a low value keyword, your CPM will go down; and vice versa, a surge for a high value keyword article will push up your CPM suddenly. Because the CPM is an average.
HP uses its own ad system, and the exact workings are not made public, but it almost certainly follows something along those lines.
The highest value key words are often fought over more fiercely though, in case you're wondering why every writer doesn't chase them! They are also in often specialist areas, such as legal, financial, etc.
The above accounts for the big day to day swings.
Because CPM depends on averages, the more published articles you have, the less it will fluctuate.
However, the overall amount of advertising money in the system depends on how much money HP can attract from advertisers. That varies too, but doesn't generally cause big swings, although that can happen occasionally.
Unfortunately, the CPMs are generally lower than they were a few years ago, so we need more traffic to earn the same amount as we did.
Our earnings are a combination of traffic and CPMs, so both are equally important.
It all reminds me of a wonderful book by humourist Allan Coren entitled "Golfing for Cats." The cover showed a cat putting on a green and the hole pin had a flag with a swastika on it. That's because Coren's publisher told the three best-selling categories for books were about golf, cats, and Nazism.
by Jasmeet Kaur 10 years ago
The CPM on my hubpages account is decreased to almost half! I am wondering about it? I want to know if anyone here knows about it. Please help me regarding it. I am totally clueless what to do...
by Joanna Blackburn 7 years ago
I have been wondering around this site trying to find information about the earnings page. Where do I go to find out about the abbreviations used in the reports?
by Rajam 4 months ago
Has anyone noticed how your CPM falls to the lowest of low when you have high number of impression and when you have a meagre amount its in the usual standards? Or is it just me? Have you faced this? Is there something going on behind our back?
by Eugene Brennan 3 years ago
Mine has hit rock bottom. Hopefully a one off.
by Andrew Spacey 3 years ago
Anyone else have extremely low CPM figures over last 24 hours? Could this be a glitch or is the Russian invasion of Ukraine making global markets wobble? If so we could be in for a rough ride.
by Natalie Frank 6 years ago
We have visited this topic at least twice before in recent months and I continue not to understand it. No matter what I do or how many views I get somehow I always earn between $1.25 and $2.25 a day which averages out to just barely enough to make payout each month. This was the case...
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