CPM Goes Down as Views Go Up?

1. 92

   Natalie Frankposted 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 with 300 views, 500 views 900 views or 1200 views which seems a bit strange to me.  I decided to calculate the percent change in impressions and CPM per month to see if perhaps I was just focusing on the months that they seemed to be negatively correlated and it was not an actual pattern.  However, this wasn't the case. Maybe this is just a trend across the internet but it's become frustrating.  Here's what I found just since last Jan.
   
                             Impressions            CPM
   Jan -> Feb             +4%                  - 15%
   Feb. -> March        +66%                +24%
   March -> April        + 7%                 - 24%
   April -> May           + 51                   - 26%
   May -> June          + 27%                - 2%
   June -> July           - 9%                  - 10%
   July -> August       + 10%                - 15%
   
   I'm sure this isn't specific to me and that percentages differ based on niche site and article.    It just seems that the more impressions an ad gets the higher the CPM would go since advertisers would be willing to pay more if they know an article gets more views with associated increases in impressions. It seems weird to me that it appears to be going in the opposite direction.

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2. 84

   m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

   CPM would be determined by the ads that are displayed in your hubs/articles.  So if the selection of articles viewed for the impression total has higher paid ads then you make more.  This is why people stress the SEO and researching how much those keywords pay for their ads.  Hope that is understandable with how poor I can be at explaining things.

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3. 76

   psycheskinnerposted 6 years ago

   It makes sense to me, but this is just my assumption.  If you have ads lined up from highest paying to lowest paying.  As you get more traffic you will max out the highest paying ones and started serving the lower paying ones.

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      paradigmsearchposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Excellent!!!

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      1. 92

         Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         This would also be based on month right?  So maybe CPM would drop over the course of the month but not consistently from month to month.

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      DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for that very clear answer.

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         paradigmsearchposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         That one was gold. And true. And now obvious, once posted. HP should have posted it years ago.

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   3. 93

      Susana Sposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      This.
      
      There are a limited number of advertisers particularly for topics without any commercial intent.

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   4. 92

      Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      This doesn't make complete sense to me but even so, ads are local so everyone sees different ads.  So how can you "max out" any?  It seems like advertisers want as many views as possible and would be willing to pay for that. It's not as if Ads are limited to a certain number of views then are turned off are they? i guess I've never understood how this whole thing works and why CPM changes by the day, though I guess it makes sense it would be because of rotation of ads.  Yet this still doesn't explain why it is that as my views have gone up my CPM has dropped so drastically.  Even if this is the trend it seems based on the numbers just too significant a drop given the rise in views and associated  impressions.

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      1. 99

         DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Ads are limited to a certain number of views and then they are turned off. When opening an ad campaign on Adsense, for example, I can specify that tI do not want to spend more than $500 a day, or whatever, and I can specify how much I am willing to pay per ad. If someone is willing to pay $10 an ad it will be seen before mine, as I am willing to pay only 10 cents per ad. When the 10 dollar ads are gone your article will start showing my 10 cent ads.

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         1. 92

            Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            And that's the same for the HP ad program?  I earn between 0 -2cents a day from adsense so it doesn't really count for anything.  I was just talking about the HP ad program.  I'm still not understanding how local ads plays into it.  If one ad is turned off wouldn't they just substitute another higher cpm ad for a higher view article?  Also I still have the question about m onth.  If you reach the limit on an ad an its turned off then lower priced ads are substituted that still doesn't account for why there seems to be such a drastic drop month to month over the past year despite my views going up. Again this might account for a decrease across the month but then things would start over again next month and they should come back up not continue down, right? It's just getting frustrating that no matter how many articles I have, or views or impressions I have earned almost exactly the same amount over the last  10 months which equals barely making payout.  It just seems to be a problem when I earn the same with 65 articles and 280 views a day as I do with 130 articles and 1000 views a day. *sigh* Maybe it will come up this month.

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            1. 90

               wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Consider an ad for T-shirts, where the advertiser is willing to pay 10 cents for every reader that sees the ad.
               
               Your article, carrying that ad, goes viral and gets a million views today.  The advertiser (a homeowner working from their garage) suddenly owes $100,000 for just your article, plus whatever other articles produced. 
               
               Yes, they all set a limit - otherwise they are liable to go bankrupt.

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               1. 92

                  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Fine - but taking that example it seems more accurate to say someone will pay 10 cents per view for a tee-shirt and when the limit is reached by they go home and someone with a different tee-shirt from a different advertiser is called out.  Then there are also other people in different neighborhoods wearing different shirts working for advertisers local to those neighborhoods.   So similarly priced ads should replace ads that have maxed out - it's not the case they max out and then there are no ads on the article.  This also doesn't help explain the consistent drop with one exception, from month to month despite increased impressions nor the regularity in earnings which remains consistent regardless of number or articles, views and impressions.

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                  1. 76

                     psycheskinnerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes but the similarly priced ads *are* quickly maxed out because there are more webpages with advertising than companies willing to pay to advertise one them.  And content sites don't attract premium advertisers.  Its supply and demand and there is plenty of people supplying websites.

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                     1. 92

                        Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Okay I see that but again,that would make sense for CPM decreasing across the month as ads are maxed out, not a continuous drops from month to month as the new month would again start with the higher paying ads.

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                        1. 90

                           wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           It can also be seasonal as well as monthly.  Advertisers won't pay for expensive Tee shirt ads in December, when no one is buying Tee shirts or for snowshoes in July.
                           
                           I typically see CPM's fall in the beginning of the month, then increase towards the end as advertisers find themselves with money that needs spent before the end of the month.  (At least I think that's what's happening!)
                           
                           And once in a while CPM's go way up because of a couple of high priced clicks rather than views; it only takes one or two $5 clicks to raise the average CPM considerably (at least at my level of traffic).  Several years ago HP signed a contract with a specific, high paying, advertiser that was looking for the kind of articles I produce and paying by the click; my CPM went from about $5 to around $25 for a couple of months until the contract ended!  Particularly with the HP program it is a constant renewal of advertisers.
                           
                           Now if your CPM decreases each month for a year, I'd be really concerned.  But a few months with decreasing values should not be a real concern, IMO.

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                           1. 92

                              Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                              That's what happened.  Over the last 12 months my views and impressions increased every month but one and CPM decreased every month but 2 with those two months just increasing a small amount despite my views increasing by a huge amount.  So it's not seasonal and I haven't heard others having this same kind of decrease.  It is also annoying that I earn almost exactly the same from month to month despite more than doubling my articles, views and impressions.

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4. 84

   m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

   Just has to do with the user reading and what your key words are.  If you have an article about drinking mud compared to one that is about solar power - the solar power one will most likely have better ad ratings than the drinking mud.  Didn't do a hard core study here, but making assumptions

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5. 76

   psycheskinnerposted 6 years ago

   And for those commenting that it is about keywords, that is not the point being made her.  For the same hub with the exact same keywords CPM is consistently lower in days with high traffic.  This is the case here, on Adsense, or any ad server.

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   1. 92

      Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yes.

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6. 84

   m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

   Can you give us a reason to support what you are saying?  My impression data doesn't support what I think you just said.  I will look at it again now to see.

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7. 84

   m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

   ______________Impressions            CPM
   Jan -> Feb             -74%                  +19%
   Feb. -> March        +128%               -8.76%
   March -> April        +162%               -26.26%
   April -> May           -3.14%               -4.41%
   May -> June          -23.85%              +23.2%
   June -> July           -26.64%              -9.15%
   July -> August       +3.8%                 +5.1%%

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8. 76

   psycheskinnerposted 6 years ago

   Its a well enough known phenomenon that others have written about it.  And I see it lines up with what I assumed.  (p.s. what we call CPM is more properly called RPM, CPM is what the adversiers pay and RPM with what the site owners receives.)
   
   https://oko.uk/blog/how-high-traffic-ca … dsense-rpm

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9. 84

   m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

   I will dig into this, thank you for the info!

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10. 84

    m-a-w-gposted 6 years ago

    What it says makes sense, thanks for sharing that again.

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11. 92

    Kenna McHughposted 6 years ago

    RPM is a product of Cost Per Click (CPC) multiplied by Click Through Rate (CTR).  If your Impression RPM drops then it is because either: A) Your CTR has dropped, B) Your CPC has dropped or C) Both of these things have happened.

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12. 76

    psycheskinnerposted 6 years ago

    Advertisers may want as many views as possible, but they don't have unlimited budgets.

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13. 83

    ethel smithposted 6 years ago

    Honest reply here - clear as mud sorry lol

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