Ad Revenue Calculator

RPM is the more reliable planning number because it already folds in fill rate, viewability, how many ad units each page carries and the network’s revenue share. Working from CTR and cost per click is useful when you only have advertiser-side figures, but it tends to overestimate, since it assumes every ad unit is filled and seen. Whichever route you take, get the RPM figure from your own network reports rather than a published average: the spread between a low-value niche and a high-value one is often five to ten times, and the same site can earn 30–50% more in December than in the following January.

From RPM: revenue = pageviews ÷ 1,000 × RPM. From clicks: revenue = pageviews × ad units per page × CTR × cost per click. Effective RPM is then revenue ÷ pageviews × 1,000, which lets you compare the two approaches directly.

These are planning estimates, not forecasts. Real RPM swings hard by niche, visitor country, device and season — finance and insurance traffic can earn many multiples of entertainment traffic, and Q4 typically pays far more than January. The model also assumes every pageview serves ads, ignoring ad blockers, viewability, unfilled inventory and network revenue shares, all of which reduce real earnings.

100,000 monthly pageviews at an RPM of 8 gives 800 a month, about 26 a day and 9,600 a year — an effective 0.008 per pageview.

1. Enter your monthly pageviews.
2. Choose RPM if your network reports it, otherwise use CTR and cost per click.
3. Fill in the figures for the mode you picked.
4. Read the daily, monthly and yearly estimates and the traffic scenarios.

• Using a published average RPM instead of your own reported figure.
• Confusing RPM (per 1,000 pageviews) with CPM (per 1,000 ad impressions).
• Ignoring ad blockers and unfilled inventory when projecting.
• Extrapolating a strong Q4 month across the whole year.

The Ad Revenue Calculator estimates what a site earns from display advertising. Work from RPM if you know it, or from ad units, click-through rate and cost per click if you do not. It reports daily, monthly and yearly figures plus a table showing what different traffic levels would be worth.

Bloggers, publishers and site owners planning ad income or valuing a site.

• Two calculation routes — RPM, or CTR and cost per click.
• Converts between them, showing the effective RPM either way.
• Traffic scenario table, so you can see what growth is actually worth.
• Daily, monthly and yearly figures from one calculation.

• Estimating income before applying to an ad network.
• Working out how much traffic you need to hit an income goal.
• Valuing a website you are buying or selling.
• Comparing a proposed RPM against your current earnings.