Google runs AdSense, one of the best ad networks (but not the only highest paying CPM ad network) for the publishers and on the other side, with Google Ads, it attracts millions of advertisers — ensuring there’s enough demand always. As a publisher, you can sign up for Google AdSense to start showing display ads to your visitors. You want to know the potential earnings to plan and work accordingly and that’s what we’re trying to provide in this piece.

What is Google AdSense CPM?

CPM in AdSense stands for Cost Per Mille meaning the cost paid to an ad for 1000 viewable impressions. What you need to understand is that the Google AdSense dashboard shows your Impression RPM, which is nothing but eCPM.

And, if you see page RPM, you can convert it into CPM to compare your website performance with the industry standard. Here’s how to do it.

How to Calculate Google Adsense CPM?

Suppose you are earning an RPM of $15 and this page has 5 ad units. It means you are earning $15 after showing 5000 ads:

1000 pageviews * 5 ad units = 5000 ad impressions

So, for every 1000 ad impressions, you are earning $3:

Ex: 5000 Ads = $15
1000 Ads = 15/5 = $3
Hence, your CPM is $3

What are the Common Adsense Ad Sizes and Formats?

Google offers plenty of ad formats and sizes for publishers. Some of the most popular ad sizes provided by Google AdSense include:

• Medium Rectangle (300×250)
• Large Rectangle (336×280)
• Leaderboard (728×90)
• Half-page (300×600)
• Large mobile banners (320×100)
• Mobile Leaderboard (320×50)
• Wide Skyscraper (160×600)
• Portrait (300×1050)
• Billboard (970×250)
• Square (250×250)
• Responsive Ads.

The best part is that it does not use any minimum traffic criteria to onboard a publisher. You can be a publisher with any amount of traffic on your website and you can run ads on your website via Google AdSense directly.

Google AdSense CPM Rates in 2021

Google AdSense rates vary based on different ad formats that you place on your website and a lot of other factors (we’ll get to it later). In order to get the best out of it, you must equally utilize the balance between these ad types and choose what fits your end goal. Let’s have a look at the average CPM rates for different ad formats.

Display Ads – CPM Rates

Display ads are the goldmines to your ad revenue generation model as they have better demand all around the year. According to WordStream, the average cost of an ad on Google Adwords is around $2.32 per click and they are on a steady upward trend.

Based on the traffic on your website, audience geography, and CTR, the CPM can range between $0.30 to $2. You can utilize different ad sizes such as 300×600, 336×280, 300×250 and 160×600, etc. to get the maximum CPMs. In the case of mobile devices, publishers can use either 300×250 or 300×600 ad units.

Link Ads – CPM Rates

Link ads in AdSense are directly targeted towards user’s interests and they display the topics related to the content on the website. These are different from display text ads and are targeted towards an audience focused on a specific niche. Link ad units can generate good revenue if used on niche websites/audiences.

Targeting a specific niche through link ads can even give you CPM as high as $5. However, it is important to keep different important factors such as user interests, geographies, etc in mind while using the link ads. For a better understanding experience, it is always great to test these ads first as it won’t work for many.

Matched Content Ads – CPM Rates

If a reader is interested in a specific topic of your website, chances are that he/she might want to read more about that topic and that is where matched content ads come into the picture. Adsense matched content ads are the ad units that are used to promote the ad content of websites.

They are used to increase user engagement as well as page views for websites. They are shown along with related articles on certain websites matching the actual content of your blog posts. Matched ads can increase traffic on your website and revenue earned per session. Though you should not rely solely on matched content ads for increasing your traffic/revenue, they work well for high CPC-based sites as they help more engagement leading to more page views and clicks hence, increased revenue.

In-Article Ads – CPM Rates

In-article ads, as the name suggests, simply blend into the look and feel of the website content that they are being placed on. This way they are more engaging for the visitors and have a higher chance of a click-through. The in-article ads can be used along with banner ads for the purpose of increasing revenue.

Being a part of the growing native ads community, in-article ads are one of the most popular ads being used today. They have the potential of increasing your site revenue by 30%. You can maximize the ad revenue through Google Adsense by using them in combination with regular display ads. We can’t get any average CPM for in-article, we’ll update it as soon as we get one.

Page-Level Ads – CPM Rates

AdSense has enabled new page-level ads in April 2016. Page-level ads are categorized into two forms- overlay ads (sticky at the bottom of mobile devices) and vignette ads (similar to pop-up ads).

These formats can be best utilized on high-end mobile devices. They will not generate much value in terms of revenue but you can use them to increase your overall value generated through Google AdSense. Based on the CTR rates and website niche, the CPM rates of page-level ads vary. But we advise you to rid of pop-up-based ads, as it can push users to leave or install adblocker.

Factors Affecting AdSense CPM Rates

Being a publisher, you have to be very careful about the ads that you put up on your website in order to get returns from them. For instance, if you are running a forum or directory, the ads displayed on it will generate less income (USD 3 for 1000 page impressions). The reason behind this is simple- If the content on your website is scattered and does not resonate with the audience; in some cases even encourages the user to leave the website, ads won’t generate much.

On average, the RPM rate for generic websites on Google AdSense ranges from 25 cents to USD 3. On the other hand, placing ads on blogs and websites with rich and valuable content can generate more income. Readers are more prone to go through blog sites for research and learning purposes. Therefore, this impacts the visibility of your ads too and results in higher earnings. You can expect an average RPM of USD 5 to 10 in such cases.

Moreover, if the website provides more researched content such as comparisons and lists, you can expect the RPM to go even higher than USD 10. Revenue generation via ads is also affected by the geographical location and device used by the reader. For example, desktop visitors tend to return more profit through ads than mobile visitors. To improve your overall revenue generation through Google Adsense, you need to take care of all the mentioned factors.