Ep 2: Traffic problem or RPM problem?

Revenue fell twenty percent, so you rebuilt your ad layout. Wrong move.

Revenue is page views, in thousands, times page RPM, your earnings per thousand views.

Take recipes.example. Last month, four hundred thousand page views at a page RPM of two dollars fifty. One thousand dollars. This month, eight hundred. Split it. Page views fell twenty percent, to three hundred twenty thousand. Page RPM, still two fifty. So the whole drop is traffic. Fix it in search and referrals… not the layout. Now flip it. Page views flat, page RPM down to two dollars. Also eight hundred dollars. Same drop, different problem. That’s the ad side, so check coverage, season and policy. If both moved, chase the bigger percentage first.

Today, compare page views and page RPM, this month against last.

Next: fixing Earnings at risk, the ads.txt alert.