Marketing and audience
RPM calculator for creators
Revenue per thousand views, counting every view. Not CPM, which counts only monetised ad impressions and is always higher.
Used to show the implied CPM. Most channels sit between 40% and 70%.
RPM
$16.51
- Implied CPM
- $54.58
- Revenue over monetised impressions only, before the platform's share.
- Revenue per view
- $0.02
RPM = revenue ÷ views × 1,000
RPM and CPM measure opposite sides
RPM divides your revenue, after the platform's share, by every view. CPM divides what advertisers paid, before the platform's share, by monetised ad impressions only.
Both differences push the same way, which is why CPM is always substantially higher than RPM on every channel. The gap is structural and is not a sign of anything wrong.
Comparing your RPM against somebody's quoted CPM and concluding you are underpaid is the most common mistake in creator revenue discussions.
Compute it over the whole period
RPM is a ratio, so it has the trap every ratio has. Total revenue divided by total views, not the average of daily RPM values.
A quiet day with one high-value view produces an enormous daily RPM and should contribute almost nothing to the period figure. Averaging the points weights it equally with a day of ten thousand views.
What moves RPM
Audience country, more than anything else. The same video earns several times more from viewers in high-advertising-spend markets than from the global average.
Video length, because longer videos carry more ad slots. Subject matter, because advertisers pay very differently for finance than for gaming. And format: a shift towards short-form usually lowers RPM sharply, because short-form monetises from a shared pool rather than per-view.
Seasonality is large and predictable. Advertising budgets peak in the final quarter and collapse in January, so a January RPM drop is the calendar rather than your channel.
About the implied CPM here
The CPM figure above grosses your revenue back up by the platform's usual creator split and divides by the share of views you said carried an ad. It is an estimate of what advertisers paid, derived from what you received.
It will not match the CPM in your analytics exactly, because the split and the monetised share are both approximations. Use it to understand the shape of the gap, not as a figure to quote.
Questions
- How do you calculate RPM?
- Divide your revenue by your views and multiply by a thousand. Compute it over the whole period rather than averaging daily values, or a quiet day with one high-value view distorts the figure.
- What is the difference between RPM and CPM?
- RPM is your revenue after the platform's share, divided by every view. CPM is what advertisers paid before the platform's share, divided by monetised ad impressions only. CPM is always much higher, and the gap is structural rather than a problem.
- Why is my RPM so low?
- Usually audience country, video length or format. Viewers in lower-advertising-spend markets earn far less per view, shorter videos carry fewer ad slots, and short-form monetises from a shared pool rather than per view.
- Why did my RPM drop in January?
- Advertising budgets peak in the final quarter and fall sharply in the new year. A January drop of a third or more is normal seasonality rather than anything about your channel.
- Should I track RPM or CPM?
- RPM. It is the only one that answers what a view is worth to you. CPM describes advertiser demand in your niche and tells you nothing about your own earnings.