Session RPM vs. Page RPM

Key Takeaways

• Page RPM offers valuable insights into individual page performance, enabling targeted on-page optimizations that can directly boost revenue.
• Session RPM provides a broader view of revenue generation per visitor but can be misleading if not considered alongside user experience and other key metrics.
• Balancing the use of both Page RPM and Session RPM is crucial, as each serves different purposes in optimizing a site’s revenue and user engagement.

As with any business, it’s critical to accurately measure how a website generates revenue. Not only do you need to know how much revenue is being generated – of course – but you also want to know a little more about how that revenue is coming to pass and what improvements you might be able to make to increase your income.

Session RPM and page RPM are two valuable metrics that you should be calculating for your site. In this post, we’ll quickly dive into what these are, what they measure, and why they are useful. It’s not a matter of picking one over the other to use exclusively – they are both useful and can be a valuable part of how you manage your site.

Let’s Start by Defining RPM

So, in both of these metrics, we have the term “RPM”. Obviously, if we are going to be able to understand what each of these means and what they are used for, we first need to go through the matter of RPM in the context of digital marketing.

RPM stands for Revenue Per Mille. The term “mille” might not be familiar to everyone, but it is simply another way to say 1,000. So, what we are talking about when using any kind of RPM metric is how much money you are making per 1,000 actions. This is a handy way to express income for a website because the numbers would get very small if you were using metrics that tracked income for every single pageview or session.

For example, if you earn $.015 for each person that lands on your website, it looks and feels a little awkward to talk about making half-cents or other tiny fractions. However, that same $.015 for each visit translates to $15 per 1,000, for an RPM of $15. That’s a much cleaner, more approachable way to track income on the internet, so it has become the standard.

What is Page RPM?

Now that we have clarity on RPM, we can easily understand how these two metrics work. Page RPM is simply how much revenue you make on your site for every 1,000 pages that are viewed. You take the total amount of money you earned on the site over a given time period – say, a month – and divide it by the total pageviews in that same time. Then, multiply the result by 1,000 and you will have your page RPM.

This is a great metric for site owners to track when they want to understand how individual pages are performing across the site. If you do a good job of collecting data on your site, you can generate an accurate page RPM for every money-making page on the site, and you can then compare them against each other. When you notice that some pages are doing better than others, you can start to look for reasons why and you’ll hopefully be able to turn that data into actional insights.

What is Session RPM?

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that this metric works just the same as the one above, only this time we are looking at sessions instead of page views. So, you are zooming out to see the bigger picture of how much money you are making for every single person that comes to your site, regardless of how many pages they visit or which pages are generating the income for you.

To get your session RPM, just take the total revenue over a period of time, divide by site sessions, and multiply by 1,000. You should find that your session RPM is higher than your pageview RPM, as the sessions are going to include multiple (and, perhaps, many) pageviews.

What you’ll primarily learn about your site from this metric is how efficiently it is turning the traffic you receive into dollars in your bank account. This is particularly crucial if you are using paid ads to drive traffic to your site regularly. Are the visits that you receive going to be worth enough on average to justify your ad spend? Or, if you are thinking about starting to run paid ads, you can use existing session RPM data to estimate how much you would be willing to spend on those ad placements.

Let’s Look At The Math!

Example Calculation of Page RPM – Let’s walk through a complete example of how to calculate Page RPM.

Scenario:

• A website has a display ads page.
• The page has received 50,000 views in a month.
• The total earnings from these ads are $150.

Apply the Page RPM formula:

Result

The Page RPM for this display ads page is $3. This means the website earns $3 for every 1,000 page views.

Example Calculation of Session RPM – We’ll use the same earnings and page views from the previous example but introduce the number of sessions.

Scenario:

• A website has a display ads page.
• The page has received 50,000 views in a month.
• The total earnings from these ads are $150.
• The total number of sessions in a month is 20,000.

Apply the Session RPM formula:

Result

The Session RPM for this website is $7.50. This means the website earns $7.50 for every 1,000 sessions.

Understanding the Differences

In this example, the difference between Session RPM and Page RPM lies in what each metric measures and how it reflects the website’s monetization performance. Page RPM, calculated at $3, indicates how much revenue is generated for every 1,000 page views. This metric focuses on the effectiveness of monetizing individual pages on the website. It’s particularly useful for understanding how well ads on specific pages are performing, regardless of how users interact with the rest of the site.

On the other hand, Session RPM, which is $7.50 in this case, reflects the revenue generated for every 1,000 sessions. A session includes a user’s entire visit to the site, encompassing multiple page views. Therefore, Session RPM provides a broader perspective on the website’s ability to generate revenue from overall user engagement. It considers how much each complete user visit is worth, rather than just the performance of single pages.

The higher Session RPM compared to Page RPM in this example suggests that users tend to view multiple pages during their visits. This implies that while individual pages may generate a modest amount of revenue, the cumulative effect of multiple page views per session leads to a higher overall revenue per user session. Thus, Session RPM gives a more holistic view of the website’s monetization, capturing the value of the user’s entire journey through the site, while Page RPM is more focused on the granular performance of individual pages.

Why Session RPM Is a Misleading Metric

While it might seem like a straightforward measure of how well ads are performing, it can be misleading for several reasons:

1. Overemphasis on Revenue per Session

a) Lack of Context – Session RPM only looks at the revenue generated per thousand sessions, without considering the quality or engagement of those sessions. A high session RPM might look impressive, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the overall performance is strong if those sessions are brief or low in quality.

b) Ignoring Other Metrics – It focuses on just one aspect of performance-revenue-while ignoring other important metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, or user engagement. This can give a skewed view of the ad’s effectiveness.

2. Potential for Manipulation

a) Inflating RPM – Companies can artificially inflate session RPM by targeting high-paying, low-engagement ads or by using aggressive ad placements that might increase revenue but harm user experience. This might increase short-term RPM but could lead to long-term damage in terms of user retention and brand reputation.

b) Misleading Comparisons – Ad companies might present a high session RPM as a sign of superior performance without disclosing the strategies used to achieve it. For example, showing more ads per session can boost RPM, but it may also annoy users and reduce session length or frequency, harming the site’s overall performance.

3. Doesn’t Account for User Experience

a) User Experience Impact – High session RPM might be achieved at the cost of a poor user experience. For instance, aggressive ad placements that disrupt content or slow down site performance can lead to a negative user experience, causing a decline in repeat visitors or session duration over time.

b) Ad Fatigue – Overloading a session with ads to boost RPM can lead to ad fatigue, where users become desensitized to the ads, reducing their effectiveness and potentially leading to a drop in long-term revenue.

4. Misalignment with Publisher Goals

a) Short-term vs. Long-term – Session RPM encourages strategies that maximize short-term revenue rather than long-term growth. For publishers focused on building a loyal user base, a high session RPM might be counterproductive if it leads to lower engagement or higher bounce rates.

b) Publisher ROI – Publishers are more concerned with overall return on investment (ROI) rather than just revenue per session. A high RPM doesn’t necessarily translate to high overall profits if it comes with increased costs (e.g., higher churn rates or lower conversion rates).

5. Doesn’t Reflect Full Monetization Potential

Session RPM doesn’t capture the full monetization potential of a site, as it doesn’t account for other revenue streams or the lifetime value of a user. A focus on session RPM might cause a publisher to miss out on optimizing for higher-value activities, like driving subscriptions or repeat visits.

Understanding When to Use Each Metric

As you gain some experience with both page and session RPM, you’ll quickly begin to understand how each can be applied specifically to your site. They are both important, and you’ll probably lean more on one than the other at given times, only to switch back to focus on the other one later.
Many site owners find that page RPM data is a bit more useful overall. This is because it can help you make on-page optimization changes, and those tend to be quite impactful in terms of how your revenue is increased. With that said, don’t overlook the value of session RPM, as sites that perform poorly in this category may need to rethink their overall approach to user engagement and the way users flow through the site toward a desired conversion.

Good luck using each of these valuable metrics to improve site performance!