Let me give you a dummy example of what's actually happening to my AdSense earning: -- Site 1 gets 60 impressions, 8 people clicked (CTR 13.33%), has an eCPM of $17.10 and earns me about $1.03 -- Site 2 gets 466 impressions, 14 people clicked (CTR 3.00%), has an eCPM of $1.19 and earn me about $0.55 Now if I calculate it correctly, I'm earning barely 6% of the eCPM from Site 1, and a little more than 46% of the eCPM from Site 2. Why is this happening? I've been scouring around the Web and this forum for some explanation but I still don't get it. I've only been 8 months into using AdSense for monetizing, so any advice is appreciated.
The matter is about positing of ad uniton your site.The ad units placed on the website which received 13.33% CTR are well positioned than other. The CTR also depends on which type of ad is shown to the audience. Good luck!
But why is that 13.33% CTR only gives me 6% earning, when my other low CTR site 2 can earn me almost 50%? That's where I'm confused. My Site 1 content is in a popular IT niche, and site 2 is an arts and crafts site. IT sites are suppose to be high-earning sites aren't they?
eCPM = estimated cost per mile (thousand). You've had 60 impressions on site 1, therefore making your earnings 6% of what they would have been had you have had 1000 impressions (60 / 1000 * 100 = 6). You've had 466 impressions on site 2, therefore making your earnings 46.6% of what they would have been had you have had 1000 impressions (466 / 1000 * 100 = 46.6). I believe what you should have been asking is: Why is my eCPM much lower on site 2, than it is on site 1? The reason why such is so... Is because you are targeting completely different niches -- advertisers pay different amounts for different keywords, based on demand.
Oooh, is that how they calculate it? So this means that no matter what your CTR is, the more impressions I get, the more I can earn out of my eCPM amount? I'm not so bothered about my niche earnings, since my site 2 earns a consistent $1 compared to site 1 which sometimes is nonexistent. Thanks so much for your answer, clookid, rep up!
Hi, Let's see if I can help explain this. "eCPM" stands for "estimated cost per mille", where "cost" should really be read as "earnings", and "mille" is the Latin word for "thousand" (think "millenium"). Basically, it tells you "based on your current performance, this is how much you would have earned if you had 1000 visitors". Note that this is 1000 visitors, not 1000 clicks... So, it looks at how many visitors you've had and how much money you've made from them, and then it scales this earning accordingly to show an estimate of how much you would have made if you had 1000 visitors instead. The formula is: eCPM = [earnings] × (1000 / [visitors]) Let's do the calculation for your two sites: Site 1: eCPM = $1.03 × (1000 / 60) = $17.17, which they have rounded to $17.10 for some reason. Site 2: eCPM = $0.55 × (1000 / 466) = $1.18, which they have rounded to $1.19 for some reason. The eCPM is meant to help you make a fair comparison between different websites (or channels) in terms of their earning potential. In your case, the results say that Site 1 currently has about 14 times more earning potential than Site 2. Importantly, the eCPM is calculated assuming that the CTR stays the same. As I said, it simply scales your current earnings up (or down) to show you how much you would have earned if you had 1000 visitors at the same click-through rate. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the additional info. So this would me that the eCPM is influenced by CTR, and earnings is determined by the total impressions per thousand? I think AdSense is finally beginning to make sense to me now. (pun intended)
Well, I would instead put it like this: eCPM is dependant on earnings, and earnings are dependant on CTR. Here's the formula for eCPM again: [eCPM] = [earnings] × (1000 / [visitors]). Now, earnings can be given by the formula: [earnings] = [visitors] × [CTR] × [ePC], where [ePC] is average earnings per click. If we substitute this formula for earnings back into the formula for eCPM, the [visitors] will cancel out, and we will get: [eCPM] = [CTR] × [ePC] × 1000. So, you see that eCPM is proportional to your click-through rate (which will mainly depend on your ad placement and keyword targeting) and also on your average earnings per click (which will mainly depend on your chosen niche and keywords). Let's calculate the eCPM for your two sites again using the new formula to verify it: Site 1: [eCPM] = 0.1333 × ($1.03/8) × 1000 = $17.16 Site 2: [eCPM] = 0.0300 × ($0.55/14) × 1000 = $1.18 So, the answers are pretty much the same (particularly when considering Google's strange rounding), as indeed they must be. Hope this helps.