Ridiculously Low RPM / CPM - Any tips on how to fix this?
I'm nearing the one year mark with Journey and I've yet to reach the threshold of payment because my RPM and CPM are ridiculously low.
They've averaged at:
rpm - $1.88
cpm - $0.63
I have decent traffic and cover topics that are ad friendly (beauty, fashion travel). There is no shortage of ads on my website and yet I'm barely making $6 a month. Can someone please tell me why? website: sandyjoe.com
Another thing I've noticed is that Grow will show traffic lower than google analytics in the morning but will update later on. Despite the updated traffic number, the earnings still stay the same.
Lastly, I've also noticed the tendency to round down for earnings. For instance, yesterday I had 379 impressions.
So to calculate my earnings I would divide 379/1000 which equals 0.379.
0.379*0.68 = 0.2577
And the rate is rounded down to $0.25 but someone is making that fraction of revenue.
Yes, it's a small amount but it can certainly add up over time. So where is that money going? The money being used is not like cash where the sum is definitive. Online ad spends are digital and use fractions of cents incrementally.
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Hey Sandy,
I'm going to let other community members chime in regarding your questions related to RPMs/CPMs, but I wanted to chime in regarding the adjustments to session data you're seeing when checking in the morning/afternoon.
Could you let me know what reporting timeframe you're looking at when you see this behavior happening? Would it happen to be looking at data from yesterday?Session/Pageview data is scraped directly from Google Analytics, and due to how they audit their data, it can take up to 48 hours for this data to stabilize - this is why if you're looking at yesterday's data, you may see different numbers in the morning/in the afternoon.
The important thing to note is that you are not paid based on Google Analytics data. Earnings are calculated based on impressions, which are calculated using a different set of tools that are accurate on the following day.
This means that even if sessions/impression data were missing from your dashboard, your earnings will remain accurate. It also explains why you're not seeing an adjustment in your earnings when session/pageview data updates.
I did notice that the banner that clarifies this when looking at yesterday's data on the dashboard has gone missing, and I've reached out to our engineers to see if we can get this back in place.
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Support ,
Thank you for your response. Can you please break down for me how impressions are calculated then?
In addition to that, as you can see there are no suggestions or help forthcoming from the community in regards to the main issue here which is my abysmal RPM/CPM so could you please chime in on that as well?
Community support is an ineffective way to solve a problem since several other people are struggling with the same issues and cannot figure out why. It makes more sense for the people who work for MVJ and are able to see the backend of MVJ to be helping solve these issues. It's ridiculous that there isn't support from the platform being offered to its users. Especially when it's a common issue.
And linking to generic articles I've already read isn't a real solution.
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Hi sandy joe - I can jump in here.
I totally understand that support forums can feel limiting, and I appreciate you sharing your thoughts.Journey is designed as a self-serve platform, so while we don’t offer personalized RPM audits or 1:1 performance consultations, we do have a wide range of self-guided resources available in the Journey Help Center - particularly in the Content & Performance section.
Sometimes it’s most helpful to go through the help articles while actively looking at your own site and data. Reading without that context can make it harder to connect the dots or apply the guidance in a meaningful way. Reviewing both side by side can give you a clearer picture of what’s working and where there might be opportunities for improvement.
It is a common misconception that you are paid per session/pageview - but as Ryan explained earlier, that's not really how you earn. You are paid via impressions because advertisers don't spend a flat fee across the board. Different audiences earn impressions differently, and all sessions do NOT earn the same because not every reader engages with your content the same way.
I'd recommend checking out this help article that helps break down how you earn and how those numbers are calculated.
Looking at your setup, I noticed that a significant portion of your traffic is landing on your homepage, which isn't the most conducive when it comes to earning impressions. Currently, Journey only places content ads within actual post content, as placing ads elsewhere—like the homepage—can interfere with layout or user experience.
Not to mention, most readers aren't really hanging around the homepage. They're looking for a post to jump off to. So a better strategy for monetizing homepage traffic is to take all of our optimization tips and ensure the posts linked early on your homepage are as optimized as possible for revenue (without sacrificing UX!)
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