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Massive Spike & Then Massive Drop In Earnings and RPM

Megan H.

I think something's wrong with the ads on my site and would love help troubleshooting it. Last week I had a huge spike with my highest earnings and RPM (RPM $62), followed by three days of suuuuuuper low earnings and RMP as if my site were brand new. 

Could it be a script issue? Something on the back end of my site? My Google Analyitics have not changed that dramatically to cause this. 

2

Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • Andrea Alessandrini

    Same here! Sessions didn't change, earnings did.

    0
  • Srirup Mazumdar

    I am facing the same issue. RPM spiked up to $40, next day $52 and then it went down to $22. Traffic is same, in fact traffic has increased. Maybe a script issue. Could you please check on your end - https://www.hikendip.com/

    0
  • Fran Whitaker

    I had exactly the same. The only difference is that my traffic has gone up since the spike but ad revenue has gone way down 

    0
  • Elisabeth

    I'm also having issues with large decreases in revenue (it's almost flat-lined). I thought it had to do with Google's new consent settings (I've engaged the consent button in settings)…but nothing is getting better. Since September 29th, it's like night/day between my ad revenue. :(

    1
  • Megan H.

    I haven't had the Google consent settings engaged (I don't think…?). It really seems like some kind of back-end issue! Historically Q4 is when ad performance does best on my site. I'm so confused. My google analytics haven't changed.

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  • Support
    • Journey Support Team

    Hey all – Thanks for sharing your experiences (good or bad — I really appreciate it when publishers come together to support each other). I know how confusing and frustrating these sudden revenue drops can be, especially when they don’t seem to line up with any changes in traffic or engagement.

    To clarify a common concern: enabling Google Consent Mode in itself shouldn't cause a drop in ad revenue. Its main function is to manage how analytics data is collected for users who fall under regulations like GDPR, and only affects sessions where users haven't consented to tracking. So if you’re seeing a dip in sessions in GA4 after enabling Consent Mode, that could be why — but it wouldn’t explain a revenue drop. Additionally, you are paid via impressions, not sessions. So sessions can go up, down, bounce around, but really, it's about how many impressions you're clocking in at the end of the day. 

    That said, you're definitely not alone — industry wide, we're seeing a softer start to Q4. Typically, Q4 brings stronger performance, but this year seems softer at the outset. I just made a post about that here: October 2025 RPMs.

    If anyone here is trying something new or is optimizing in a different way - definitely share! I love seeing what different methods work for different sites. 

    1
  • Larissa Galenes

    No kidding!! I have Journey on 2 sites. One has been consistently in the $1-$2/day range, because traffic is lower for that site. 

    The other site was seeing daily revenue of $14 to $17…until the end of June, when ad revenue for that site dropped to $1 to $2 per day!! I know that June is the end of the fiscal year for many companies, so July-August can be slower ad revenue months, but this site has never recovered. Our traffic did drop significantly in July (thanks Google update), but even though the site traffic is rebounding now, ad revenue is not. 

    So disappointing and frustrating. Just goes to show you should never put all your revenue eggs in one basket!

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Journey is Self Supported

Our support staff is monitoring this forum everyday for bugs related to ad delivery, the display and functionality of the Journey dashboard, and any bugs related to the onboarding process. We are typically unable to assist with non-bug related issues like RPM performance expectations, issues setting up the ads.txt file, and questions already answered by our existing help docs. Read here for a more detailed breakdown of how Journey is self-supported and our recommendations for how to find answers to common issues.

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