RPM Significantly Lower Than Expected – Looking for Insight

Hi Journey Team,

I’m hoping to get some insight into my current RPM performance, as I’m concerned about how low it’s been running recently.

For January 2026, my stats were:

• Pageviews: 9,696
• Sessions: 8,789
• RPM: $6.14

I’ve now been with Journey for over a year, and I was expecting stronger performance at this stage. Prior to Journey, my RPMs (with a previous ad partner) were consistently in the $15–$24 range, so seeing an RPM of $6.14 feels significantly below where I’d anticipate being — especially in Q1.

From my perspective:

• Traffic is steady.
• The audience is fitness / lifestyle focused.
• Pinterest and organic traffic are both active.
• Pageviews are similar to past periods where RPMs were much higher.

So I’d really appreciate clarity on a few things:

1. Is ~$6 RPM typical for this time of year in my niche?
2. Are there any ad layout or density optimisations I should be implementing?
3. Is my traffic source mix affecting fill rate or RPM?
4. Are there placement, viewability, or policy factors suppressing earnings?
5. Has anything changed in the past 6–12 months that could explain the drop?

I’m keen to optimise and improve performance, but I need to understand whether this is seasonal, structural, traffic-quality related, or something on the ad configuration side.

To be candid — this is the lowest RPM I’ve seen in several years of monetising the site, and I’d like to work out what’s causing it and how to move it closer to the $15+ range I’ve previously achieved.

Any guidance or next steps would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance