Money & metrics · also called revenue per thousand, page RPM, impression RPM
RPM (revenue per mille)
RPM is revenue earned per thousand units, usually page views, sessions or ad impressions: revenue divided by the count, multiplied by 1,000.
RPM scales small per-visit earnings into a readable number. A site earning 27 cents per visit has a $270 RPM per thousand visits.
Because "per thousand what?" varies, always check the base. Google's search ads reporting shows RPM measures by requests or impressions, and for Related Search on Content it reports the first screen (the related-search terms) and the second screen (the ads) separately as well as the funnel as a whole. A publisher talking about "page RPM" means revenue per thousand page views; "session RPM" divides by visits.
Arbitrageurs use RPM to compare monetisation across pages, keywords and feeds on an equal footing, and to compare search monetisation with ordinary display ads. Search RPMs on commercial topics are typically far higher than display RPMs on the same page because a search click expresses intent, which is the whole reason the model exists. RPM says nothing about profit on its own: it must be set against the cost of a thousand visits.
An example
Say 1,000 landing-page views earn $270: page RPM is $270. If those 1,000 visits cost $200 (a $0.20 CPC), profit is $70 per thousand visits.
Related terms
RPV (revenue per visit)
RPV is total revenue divided by the number of visits to the landing page, showing what one arriving visitor is worth on average.
RPS (revenue per search / session)
RPS is revenue divided by the number of searches (or, in some reports, sessions), showing how much each search on the feed earns on average.
eCPM (effective CPM)
eCPM converts any pricing model into an equivalent price per thousand impressions, so traffic bought or sold in different ways can be compared.
CPM (cost per mille)
CPM is the price of one thousand ad impressions; "mille" is Latin for thousand.
RPC (revenue per click)
RPC is the average revenue earned per monetised (paid ad) click: the "sell" price in search arbitrage. Convert it to revenue per visitor (RPV) before comparing it with CPC.
Sources: Google AdSense Help: Related search for your content pages