While publications measure performance by a variety of metrics, what matters at the end of the day is the bottom line. In our case, how much revenue does your publication generate for every 1,000 impressions?
That’s where an eCPM calculator comes in.

An eCPM calculator shows a publication how much it earned for every 1,000 ad impressions.

CPM vs. eCPM Calculator

Despite the similar names, CPM and eCPM calculators show very different results.

CPM, or cost per mille (per 1,000), measures how many specific ads were generated for every 1,000 impressions they got.

Different ads earn different rates for 1,000 impressions. An insurance ad is likely to generate more revenue than, say, an ad for a local coffee house. Insurance advertisers are seeking larger deals, so they’re willing to pay more for ads.

When you combine everything you’ve earned through ads (including different forms of measurement, like CTR, or clickthrough rate), and divide it by 1,000 impressions, you get your bottom line: eCPM.

eCPM stands for effective cost per mille. In English, that means the cost for every 1,000 impressions when you take all the publication’s ad revenue streams into consideration.

How Publishers Improve the Results Their eCPM Calculator Shows Them

The higher the publication’s eCPM, the more it earns, so publications have a variety of strategies to increase that number. Here are a few of them.

Test Your Ads

Test ad types and placements, and see what generates more revenue. Then do more of that, and let go of the low performers.

Sell Premium Ad Units

Many ad networks will work with you to enable direct or automatic premium placements that you can charge more for – pages with higher engagement with usual, critical spots in the reader journey, above the fold placements, more relevant pages to their specific product, etc.

Scale Your Most Profitable Content

First, drive more traffic to the content that’s generating the best revenue
Second, test the possibility of making that content longer, so you can integrate more units without hurting the reader experience. Only do it if you believe it’ll improve the reader experience, and measure the results to see how your audience responds.

Third, create content that’s similar to your most profitable content. If your content about insurance tends to perform well, for example, create more of that.