Studies

Original data, from sites we run.

Most advice about ad monetization is opinion. These are measured numbers from our own network, the same first-party data the audit is built on.

Ad sizes

Do ad sizes matter?

We run responsive units, so AdSense picked the size for every impression. The highest-earning size was no fixed size at all, and the most-viewable size earned almost nothing.

RPM drivers

It wasn't the niche

We expected advertiser demand to explain the RPM gap between two sites we run. The cost per click was nearly identical, $0.16 vs $0.19. The 2.7x gap was viewability and click-through, not the topic.

Ad operations

A higher fill rate did not mean more money

Two sites we run. One fills 83% of its ad requests, the other 41%. The one that fills fewer earns more than double the page RPM. Fill rate is a vanity metric, not a revenue lever.

Ad networks

The 2026 ad network shake-up: Ezoic up, Raptive down

The entry thresholds moved in opposite directions this year. Ezoic raised its bar to 250k monthly users; Raptive dropped to 25k pageviews. The on-ramp for new publishers inverted.

Viewability

Where an ad sits decides whether it gets seen

Active View viewability by placement across our network. A 60-point spread, from a sticky anchor at 88% to a page-bottom unit at 28%.