eCPM is a geo number before it's an app number
The same app can show a $12 US eCPM and a $0.80 eCPM in tier-3 markets. If most of your installs come from cheap geos, blended eCPM will look poor no matter how good the placements are — segment before you optimise.
Placement decisions that actually move revenue
There are only a few levers, and they interact with retention.
- • Rewarded video is opt-in, so it raises revenue without the churn cost of forced interstitials.
- • Interstitial frequency capping protects D7 retention; unlimited interstitials trade next month for today.
- • Banners earn little per impression but run constantly — they're the floor, not the strategy.
- • Mediation with real bidding typically lifts blended eCPM more than swapping any single network.
Seasonality to plan for
Advertiser budgets peak in Q4 and reset hard in January. A 20–35% eCPM drop in the first weeks of the year is normal, not a bug in your setup — model your runway against the January number, not the December one.
Related guides
Long-form playbooks on the same topic, written by the RevenueLab editorial team.
AdMob eCPM Benchmarks 2026: Rewarded, Interstitial, Banner — by Format, Geo, and OS
The 200× spread between US rewarded video and tier-3 banner, banner sizes that actually pay, why mediation is non-optional, and the GDPR/ATT consent problem.
Read the guideWebsite Ad Revenue in 2026: AdSense RPM, Direct Deals, and What Actually Pays
How website ad revenue really stacks up — AdSense and Ezoic RPM ranges by niche, viewability and fill-rate math, and when direct sponsorships out-earn programmatic by 5–10×.
Read the guideYouTube RPM by Niche in 2026: What Creators Actually Earn per 1,000 Views
A breakdown of typical YouTube RPM ranges across 12 niches — from finance and B2B SaaS at the top to gaming and entertainment at the bottom — and the levers that move them.
Read the guideFAQ
How accurate is this estimate?
It's as accurate as your eCPM and fill inputs. Pull last month's actuals per placement from your mediation dashboard and this will land close; use generic benchmarks and treat it as a range.
Do interstitials hurt retention?
Frequency does. Occasional, well-placed interstitials at natural breaks are tolerated; back-to-back forced ads reliably cost D7 retention, which costs more revenue than the ads earned.
Why is my fill rate low?
Usually a geo and floor-price mismatch — high floors in low-value markets leave inventory unsold. Set geo-specific floors or add a network that buys those regions.
Should I add subscriptions instead?
Ads and subscriptions coexist well when the subscription removes ads. Model the ad revenue you'd lose per subscriber against the subscription price before setting it.
How this calculator is built
Independently maintained
Written by Sam Doshi and the RevenueLab editorial team. We don't sell the data feeds this tool is built on.
Sourced from primary data
Benchmarks come from public AdSense / Stripe / IRS disclosures and reader-submitted data — never third-party "$X per view" claims. Full methodology.
Last editorial review
Reviewed on a rolling quarterly cycle. Dated reviews are published on the methodology record for each calculator.
Editorial standards
See our editorial policy and disclaimer. Results are estimates, not advice.