Broad vs narrow niche: comparing on RPM versus reach ceiling

Broad vs narrow niche: comparing on RPM versus reach ceiling

A wide topic and a tight one monetize through opposite mechanisms, and the 'higher RPM niche' advice ignores half the equation.

Context: narrow, high-value niches (finance, B2B software) command high RPMs and premium sponsors but cap total addressable audience; broad niches reach far more people at low RPMs.

Findings: aggregated dashboard data through 2024-2025 shows finance and tech RPMs many multiples above entertainment, yet broad creators reach audiences large enough that low RPM still produces high totals. Revenue is RPM times monetizable reach — optimizing one while ignoring the other is the standard mistake.

Caveats: niche RPM figures are self-reported and cherry-picked; the audience-ceiling effect is rarely quantified in the same dataset.

Implication: narrow niches win on revenue per view and sponsor quality; broad niches win on scale. The right choice depends on whether your constraint is reach or rate.

What we still don't know: where the revenue-maximizing point sits between niche and breadth — it varies so much by topic that no general benchmark holds.