Myth: chase the high-CPM niche

Myth: chase the high-CPM niche
Everyone quotes finance CPMs and pivots. But revenue is RPM (revenue per 1000 pageviews) = CPM × fill × viewability × pages, not raw CPM. Sample n=140 sites, 28d:

— Finance CPM $14 ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮ → session RPM $19
— Recipes CPM $4 ▮▮ → session RPM $22

Recipes win on 3.8 pages/session and 71% viewability vs finance's 1.4 pages and a hard-bouncing query intent. High CPM with one shallow pageview loses to low CPM with depth.

So what: model session RPM, not the CPM headline. ▲16% when you weight by depth.