"My friend on the same network earns 2x my RPM"

"My friend on the same network earns 2x my RPM"

Granted: identical network, real friend, real numbers — frustrating and worth investigating.

But one obvious culprit hides in plain sight: consent rate. If your friend's audience is 70% US (no GDPR prompt, ~95% addressable) and yours is 60% EU with a 55% consent rate, nearly half your impressions serve non-personalized ads at a fraction of the CPM. Same network, same niche, half the addressable inventory.

🚩 Hidden variable: consent and addressability by geo. The GDPR/CMP layer silently haircuts EU revenue before the network ever bids.

Check your consent-accept rate and your EU traffic share before blaming the network. The 2x gap might be a privacy banner, not a payout difference.

Not saying your network underpays — saying the comparison is rigged.