"My gross RPM beats every benchmark"

"My gross RPM beats every benchmark"

Credit: a high gross RPM usually means your demand stack is genuinely working.

But gross is pre-deduction. Networks differ enormously in how much invalid-traffic, ad-fraud, and discrepancy gets clawed before payout — and a network that books optimistic gross then deducts 6 to 12% later will out-screenshot a network that filters cleaner upfront and shows you a humbler, truer gross. You're comparing two numbers measured at different points in the funnel.

🚩 Hidden variable: where in the pipeline the RPM is sampled. Gross-before-IVT vs net-after-IVT is not the same metric wearing the same name.

Only net-deposited RPM compares across networks. Gross benchmarks reward whoever defers the bad news longest.

Not saying high gross is meaningless — saying the comparison is rigged.