Adsense CTR, CPC, eCPM and their Average values

Adsense Earnings reporting variables

If you do not know about any of the following Adsense reporting variables or want to have more information click on it. Otherwise simply proceed to read about their average values.

Many visitors come here from Google to find average values of CTR, CPC, eCPM.

Average values of CTR, CPC, eCPM?

there are two reasons why average values of CTR, CPC and eCPM are difficult to find. The main reason is that Adsense Terms and Conditions prohibits publishers from disclosing details of their Adsense revenue like CTR, CPC, eCPM. Thus, if I disclose mine, then I may get penalized by Google. Another reason is that these variables vary a lot and it is either difficult to find a global average. In any case let me point you to some of the resources on the Internet which can help you find the average values.

Average CPC : The average Cost Per Click for a Google Adsense Ad varies a lot from keyword to keyword and it does not make much sense to take average over all the keywords. For example, the average CPC for a keyword like Web hosting or Credit Cards is around $10 but for a keyword like 'Adsense CTR' is only around $2. The average values of CPC can be found on the Google Adwords Traffic Estimate. You can also find average values for keywords for clicks from a particular country. What i find best is that you can also get an estimate for a total number of clicks that take place for a particular keyword. However I would like to mention one Warning : New Adsense publishers or those who'se website's or blog's niche does not match well with the keyword may see a significantly lower average CPC than what will be found on the above mentioned Adwords Tool mainly due to Adsense smart pricing.
Average CTR : This is bit more tricky because the answer varies a lot. Remember that visitors coming from Search engines are much more likely to click on Ads than your regular visitors. Thus the average CTR may be significantly higher if a lot of visitors come directly from Google or Yahoo. Problogger believes that the average value of Adsense CTR lies somewhere between 2% to 5%.
Average eCPM of CPM: eCPM is directly related to average CTR and average CPC by the simple formula
Average eCPM = Avg. CTR x Average CPC x 10
For example if Average CPC is $1, Average CTR is 2%, then Average eCPM will be $20.

Adsense CTR

CTR stands for Click Through Rate. This is a number which will tell you how many visitors who view your pages actually click on ads. To be precise, it is the average number of clicks received per 100 page impressions. Note that CTR of a page is the sum total of CTR of all the Adsense Ad units on that page. For example if on a page you have one skyscraper with CTR 0.5%, two medium rectangles with CTR 1.5% each and one link unit with CTR 0.5%, then the total CTR of that page is the sum total of the CTR of all the ad units, i.e. 0.5% + 1.5% + 1.5% + 0.5% = 4%. Adsense CTR is perhaps the best quick measure to see how your Google ads are performing.

Adsense CPC

CPC stands for Cost Per Click. It is the cost which the advertisers are willing to pay (through Google Adwords) for one click. From the publishers point of view, CPC is the Cost that a Google pays the publisher for a click. Note that Google keeps about 25% of the money that they get from advertisers. So the CPC that publishers see is about 25% less than the CPC which Google sees. Cost per click can vary a lot depending on several factors. Some keywords have a very high CPC. You can use Google Adwords tool to find the average CPC for a particular keyword. This Google Adwords tool is quite useful, but in my experience, new publishers see CPC which is significantly less than the average that is seen on the above Adwords tool.

Adsense eCPM (or CPM)

Adsense eCPM of a page (or an ad unit) is the average money you make per 1000 per impressions. Thus if a particular page receives 2000 views and you earn $25 from the clicks and impressions you receive on Google Ads, then the Adsense eCPM of that page is $25/2500x1000 = $12.5.
Further Reading: Adsense eCPM : What is it exactly?