How many words to maximize ad revenue?

​ Does word count impact ad RPM? I analyzed my top 10 ad RPM posts with 300+ page views in the last 30 days. Word count isn't the be-all and end-all. Content length, whether words and/or images, matters. Of course, so too does niche, topic and country but that's no the point today. Here are my findings. ​ ​ I should add that the figures were pulled from two of my highest ad RPM sites. All ad revenue courtesy of Mediavine. Diminishing Returns The above suggests that longer content, whether word count and/or images increases ad RPM, but that doesn't mean 50 images and/or tens of thousands of words will earn more. If diminishing returns didn't kick in, my few 10K+ word articles would be the highest earners. They aren't. There's a point you hit diminishing returns. Because there are other variables at play dictating ad RPM levels, I can't suggest a precise formula. However, my data suggests 450 words plus 9 images is long enough for some decent ad RPMs. How long? Each image is horizontally oriented and is about 500 px long. I also calculated that on my sites 150 words takes up about the same amount of space of an image (21 font with plenty of paragraphs). That means my shortest posts above are about 6,000 to 7,000 pixels in length. If the 9 image posts were all text, that would be about 9 x 150 words = 1,350 plus the existing 450 words which totals 1,800 words. I'm confident that adding more images to those posts wouldn't bolster ad RPM. They're earning about as well as one can expect from ads. I wish all my articles hit those numbers. Why a minimum of 300 monthly page views? I have posts with higher ad RPMs but they have very few page views. That's not really statistically relevant. I could cherry pick some articles with 10 page views that managed to eke out $150 ad RPM but that's not representative. It's more of a fluke. Since 300 monthly page views per month is my per article goal, it's a good volume for this analysis. Other factors Most of my niche sites don't hit those numbers. These are my two highest earning niches. Clearly niche matters. Most traffic is based in the USA. When I check out ad RPM for other countries, it's not even close. Lastly, time of year matters. This data is from the Summer. Not the best time of year nor the worst for these sites. Does that mean you should never publish shorter articles? Does it mean you should always add more photos to hit 6,000 to 7,000 px in screen length? No to both questions. It works out that most of my content between text and images reaches this length but I wouldn't artificially lengthen all content. What this data suggests it to do a similar analysis with your site to see where the sweet spot is. For me, the long and the short of it is 1,800 words is sufficiently long to maximize ad RPMs for most articles. More precisely that equates to 6,000 to 7,000 px in length. The above data suggests content can be all text, text and images or mostly images. What I don't know is whether only images would earn as well. I always have some text so that's not a relevant issue for me. Jon Fatstacksblog.com [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5