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How many page views do you need to make your first $100 a month?

17 October 2026

"How much traffic do I need before ads are worth it?" is one of the first questions every website owner asks. The honest answer is: it depends on one number, your RPM. Once you know it, the maths is a single line.

The formula

RPM (revenue per mille) is what you earn for every 1,000 page views. Google defines page RPM as your estimated earnings divided by page views, times 1,000. Turn it around and you get the traffic you need:

Page views a month = target earnings / RPM x 1,000

So for $100 a month at a $5 RPM: 100 / 5 x 1,000 = 20,000 page views a month. Divide by 30.4 and that is about 658 page views a day.

What RPM should you expect?

It depends mostly on what your site is about, because advertisers pay more to reach some audiences than others. The ad-tech company Aditude puts typical page RPMs in three bands (RPM for Publishers, 23 July 2025):

Estimates. The midpoints are our simplification of Aditude's ranges, not measured averages. Where your visitors live matters as much as your niche: traffic from the US, UK, Canada and Australia usually earns far more per view than traffic from elsewhere, including South Africa. Treat these as a starting point until your own ad dashboard shows your real RPM.

Work out your own number

Pick your niche (or type your real RPM), enter the page views you get now and how fast they are growing, and the calculator gives you the page views you need and the month you get there.

Prefer a full page? Open the page views to $100 a month calculator on CalcSA.

How long until you get there?

Here is one example site: 5,000 page views a month today, growing 10% a month. Same traffic, three niches.

• Finance/tech passes $100 in month 5.
• Travel/food passes $100 in month 15.
• Entertainment/news is still short after two years ($86 in month 24) and passes $100 in month 26.

Growth rate matters more than where you start. At 5% a month instead of 10%, the travel/food site needs 29 months, not 15. That is why the calculator asks for your growth rate: run it with your own numbers.

Where your counter comes in

None of this works without an honest page-view number. Two things to watch:

• Page views, not visitors. Ads are paid per page view. Page views = visitors x pages per visit, so a reader who opens three pages is worth three times one who bounces.
• Real people, not bots. Google does not pay for invalid traffic such as automated impressions. A counter that includes bots makes you look closer to $100 than you are.

A free WebCounter counter shows your page views and visitors for the last 30 days, with bots filtered out and counted separately. Take the monthly page-view total from your report and put it straight into the calculator above.

When you outgrow AdSense

• AdSense pays publishers 80% of what the advertiser's platform passes on, which works out to about 68% of advertiser spend when the ad is bought through Google Ads (Google AdSense revenue share). The RPM in your dashboard is already your share.
• Premium ad managers often pay higher RPMs but have traffic minimums. Raptive, for example, lowered its entry bar to 25,000 page views a month in October 2025, with at least half the traffic from the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand or Australia (Raptive eligibility).

Sources

• Aditude, RPM for Publishers, 23 July 2025 - RPM ranges by niche.
• Google AdSense Help, Page RPM - definition.
• Google AdSense Help, AdSense revenue share - 80% / about 68%.
• Google AdSense Help, Invalid traffic.
• Raptive Help Center, Who is eligible for Raptive? - 25,000 page views a month.
• Calculator: CalcSA, Page views to $100 a month.

Estimates only, not financial advice. Ad earnings vary month to month with season, audience and ad settings.