Google's Keyword Planner Helps Estimate Newsletter RPMs

How much is your email newsletter worth to advertisers? Google Ad's Keyword Planner knows.

Advertising and sponsorships are among the most effective ways to generate revenue from your email newsletter. But there is a problem. Not all newsletters are worth precisely the same thing to potential sponsors.

In fact, the difference in value can be significant, with some newsletters generating $1.25 per thousand impressions (RPM) and others earning 100 times more at $125 RPM on opens.

While newsletter authors —let's call them content creators— might hope the difference is the quality of composition or the value of the content, often it is not. Rather, for most newsletter advertising, it is the niche, the audience, and the engagement that matter most. Let's explore this idea.

Using Google Keyword Planner

If you have already started the 100th gluten-free cookie recipe newsletter in the market, this advice is, frankly, a little late, but if you are just deciding what your email newsletter will be about, the Google Ad's Keyword Planning tool can help.

You will need a Google Ads account to access the Keyword Planner. When you open the planner, select  "Get search volume and forecasts."

Next, you will be able to submit several keyword phrases. These should be something like the topics your email newsletter will cover. The example shows research for a forthcoming real estate newsletter, so the target keywords included phrases like "first-time home buyer."

From this, Google Ads will generate a report showing both the search volume and the top-of-the-page bid range.

The top-of-the-page bid range is a strong indication of what advertisers will pay to address an audience interested in the given topic. In the real estate example, we can see a high of $13.10, meaning that some advertisers are willing to pay $13 per click —think revenue per click— for folks interested in first-time homebuying information.

Calculating an Estimated RPM

Using the high revenue-per-click (RPC) estimate, we can calculate a likely  RPM —which you will remember is revenue per thousand opens.

First, make an assumption about the advertising click rate for the newsletter. A very good newsletter will have a 1.25% ad click rate. A poor newsletter might have a 0.25% ad click rate. We will use 0.5% as in the example.

Thus, 1,000 opens (impressions) multiplied by the 0.5% (0.005) ad click rate results in five clicks.

Next, we multiply the five clicks by the $13 RPC to get $65 or the potential for $65 RPM, which is excellent.

Reality Check

The real estate example was a great one. Now, let's check out a newsletter topic on the other end of the spectrum.

Recipe newsletters are among the least profitable. When you check recipe-focused seed keywords in the Keyword Planner, you learn that the high top-of-the-page bid for "healthy recipes" was only $1.80 RPC at the time of writing.

Thus, a recipe newsletter with a 0.5% ad click rate and, thus, five clicks per 1,000 opens would generate something like $9 RPM.

Now for the Fees

Newsletter advertising falls into two categories, generally. These are direct-sold sponsorships and programmatic. Direct-sold sponsorships are usually available to either very large newsletters or very specific (niche) newsletters.

The majority of email newsletter ads are programmatic or at least sold at a group buy. These sales require several services like a demand-side platform (DSP), an ad exchange or network, and a supply-side platform (SSP). Each service receives a fee or revenue share for its efforts. Thus, somewhere between 50% and 70% of the initial bid is consumed before it reaches the newsletter publisher (creator).

So, the real estate newsletter might get $65 RPM for a direct-sold sponsorship and about half as much for a programmatic placement. The recipe newsletter should expect to earn between $4.5 and $9 RPM for the same reasons.

How to Use this Information?

While Google Ad's Keyword Planner wasn't designed specifically for newsletter monetization, it provides valuable insights into potential advertising revenue.

Use this data to make informed decisions about your newsletter's direction and monetization strategy, whether you're just starting or looking to optimize an existing publication.

Remember that these calculations provide estimates rather than guarantees. Factors such as audience quality, engagement rates, and market conditions will ultimately determine your actual advertising revenue. However, this approach offers a data-driven foundation for planning and optimization.

For New Newsletter Creators

• Research multiple potential niches before launching
• Compare top-of-page bid ranges across different topics
• Calculate potential RPM using the formula provided
• Factor in both direct and programmatic revenue scenarios

For Existing Newsletters

• Benchmark your current RPM against market potential
• Identify opportunities to shift or expand topic coverage
• Use data to negotiate better advertising rates
• Consider audience segmentation to target higher-value topics

Best Practices for Maximizing Value

• Focus on topics with higher advertiser demand
• Build engaged audiences in valuable niches
• Track and optimize click-through rates
• Consider hybrid approaches combining both broad and high-value topics
• Maintain detailed metrics to attract premium advertisers