If you’ve noticed your blog’s RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) dropping despite steady or even growing traffic numbers, AI bots might be the culprit. Here’s what every blogger needs to understand about this growing problem.
What’s Actually Happening
Your analytics show impressive traffic growth. Page views are up, sessions are climbing. But when you check your ad revenue, something doesn’t add up. Your RPM has tanked, and you’re earning far less per visitor than you used to.The issue? A significant portion of your “traffic” isn’t human at all.
Why AI Bots Don’t Generate Revenue
AI bots from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others are constantly crawling the web to train their models and retrieve information. When these bots visit your site, they create several problems:
They inflate your traffic numbers without generating ad revenue.
Most ad networks only pay for human views and clicks. AI bots don’t see ads, don’t click on them, and don’t convert into customers. They’re just extracting your content.
They skew your RPM calculations.
RPM is calculated by dividing your total ad revenue by total impressions, then multiplying by 1,000. When bots add thousands of “impressions” with zero revenue attached, your RPM plummets. You might think you’re doing something wrong with ad placement when really it’s just the math being thrown off by non-monetizable traffic.
They consume server resources without providing value.
You’re paying for bandwidth and server capacity to serve content to visitors who will never become readers, subscribers, or customers.## The Scale of the ProblemSome bloggers report that AI bot traffic can account for 20-40% of their total visits. Imagine if half your traffic is generating zero revenue—your effective RPM gets cut in half, even if your human visitors are engaging perfectly well with your ads.
What You Can Do About It
Filter bots from your analytics. Set up filters in Google Analytics or your analytics platform to exclude known bot traffic. This gives you a more accurate picture of your real, monetizable audience.
Consider blocking aggressive crawlers.
You can use robots.txt or server-level blocking to limit bot access, though this comes with trade-offs for SEO and AI visibility.
Focus on metrics that matter.
Don’t get discouraged by falling RPM if it’s driven by bot traffic. Instead, track revenue per human visitor and engagement metrics from real users.
Diversify your revenue.
Don’t rely solely on display ads. AI bots make the case for building revenue streams that depend on human engagement: email lists, digital products, memberships, and affiliate marketing.
The Bigger Picture
The rise of AI has fundamentally changed web traffic. The old metrics we relied on—total page views, overall traffic growth—are becoming less meaningful. As bloggers, we need to adapt by focusing on authentic human engagement and building direct relationships with al readers.Your RPM isn’t necessarily falling because you’re doing something wrong. It’s falling because the nature of web traffic has changed. Understanding this is the first step toward adapting your strategy for a web where AI bots are permanent visitors.
