What to know about monetized RPM, bot blocking, and seasonal content  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Raptive News JUNE 3, 2026 By Emily Rose VP, Content Marketing Hi Raptive, With summer in full effect, I’m loving the return of the ’90s summer trend—though to me, those magical summer days never really went out of style. Maybe you’re the same, opting for a softer slowdown: long pool days, family bike rides, sticky popsicles, extra sunshine, and fewer screens all around. Or maybe you’re very much on the go, juggling travel, kids home from school, fall and holiday content planning, and everything else your business needs. Whatever your summer looks like, we hope you’re finding time to rest, reset, and reflect on everything you’ve already accomplished this year. It has been a challenging environment for creators and publishers, and you’ve continued showing up with creativity and resilience. Here’s what you’ll find in this week’s newsletter: • Why we still recommend bot blocking • How to plan for your next big traffic peaks • What to know about monetized RPM What’s new Microsoft’s AI bot pushback is telling Last week, Microsoft urged publishers to unblock AI bots. Here’s why we see this as a good sign. Microsoft argued that doing so could limit visibility in AI search experiences. But to us, that reaction signals that publishers blocking AI bots is creating real friction. When major platforms start pushing back, it means they are noticing the absence of high-quality content. That’s the leverage creators and publishers need to move the market toward permission, transparency, attribution, and fair compensation. We’re not anti-AI. We’re pro-creator. And we still believe blocking AI training bots is one of the clearest actions publishers can take to protect their content and push for a better system. Read our full bot-blocking strategy → Top resource Plan ahead for your next seasonal traffic peak We’re halfway through the year, which means it’s a perfect time to look back, look ahead, and make sure your content calendar is ready for what’s next. If you’re mapping out back-to-school ideas, planning Halloween content, or already thinking about the holiday season, our 2026 Content and Monetization Planning Calendar can help you turn seasonal moments into a focused, year-round strategy. Use it to spot upcoming opportunities, refresh what’s already working, and give your biggest content moments more time to grow. Plan your next traffic peak → Quick tip Try a smarter way to recycle content “Artificially changing publish dates just to get them into your RSS newsletter isn’t great for SEO. Cultivate’s free Manual RSS plugin offers a better way. It gives you control over which posts appear in your feed, letting you manually add refreshed content while keeping your original publish dates intact. Compatible with Kit, Mailchimp, and more, it’s the easiest way to send highly curated, SEO-friendly newsletters.” Trevor Dye Senior Director, Email Solutions In case you missed it What to know about monetized RPM There’s been recent industry chatter about RPM on monetized traffic, a metric that looks only at traffic where ads were actually served. Because it excludes traffic from ad blockers and bots, monetized RPM can give you a cleaner view of ad performance across real, monetizable traffic. It’s a helpful metric—and it has been available in your Raptive dashboard for more than a year. You can find it in your Earnings Overview section of your Raptive dashboard. Just keep in mind: RPM on monetized traffic is not the same as session RPM. Typically 10–20% of pageviews don’t load ads, either because of ad blockers, bots, or because the session is so short that the ad code doesn’t get an ad fully loaded in time. If your Google Analytics is working properly, then the number of sessions that ads load on will be smaller than the number of sessions that your Google Analytics records. That’s why monetized RPM will usually look higher, even when your actual earnings have not changed. Remember to compare the same metric across the same time period when evaluating performance. See how monetized RPM works → What we’re reading Catch up on news from around the industry • How publishers are modeling—and mitigating—a future with significantly less Google search traffic (Digiday) • Google brings Preferred Sources into AI Overviews and AI Mode (PPC Land) • How much are bots costing you? IAB Tech Lab wants content owners to find out (AdExchanger) • CNN is the latest media company to sue Perplexity (Engadget) • Improving AI labels for viewers and creators (YouTube Official Blog) Question of the week What’s your summer business vibe right now? 🏖️ Poolside planner Slowing down a little while mapping out what’s next 🚗 Road-trip mode On the go, juggling all the moving pieces 🎃 Already in October Deep in fall, Halloween, and holiday content prep 🌤️ Taking it day by day Resting where I can and adjusting as I go Thanks for reading! Was this email helpful? You’re receiving this email because you help manage a site that works with Raptive. To ensure our emails reach your inbox, add hello@email.raptive.com to your email contacts. Want to stop receiving Raptive News emails? You can update your preferences anytime. 1411 Broadway, 27th Floor New York, NY, 10018, US © 2026 Raptive. All rights reserved. Unsubscribe | View online