AdSense Publisher Scorecard

New Benchmarking Feature for Understanding & Improving Performance

[netmeg]

Is this new? In my AdSense interface, I see something I've never seen before, a "scorecard" (see image below)

[imgur.com...]

Apparently I'm getting a lesser score because of the text/image thing, but I'm rotating them myself and not having Google do it, so that's why that score is so low.

Not sure why the site health only has four dings; when you expand it all it lists is page speed, and it says I'm nice and speedy. My only crawler error is blocking G from my search results page.

Interesting. Doesn't really tell me anything I don't know, though.

[netmeg]

The reason I ask whether or not it's new is, it only just showed up in my account today, but when I went to view the help page on it, that was dated March 2013.

[netmeg]

Whoop, there it is...

[adsense.blogspot.com...]

[HuskyPup]

Hahaha ... Supposedly I am very healthy, I wouldn't have guessed that by my EPC average today ... pitiful.

Supposedly I have added the +1 button ... that's news to me! Or do they simply mean I have semi-completed a +1 account?

[ember]

New here, too. I am getting marked down for not opting into all text/image ads, but I am opted into those, so I am not sure how accurate this scorecard is.

[dethfire]

Not all that useful. I hope they are more parameters. My score is all good and yet my CPC and CPM are terrible

[dethfire]

btw adding google+ as a parameter is all marketing. having google+ button does not help adsense revenue directly

[Sally Stitts]

For me, the AdSense "Scorecard" just showed up today, on the right side of the Google AdSense "Home" tab page.

When fully expanded, the scorecard shows -

"Revenue optimization" (Rating=one blue dot)
--- Text and Image Ads Enabled = (red exclamation point)
--- Crawler Errors = (green checkmark)

"Site health" (Rating=5 blue dots)
--- Page speed performance = (green checkmark)

"Google+" (Rating=5 blue dots)
--- +1 button added = (green checkmark)

As netmeg said, "Doesn't really tell me anything I don't know".
Just more strong-arming.
They are really hammering us to enable image ads. I don't like 'em, for all the standard reasons.

I wonder why I didn't get a (yellow exclamation point) for
--- Recommended ad formats under "Revenue optimization", since I do not use a single one. Puzzling. Maybe, because my performance is above a certain undisclosed level. Just a guess.

"+1 button added" - I have added 250. Would I still get a green checkmark, had I added just one? Ten?

From "How does the scorecard work? Learn more" -
"Scores are computed daily, but it might be several days before the effect of a change you’ve made is reflected in your score."

[nomis5]

I get 4 for Revenue Optimisation because I'm not using the ad size they want. They want me to use the 300x250 one but that pays less in this account than the 336x280 one (I have both).

I get 5 for site health.

I get 1 for Goggle+ cos it's not on the site (true).

My view is that the scorecard is aimed squarely at encouraging use of G+, plain and simple, The other two scores are just a mask for the real purpose.

[icedowl]

I have a yellow exclamation point for Text and Image Ads but I thought all of mine were set for Text and Image.
Mine thinks I have G+ enabled - I don't! Nowhere!
Green everywhere else.

[Play_Bach]

Saw it for the first time today as well. Sorry Big G, I'm not changing a thing.

[Swanny007]

I had a warning about the text/image thing. I checked, I have 68 different ads setup (yikes!), and only one was text-only. I changed it to text/image, that should make 'em happy.

It says I use G+ button, but there's no way in the world I'll promote it, so that part is incorrect.

[jbayabas]

What's your score folks? I got four blue dots. Is that the highest score?

[dcheney]

Revenue opt: 5 blue dots
Site health: 5 blue dots
Google+: 1 blue dot

[Sally Stitts]

I beg to differ.

For Google +1, I have 5 blue dots.
But then, I have added +1 to over 200 pages. Maybe that's why.
We are going to be playing "who's got the button" with this for a long time.

[explorador]

Appeared today on my account, doesn't precisely math the scores o G Insights regarding speed and etc. Nothing really new but it seems to me as a very smart move to easily make publishers put what G wants, so much for the Add the G plus button.

[piatkow]

Exclamation marks!
My ads are the "wrong" size - Naughty me, designing for readers rather than building an MFA site!
I don't allow image ads in every possible location - ditto.

[swa66]

Anybody know what the green triangles mean ?

anyway I got:

Revenue optimization : 4 blue dots + 1 green triangle
- Recommended ad formats: green checkmark
- Text and image ads enabled: yellow exclamation point (but afaik I have both image en text enabled everywhere)
- Crawler errors: green checkmark + 1 green triangle

Site health : 5 blue dots
Page speed performance: green checkmark

Google+: 2 blue dots:
- +1 button added: yellow exclamation mark
- +Page created: green checkmark
- +Page badge implemented:yellow exclamation mark

Ah green means has improved - funny.

[ChanandlerBong]

Every piece of information on mine is wrong. Everything. My dog could do a better job reading tealeaves with a blindfold on. In a darkened room. Drunk.

[SEOPTI]

I think this scoreboard is for Dummies.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I think this scoreboard is for Dummies.

It's a different approach to get publishers to do what the annoying emails have been suggesting we do. i.e. opt into images on all units, embrace G+ etc.

Since the data is aggregate and generic you can safely ignore the scorecard, imo.

[mcneely]

meh .. tells me I need to use bigger ads .. um .. no? .. I'll use the ads sizes that I use and so be it .. I build for visitors .. not Google

[moTi]

this is so pathetic. honestly, i feel taken as a fool by those perpetual marketing stunts. it's really an insult to my intelligence.

- they want us to show display ads
(because their display network attempts never got into gear)

- they want us to use google+
(because their social network attempts never got into gear)

how often and in how many ways can you try to force things over people?

you know what? this shows me even more that i'm on the right track, no matter less blue points or yellow exclamation marks.

[netmeg]

Heh mine went way down because apparently I have a set of URLs that breaks the pagespeed tool. That's an interesting phenomenon that I intend to test further.

[levo]

OK, the first day I had 5 dots for performance, and today it dropped to 4. I checked the pagespeed insights and noticed that I left the script url as dev server instead of CDN.

[HowYesNo]

sorry g i won't enable images on some channels, it will earn me 0$ for thousands of impressions, tested, and i'm not putting it back

[netmeg]

On Friday took one of the suggestions about another ad unit on the longer pages (except I used a 160x600 instead of a 338xwhatever) and CTR and revenue shot up big time. So sometimes they do know what they're talking about. If that's insulting my intelligence, they can keep on insulting me.

[netmeg]

The way they deal with crawl errors is wrong; the stuff they're complaining that I block is stuff I *want* to block. And 404 pages are events that either cancelled or aren't being held anymore. There's no point redirecting them. They should have an "I *meant* to do that" check box.

[not2easy]

They told me to rearrange external links for (one each) .js and .css files or consider using inline replacements. Do what? The header has 2 tiny javascripts, one is self contained, not linked. One .css file and their complaint is that they want to load things concurrently. The page speed score was good so why switch places between the css file and a mini .js file that does not execute without further action? How about some relevant ads, that might help some.

Many years ago I got tired of totally unrelated ads and started using some boolean hints for alt tags on the page. It worked. I don't do that anymore, but sometimes wonder how they can take words so far from their context.

[JCKline]

I find the +1 portion annoying. I assume adding it is irrelevant to adsense, but now I wonder why it's even there. Are they saying id is relevant in some way? Hmmm.