{"id":8810,"date":"2014-03-27T16:22:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T16:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/okodigital.wpengine.com\/?p=200"},"modified":"2014-03-27T16:22:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T16:22:52","slug":"how-seriously-should-i-take-adsense-scorecard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cool.co\/supply-side-platform-home\/how-seriously-should-i-take-adsense-scorecard\/","title":{"rendered":"How seriously should I take the AdSense Scorecard?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google introduced AdSense Scorecards in June last year as a way to communicate key optimisation opportunities to publishers. \u00a010 months on, opinion over the Scorecard is still divided.\u00a0 For some the \u201cquest for fifteen blue dots\u201d has brought improved revenue, for others those same dots have just been a distraction.<\/p>\n

A reminder \u2013 what are AdSense Scorecards?<\/h2>\n

Log into your AdSense account, your account score code is given the sort of visibility that suggests Google see them as important. Immediately below your earnings summary the Scorecard gives you \u201cmarks out of five\u201d under three headings: Multi-screen, Revenue optimisation and Site health.<\/p>\n

\"what<\/p>\n

Clicking any of those headings shows you areas where your account might benefit from improvement:<\/p>\n

\"scorecard<\/p>\n

Great then? Google are showing us all how to optimise our AdSense account and increase our earnings. Job done, right?<\/p>\n

The problem(s) with Scorecards<\/h2>\n

AdSense\u2019s Scorecards have not been without criticism. When they first launched they included the +1 button as a metric, which many people saw as self-serving. This disappeared as a recommendation in December. Since then criticisms tend to fall into one of four camps:<\/p>\n

\u201cScorecards are too vague\u201d<\/h3>\n

The headings given by the Scorecard are quite broad and many site owners complain that this leaves them without actionable advice.\u00a0 At its most frustrating Scorecards will even report a low score when the details seem to suggest that you are doing everything correctly. If you run multiple sites on one account then its value is definitely reduced further, as the scores are calculated daily across the account rather than site by site.<\/p>\n

\"vaguescorecards\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wrong\u201d<\/h3>\n

\"scorecard<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unheard of to follow advice given and see revenue actually decrease. This happens because recommendations are based on how your account matches overall best practice. Those best practices are based on what is most likely to work for everyone, rather than what will individually work for your account.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt ignores important factors\u201d<\/h3>\n

The publisher Scorecard only looks at six areas of performance, so it is inevitable that a lot gets missed. \u00a0What areas different publishers think should be included does vary, but a common these is the desire to have some sort of benchmarking (do you really know whether you page CTR is good or bad compared to others in your sector?).<\/p>\n

\u201cScorecards distract from the real job at hand\u201d<\/h3>\n

Chasing the blue dots of the AdSense Scorecard can leave publishers feeling like they are making progress with their performance when the actual metrics remain unchanged. Whilst scores do represent overall good practice the only reliable way to measure the effectiveness of changes is to look at more meaningful KPIs (such as overall revenue, RPM, or even Revenue per unique visitor).<\/p>\n

But are Publisher Scorecards useful?<\/h2>\n

When Search Engine Roundtable ran a poll<\/a> last year, only 38% of respondents said that AdSense Scorecards were useful, with comments largely reflecting the points raised above.<\/p>\n

Personally I would say they are.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen enough publishers use them as a guide to improve earnings to see value in them. Even in cases when all of the criticisms above apply, the Scorecard is easy enough to ignore when it isn\u2019t useful.\u00a0 Yes, it would be nice if it was more account specific, had more detail and could be hidden by publishers who didn\u2019t want to see it.\u00a0 There are, though, real gains to be had by keeping an eye on it.<\/p>\n

As well as acting as a \u201ccheck-list\u201d of some key optimisation points, the Scorecards can be useful in highlighting changes that can be detrimental to account performance. In a recentgoogle+ thread<\/a> one publisher highlighted out how useful they are in terms of \u201cnagging\u201d you to take action on things that you know you should address.<\/p>\n

It is important though to understand their limits<\/p>\n

A final word of advice: Horse first. Cart follows<\/h2>\n

Search any webmaster community for the topic of AdSense Scorecards and you\u2019ll soon find someone who has got the facts about Scorecards mixed up and that a poor score will cause earnings to decrease.<\/p>\n

Scores are a reflection of how your site meets broad best practices. They are provided as information for webmasters. Those scores do not feed back into the system to affect either rankings of earnings.\u00a0 A low score might reflect poor earnings, but it won\u2019t cause them.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe me?\u00a0 As a Certified AdSense Partner I am lucky enough to have access a broad range of accounts. Of all those accounts one stands out significantly from the others in terms of its earnings per visitor and is a consistently high earner.\u00a0 This is the Scorecard from that account:<\/p>\n

\"high<\/p>\n

Whilst I wouldn\u2019t suggest aiming for these scores, it does show that Scorecards are not the be-all and end-all of AdSense optimisation.<\/p>\n

Over to you<\/h2>\n

I\u2019d really like to hear any examples of where the AdSense Publisher Scorecard has helped you uncover \u201cwins\u201d for your account.\u00a0 Let me know your thoughts on Google+ or Twitter. Maybe we\u2019ll write a follow-up sharing some examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google introduced AdSense Scorecards in June last year as a way to communicate key optimisation opportunities to publishers. \u00a010 months on, opinion over the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-8810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips","tag-adsense"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow seriously should I take the AdSense Scorecard? | Supply-Side Platform | COOL Media (formerly OKO Digital)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cool.co\/supply-side-platform-home\/how-seriously-should-i-take-adsense-scorecard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How seriously should I take the AdSense Scorecard? 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