Free · 2 minutes

Monetization health check

Ten quick questions about how ads run on your own site. Answer honestly. There are no trick questions, and you don't need to look anything up. At the end you get a score out of 100, plus a short fix, a one-minute video and a game level for every gap we find.

1Do you check your ads.txt file whenever you add or remove an ad partner?

Buyers check ads.txt before they bid, and a missing line can stop them buying.

Yes, we check it after every partner change We set it up once and haven't looked since Not sure, or we don't have one

2How do buyers compete for your ad space today?

When buyers bid at the same moment, the highest one can win instead of the first one asked.

Header bidding (for example Prebid) alongside our ad server Google Ad Manager only, with no header bidding AdSense only

3Do you know your header bidding timeout, and has it been tuned?

Too short and you miss good bids. Too long and readers leave before the ad shows.

Yes, we set it from our bidders' real response times We know the number but have never changed it Not sure, or we don't run header bidding

4When did you last review how many bidders run on your pages?

Each extra bidder tends to add less than the one before, and every one adds waiting time.

In the last few months, using the revenue each one brings Over a year ago Never. We add bidders but don't remove any

5What kind of price floors do you use?

A floor set well can lift bids. A floor set badly leaves impressions unsold.

Dynamic floors that update from data Static floors we typed in by hand No floors, or not sure

6Does your consent banner (CMP) pass each visitor's choices to your ad partners?

Buyers read the consent string first. Without a valid one, Google may only serve limited ads in Europe.

Yes, and we've checked what the string actually contains We have a CMP but have never checked what it sends No CMP, or not sure

7Do your ad slots have space reserved in CSS before the ad loads?

A late ad that pushes the article down hurts your layout shift (CLS) score and annoys readers.

Yes, every slot has a minimum height Some slots do, some don't No, the page jumps when ads load

8Do ads lower down the page load only when the reader gets close to them?

Ads that load where nobody scrolls slow the page and drag down viewability.

Yes, with lazy loading, and we watch viewable impressions per page view Lazy loading is on, but we've never checked or tuned it No, every ad loads as soon as the page opens

9If your ads refresh, how does that work?

Refreshing ads nobody sees wastes impressions, and undeclared refresh breaks Google Ad Manager policy.

We don't refresh, or we refresh only viewable ads in an active tab and have declared it Time-based refresh, declared in Google Ad Manager Time-based refresh we haven't declared, or not sure

10Which number do you use to judge whether a change worked?

CPM can rise while revenue falls, so judge changes on what each visit earns.

Revenue per session (or per thousand sessions) Page RPM CPM

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