Do channel names and descriptions affect ad targeting?

Did I miss the memo?

[dataguy]

I've been running some tests and as an accidental by-product I have noticed that the channel names and / or descriptions seem to affect ad targeting. The naming of my channels had nothing to do with what I was testing for and I wasn't prepared to test for this through this testing cycle.

I'll post the testing results when it's complete, but I was hoping I could get some feedback from others to see if anyone else has noticed this.

Maybe this is common knowledge and I just missed the memo....

Can channel names affect ad targeting?

[Hobbs]

Yes they do, and no there was neither memo nor a blog post.

But not to an extent where they have higher weight than the on page content. Think of them as little helpers nudging page topic relevance just a little bit.

[edited by: Hobbs at 1:26 pm (utc) on May 11, 2008]

[dataguy]

Think of them as little helpers nudging page topic relevance just a little bit.

That's a good way to put it, Hobbs.

Previously the ads were just in channels named things link "Med Rect Upper Right", which is no help whatsoever as far as ad targeting.

I'm surprised that this isn't talked about more... I mean the increase in CTR and CPM is only a few percentage points, but in this case, that's enough to cover a 2nd house payment, and I had no idea that such a minor change could make a difference. I didn't even remove the original channels, I only added secondary category-specific channels.

[Hobbs]

Well, it was all good till you mentioned that 2nd house payment, ah well, good things never last anyway!

[farmboy]

I'm surprised that this isn't talked about more...

Maybe most people are already getting good targeting.

FarmBoy