I currently don't use targeting since many of my sites have no closely related categories anyway, and all of my pages are on a framed site. What are the facts with targeting ? Does manual targeting work better then automatic ?
As said before, trial and error is the way to go. Some of my sites I use automatic because it picks up the content well, yet some I have to use the manual method to get any type of ad displayed besides the network ads.
My experience is, it VARIES. That's the problem. You think that you have it honed in, then the next time you check, all is different. I don't want to spend ALL my time, trying to get the ads to come out right. My time should be spent on creating more content. Google makes it so easy. I think that an even bigger problem is serving the best ads the FIRST TIME. Frequently, I will first get lousy ads, then refresh, and get great ads. But, in general, your visitors aren't going to refresh. You essentially get one chance, not to blow it, adwise. Google blows it, too. Rambling now. I'll stop.
Right now when I look through my sites I am seeing these ads: Doll collecting site shows ads for : Tortoises from ebay Get Valid Driver Licenses Bird Watching site shows ads for : KidKraft Kitchen Sets Doll Strollers Metal Detecting site shows ads for : Personal Door Alarms Fishing site shows ads for : Buy your C Band equipment Paypal: donations ------------------------ I guess I am going to have to spend a lot of time on manual targeting, the auto targeting is horrible. I wonder how or why it's so bad ?
Even with Manual you may not be able to get it close enough to work for you... hence part of the peoples frustration with Y's Beta.
the ypn beta can only be as good as the advertisers that they have in your sector... some sectors are much better than others. the fact that you can select advertising categories is a huge plus, regardless of your sector, because some categories pay better than others... i've been able to add relevant categories for ad topics that adsense never gave me, because adsense thinks that they know more about my visitors than i do. if at all possible, run 'em both, and see what works best on what pages.
In my experience, automatic contextual matching results into relevant and better paying ads than manual ad targeting.
I spoke with Yahoo! about this. I posted about the results of this conversation to my blog. Ad targeting is becoming less relevant now. It is simply being used now to fill gaps in advertising when no relative ads can be found. I noticed this on my sites as well. I was targeting certain categories and now the ad relevance has taken over and I am receiving ads that are relevant now and fillers from my choice. So they are improving.