Selecting a template for a content item

A system, comprising:

• a data store for storing content;
• and
• one or more processors configured to interact with the data store, the one or more processors being further configured to perform operations comprising:
• receiving context data specifying one or more attributes of a particular presentation environment in which a content item will be presented;
• in response to receiving the context data:
• identifying given content that is eligible to be presented in the particular presentation environment;
• identifying a template feed from which a template for the given content is to be selected, the template feed including a set of templates;
• determining, for each particular template from the set of templates, a contextual performance measure based on (i) a performance of one or more first content items when the particular template has been used to create the one or more first content items for presentation in response to content item requests that included a particular attribute of the context data and (ii) a performance of one or more second content items when the particular template has been used to create the one or more second content items for presentation in the particular presentation environment;
• selecting, from the template feed and based on the contextual performance measure of each template in the set of templates, a template for the given content;
• and
• populating the selected template with the given content to create a formatted content item;
• and
• providing the formatted content item in response to a content request that includes the one or more attributes specified by the context data.

A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• receiving context data specifying one or more attributes of a particular presentation environment in which a content item will be presented;
• in response to receiving the context data:
• identifying given content that is eligible to be presented in the particular presentation environment;
• identifying a template feed from which a template for the given content is to be selected, the template feed including a set of templates;
• determining, for each particular template from the set of templates, a contextual performance measure based on (i) a performance of one or more first content items when the particular template has been used to create the one or more first content items for presentation in response to content item requests that included a particular attribute of the context data and (ii) a performance of one or more second content items when the particular template has been used to create the one or more second content items for presentation in the particular presentation environment;
• selecting, from the template feed and based on the contextual performance measure of each template in the set of templates, a template for the given content;
• and
• populating the selected template with the given content to create a formatted content item;
• and
• providing the formatted content item in response to a content request that includes the one or more attributes specified by the context data.