Online Causal Inference for Advertising in Real-Time Bidding Auctions

arXiv:1908.08600v4 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: Real-time bidding (RTB) systems, which utilize auctions to allocate user impressions to competing advertisers, continue to enjoy success in digital advertising. Assessing the effectiveness of such advertising remains a challenge in research and practice. This paper proposes a new approach to perform causal inference on advertising bought through such mechanisms. Leveraging the economic structure of first- and second-price auctions, we first show that the effects of advertising are identified by the optimal bids. Hence, since …

abstract advertisers advertising arxiv bidding causal inference challenge cs.gt cs.lg digital digital advertising econ.em impressions inference paper practice real-time research stat.ml success systems type