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Machine learning in an auction environment

Published: 07 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

We consider a model of repeated online auctions in which an ad with an uncertain click-through rate faces a random distribution of competing bids in each auction and there is discounting of payoffs. We formulate the optimal solution to this explore/exploit problem as a dynamic programming problem and show that efficiency is maximized by making a bid for each advertiser equal to the advertiser's expected value for the advertising opportunity plus a term proportional to the variance in this value divided by the number of impressions the advertiser has received thus far. We then use this result to illustrate that the value of incorporating active exploration into a machine learning system in an auction environment is exceedingly small.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Knowledge extraction in auction verification employing techniques from machine learning and fuzzy neural networks.2024 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (EAIS)10.1109/EAIS58494.2024.10569109(1-8)Online publication date: 23-May-2024
  • (2020)Bisection-based pricing for repeated contextual auctions against strategic buyerProceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning10.5555/3524938.3526001(11469-11480)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
  • (2020)Reserve pricing in repeated second-price auctions with strategic biddersProceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning10.5555/3524938.3525189(2678-2689)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
  • Show More Cited By

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    Published In

    cover image ACM Other conferences
    WWW '14: Proceedings of the 23rd international conference on World wide web
    April 2014
    926 pages
    ISBN:9781450327442
    DOI:10.1145/2566486

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    • IW3C2: International World Wide Web Conference Committee

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 07 April 2014

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    Author Tags

    1. auctions
    2. explore/exploit
    3. machine learning
    4. online advertising

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    WWW '14
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    • IW3C2

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    WWW '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 84 of 645 submissions, 13%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 1,899 of 8,196 submissions, 23%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Knowledge extraction in auction verification employing techniques from machine learning and fuzzy neural networks.2024 IEEE International Conference on Evolving and Adaptive Intelligent Systems (EAIS)10.1109/EAIS58494.2024.10569109(1-8)Online publication date: 23-May-2024
    • (2020)Bisection-based pricing for repeated contextual auctions against strategic buyerProceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning10.5555/3524938.3526001(11469-11480)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
    • (2020)Reserve pricing in repeated second-price auctions with strategic biddersProceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning10.5555/3524938.3525189(2678-2689)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
    • (2020)Optimal non-parametric learning in repeated contextual auctions with strategic buyerProceedings of the 37th International Conference on Machine Learning10.5555/3524938.3525188(2668-2677)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
    • (2019)Optimal pricing in repeated posted-price auctions with different patience of the seller and the buyerProceedings of the 33rd International Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems10.5555/3454287.3454372(941-953)Online publication date: 8-Dec-2019
    • (2017)Horizon-Independent Optimal Pricing in Repeated Auctions with Truthful and Strategic BuyersProceedings of the 26th International Conference on World Wide Web10.1145/3038912.3052700(33-42)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2017
    • (2016)The Importance of Exploration in Online MarketplacesIEEE Internet Computing10.1109/MIC.2015.13920:1(20-26)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2016
    • (undefined)Learning in Search AdvertisingSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.3116363

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