The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes receiving a request for content to fill a block, the request including information about a size of the block and criteria for identifying eligible content items for inclusion in the block, determining a number of content items to be included in the block, including determining amounts of dynamic resizing to apply to content items, determining an estimate of a difference in conversion rates conditional on receiving an interaction in the different configurations that perform differing amounts of dynamic resizing, and applying the estimate when determining an efficiency for a number of permutations of allocations of eligible content items, establishing a price to be charged to each content sponsor associated with a permutation that has a highest efficiency, and providing the eligible content items and charging the content sponsors based on the established prices.

A computer-implemented method of allocating offline advertising, the method including receiving an offer price for audience-member responses for an offline advertising campaign and campaign information describing the offline advertising campaign, comparing the received campaign information to one or more other advertising campaigns to determine a portion of offline advertising inventory to allocate to the offline advertising campaign, and allocating the determined portion of advertising inventory to the offline advertising campaign.

Systems and methods for targeted advertising to specific consumers are disclosed. A system may include a memory storing instructions and at least one processor configured to execute the instruction to: receive, over a network, client-provided data from a client device; identify at least one consumer by comparing the client-provided data against consumer data recorded in an electronic consumer database; obtain at least one unique consumer identifier for the identified at least one consumer, the at least one unique consumer identifier not including personal identifiable information; generate a target audience pool based on the at least one unique consumer identifier; and deliver, over a network, the target audience pool to the client device to facilitate targeted advertising to specific consumers.

Methods and systems for dynamically incorporating advertising content into multimedia environments, such as games, are provided. Example embodiments include a dynamic inserter, which selects content, based upon a set of criteria, to deliver to a receiving client system, such as a game client. The game client typically dynamically determines locations with the game where advertisements may be inserted. Associated with these locations are ad tags that specify criteria for the ads. For example, the criteria may include ad type, ad genre, and scheduling information. The game client then sends indications of these ad tags to the dynamic inserter to be used to select appropriate ads. The dynamic inserter selects ads based upon the criteria and sends them to the game client, which selects them for ad tags with conforming criteria. The game client then renders the selected ad in the appropriate location. In one embodiment, the dynamic inserter comprises a game client, game server, ad server, a communications channel, and, optionally, an ad client.

A system and method for generating advertisement automatically are provided. The system may comprise at least one computer-readable storage medium including a set of instructions; at least one processor in communication with the at least one computer-readable storage medium, wherein when executing the set of instructions, the at least one processor is configured to cause the system to generate a first plurality of ads, the first plurality of ads including a first plurality of advertisement elements and a first plurality of information components; transmit, via a network, the first plurality of ads to a first group of user terminals; determine at least one of a click-through rate, a number of impressions, or a conversion rate for the first plurality of ads; and analyze the at least one of the click-through rate, the number of impressions, or the conversion rate of the first plurality of ads.

Techniques are provided that can be used in advertising campaign management in connection with auction-based online advertising. A tool is provided, for use by advertisers or advertising campaign managers, for being provided with, in connection with specified parameters, an indication of a competitive bid and a non-competitive bid. The tool may also provide an actual, estimated, or projected bid, which may be associated with an advertising campaign or a portion thereof, for comparison with the competitive bid and the non-competitive bid. The tool may allow assessment of a competitive bid landscape and help allow determination of an optimal bid.

Systems and methods are disclosed for planning, executing, reviewing, and reporting the results of an advertising campaign to be run on TV. A demand-side platform receives ad slot opportunities from TV programming sources, and analyzes the ad slots to produce a prioritized list of placement opportunities for the advertising campaign to be presented to advertiser/clients. Each ad slot is analyzed with respect to past viewership data and with respect to desired targeting characteristics that may include conventional age and gender targeting, or additionally strategic targeting characteristics. Scores are established for each ad slot with respect to numbers of projected on-target impressions and/or a cost for projected on-target impressions. The scores are sorted to produce the prioritized list. Projected results can be viewed with respect to any or all of network, day, and daypart. After a campaign has completed, viewership data representing actual results is acquired, processed, and reported.

The disclosed embodiments provide a system for managing an A/B test. During operation, the system calculates a first risk associated with ramping up exposure to a first A/B test by a first ramp amount. Next, the system uses a first sequential hypothesis test to compare the first risk with a first risk tolerance for the first A/B test. When the first sequential hypothesis test indicates that the first risk is within the first risk tolerance, the system automatically triggers a ramp-up of exposure to the first A/B test by the first ramp amount.

An online system communicates information describing deals guaranteeing impressions of content items within specified time periods to a content publisher at which the content items may be presented. The online system receives information describing an assignment of each deal to a placement position within a website for the content publisher. Upon receiving a request to present a content item to a viewing user of the online system at a placement position, the online system identifies candidate content items associated with deals assigned to the placement position, in which the candidate content items are associated with targeting criteria satisfied by the viewing user. Based at least in part on a number of impressions achieved by each candidate content item in relation to a number of impressions guaranteed for the candidate content item, the online system selects a candidate content item for presentation to the viewing user at the placement position.

Technologies for optimized selection of content for delivery to a user that both optimizes the expected return from the delivery of the content to the user and that enables exploration of delivery of new content to users are disclosed. Content is selected for delivery to a user based on an exploitation score that defines an estimate of the feedback expected from the delivery of the content to the user and an exploration score that varies inversely with the number of times that the content has been transmitted to all users. The use of the exploration score enables the exploration of delivery of new content to users. The content might be delivered via e-mail messages, a web site, or using another mechanism.