Response latencies in a system are reduced by performing a plurality of auctions in parallel using respective processing threads. An ad call associated with an impression for a webpage requested by a user computer is received by the system. Impression information is obtained from the ad call, which is then used to determine a subset of multiple potential impression providers that are to participate in an auction for the impression. Behavior models are used to determine the subset, while floor or reserve price models are used to set a floor/reserve price for each potential impression provider in the subset. Bid requests are sent out in parallel to the subset of potential impression providers using the respective floor/reserve prices, with a thread allocated to each bid request. The models can be further trained on information obtained from the received bid responses and impression information.

A method for retargeting in a system including a plurality of vehicles having exteriors configured to convey messaging to occupants of other vehicles. Communication signals including information relating to time-stamped locations of the vehicles are received. Time-stamped location data including a first plurality of the time-stamped locations is provided to a mobile location data aggregator. A first set of anonymized identifiers associated with mobile device users known to be within exposure zones associated with the time-stamped locations is received from the mobile data aggregator. The first set of anonymized identifiers is provided to an audience data service provider, which returns other anonymized identifiers associated with the first set of anonymized identifiers. An augmented exposed audience is formed by adding the other anonymized identifiers to the first set of anonymized identifiers. Advertisements are caused to be provided to devices corresponding to at least a subset of the augmented exposed audience.

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media that may be used to provide bid adjustment recommendations for budget-constrained content campaigns are provided. One method includes identifying a content campaign eligible for each of a plurality of auctions that was excluded from at least some of the auctions based on a budget constraint. The method further includes simulating the auctions using one or more adjusted bid values and generating estimated results for the adjusted bid values based on the simulated auctions. The method further includes determining at least one adjusted bid value that is estimated to result in at least one of the following: (1) increased clicks under substantially the same budget constraint; (2) increased clicks at substantially the same total cost; or (3) decreased cost with substantially the same number of clicks. The method further includes providing at least one recommendation to adopt the at least one adjusted bid value.

Systems and methods for real-time bidding of advertisement during live event broadcasting are disclosed including calculating intensity levels during a live event, opening advertisement space on screen for real-time bidding based on intensity levels, and displaying an advertisement in the advertisement space as an overlay on video images of the live event broadcasting.

A control system determines whether a browser is retrieving supplemental content over a slow or faulty network using a tracking indicator. Based on determining that browser is retrieving supplemental content over a slow or faulty network, the control system modifies responses to opportunities to provide supplemental content to the browser. The control system may modify responses by declining to bid, responding with a lower bid amount, or responding with alternate supplemental content. Based on determining that browser is no longer retrieving supplemental content over a slow or faulty network, the control system modifies responses to opportunities to provide supplemental content to the browser by responding with a higher bid amount or responding with the original supplemental content. Thus, the control system maximizes the use of control system and campaign manager resources by responding to opportunities according to the likelihood that they will result in an impression or a conversion.

A computer-implemented method for allocation-free control of online campaigns for distributing online content includes receiving a daily content distribution spending budget and one or more response functions, calculating one or more plant gain estimates based on the one or more response functions, calculating a marginal content distribution spending budget based on the daily content distribution spending budget, generating one or more control signals based on the calculated marginal budget and the calculated one or more plant gain estimates, generating a price control signal based on the generated one or more control signals, and calculating a bid for one or more impressions based on the price control signal.

Header bidding systems and methods increase a number of advertisers that can place bids for an advertising impression while maintaining low latency in loading of the webpage. The systems and methods utilize a specialized control wrapper in the header to manage one or more additional wrappers so as to allow for simultaneous bid collection from multiple groups of advertisers, one group per wrapper, without experiencing the traditional increase in latency of page loading as the number of entities bidding on an impression increases. Each wrapper contains information relating to a separate subset of advertisers from which to receive bids for the advertising impression. The control wrapper, as part of the header of the webpage, controls synchronization and timing of the separate bid processes controlled by the various wrappers to ensure that latency issues are avoided while the number of bids received is increased and revenue maximized.

In an example embodiment, a bid of an impression of a piece of content, while dynamically set at impression time, may be based on a base bid that is something of a rough indicator of what the estimated price will be. That base bid then is adjusted dynamically up or down at impression time. This base bid can be determined by dividing the expected number of impressions for a day by a total daily budget. The expected number of impressions may be determined by using the empirical number of impressions from the previous day. As such, in an example embodiment, the prediction of the number of impressions for a day utilizes a corrected version of the empirical number of impressions from the prior day, with the corrected version based on a specialized formula with weights trained by a machine learning algorithm.

An online system receives a content item from a content provider, the content item having a bid price and including a link to a messaging application. The link is configured to initiate a direct message in the messaging application between the content provider and a user who interacts with the content item. The online system receives a request for content items from a target user and determines a compatibility score between the target user and the content item based on one or more sets of criteria. A first set of criteria indicates a compatibility between the user and the messaging application. The online system determines a subsidy for the content item based on the compatibility score. The online system adjusts the bid price with the determined subsidy to determine an auction price and includes the content item with the auction price in a selection process for presentation to the user of the online system.

A system for incentivization of communications, comprising an incentivization engine and an auction service, and a method for using such a system for providing incentivization of user communications and user competition for incentives.