MEOW: A Space-Efficient Non-Parametric Bid Shading Algorithm

Bid Shading has become increasingly important in Online Advertising, with a large amount of commercial [2,12,13,29] and research work [11, 20, 28] recently published, often in top applied conferences such as KDD. Most approaches for solving the bid shading problem involve estimating the probability of win distribution, and then maximizing surplus [28]. These generally use parametric assumptions for the distribution, and there has been some discussion as to whether Log-Normal, Gamma, Beta, or other distributions are most effective [6, 33, 40, 41]. In this paper, we show evidence that online auctions generally diverge in interesting ways from classic distributions. In particular, real auctions generally exhibit significant structure, due to the way that humans set up campaigns and inventory floor prices [7, 15]. Using these insights, we present a Non-Parametric method for Bid Shading which enables the exploitation of this deep structure. The algorithm has low time and space complexity, and is designed to operate within the challenging millisecond Service Level Agreements of Real-Time Bid Servers. We deploy it in one of the largest Demand Side Platforms in the United States, and show that it reliably out-performs comparable Parametric benchmarks. We conclude by suggesting some ways that the best aspects of Parametric and Non-Parametric approaches could be combined.