FLOWER AUCTIONS IN AMSTERDAM. Ad Auctions March 7, 2008

FLOWER AUCTIONS IN AMSTERDAM

Ad Auctions

March 7, 2008

Overture slide

Motivation

• Market inherently interesting– 98% of Google’s and ~50% of Yahoo’s revenues– “Future of advertising”

• Unusual auction rules– Multiple units, but only one bid. Continuous time.

• Structured market– Rules. Almost like a lab. Good data.

• Purely electronic market– No goods ever shipped anywhere.

• Flexibility to change auction rules from time to time

Market history & evolution

early banner ads (circa 1994)

Overture (Goto.com) (1997)

per-impression pricing per-click pricing

limited targeting keyword targeting

person-to-person negotiations

automated acceptance of revised bids

generalized first-price auction rules

Generalized first price auctions

Problem: Generalized first price auctions are unstable.

No pure strategy equilibrium, and bids can be adjusted dynamically. Bidders want to revise their bids as often as possible.

Edelman and Ostrovsky, 2007

Yahoo data from June 15, 2002 to June 14, 2003

1000 top markets

10,475 bidders

18,634,347 bids

Observe bids at the quarter-hour

CyclingTime Market Bidder Bid6/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 13 $5.916/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 810 $5.926/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 14 $5.936/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 13 $5.946/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 60 $5.956/17/2002 6:30 AM 24 14 $5.966/17/2002 6:45 AM 24 810 $5.976/17/2002 6:45 AM 24 13 $5.97 …6/17/2002 11:30 PM 24 13 $9.986/17/2002 11:30 PM 24 14 $9.986/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 14 $10.006/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 60 $10.006/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 13 $10.006/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 810 $10.016/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 14 $10.026/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 13 $5.126/17/2002 11:45 PM 24 14 $5.13

Cycling

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Alternative mechanisms

• Generalized first-price

• Generalized second-price– Pay the bid of the next-highest bidder– First implemented by Google (2002),

later adopted by Yahoo

• VCG– Each bidder pays the externality he

imposes on others

Generalized second-price auctions

Position Bidder Bid

1 A $7

2 B $6

3 C $5

Payment

$6.01

$5.01

$0.10

Computing VCG payments: example

Position # clicks

1 100

2 80

Bidder Valuation

A $8 B $5

C $10

C’s payment:

C pushes A from 1 to 2

C pushes B out completely

So C should pay $160+$400=$560

loss of surplus (100-80)*$8=$160

loss of surplus 80*$5=$400

GSP in use

Adv Bid Payment

A $3.01 $3.01

B $3.00 $2.81

C $2.80 $1.11

D $1.10

GSP versus Vickrey and VCG

• With only one slot, GSP is identical to standard second price auctions (Vickrey, VCG)

• With multiple slots, the mechanisms differ– GSP charges bidder i the bid of bidder i+1– VCG charges bidder i for his externality

“[Google’s] unique auction model uses Nobel Prize-winning economic theory to eliminate … that feeling that you’ve paid too much.”

- Google marketing materials

Truth-telling is not a dominant strategy under GSP

Intuition: Sometimes, bid below your true valuation. You may get less traffic, but you’ll earn greater profits.

bidder bid

A $8

B $5

C’s valuation: $10

C bids $10, pays $8 → payoff ($10-$8)*100 =$200

C bids $6, pays $5 → payoff ($10-$5)*80 =$400

Suppose there are 3 bidders but 2 positions.Positions have click-through rates 100 and 80.

$400>$200. So C should place a bid below its valuation.

Bidders’ actual strategies