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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Series

2021

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Impressions

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Selling Impressions: Efficiency Vs. Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Tibor Heumann, Stephen Morris, Constantine Sorokin, Eyal Winter Aug 2021

Selling Impressions: Efficiency Vs. Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Tibor Heumann, Stephen Morris, Constantine Sorokin, Eyal Winter

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In digital advertising, a publisher selling impressions faces a trade-o¤ in deciding how precisely to match advertisers with viewers. A more precise match generates efficiency gains that the publisher can hope to exploit. A coarser match will generate a thicker market and thus more competition. The publisher can control the precision of the match by controlling the amount of information that advertisers have about viewers. We characterize the optimal trade-off when impressions are sold by auction. The publisher pools premium matches for advertisers (when there will be less competition on average) but gives advertisers full information about lower quality matches.


Selling Impressions: Efficiency Vs. Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Tibor Heumann, Stephen Morris Jul 2021

Selling Impressions: Efficiency Vs. Competition, Dirk Bergemann, Tibor Heumann, Stephen Morris

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In digital advertising, a publisher selling impressions faces a trade-off in deciding how precisely to match advertisers with viewers. A more precise match generates efficiency gains that the publisher can hope to exploit. A coarser match will generate a thicker market and thus more competition. The publisher can control the precision of the match by controlling the amount of information that advertisers have about viewers. We characterize the optimal trade-off when impressions are sold by auction. The publisher pools premium matches for advertisers (when there will be less competition on average) but gives advertisers full information about lower quality matches.