Applications of feedback control in online advertising

Internet advertising is a new and exciting area where feedback control has proven tremendously valuable and is expected to play an increasingly important role as the industry continues its rapid growth. The objective of algorithms in a display advertising network is to create value for advertisers, publishers, and the network owner, via optimal decisions on where, when, how, and to whom to show ads. Feedback controllers provide a system that learns from its mistakes and takes proper reactive and proactive actions to meet goals set by advertisers. This paper is a brief tutorial to the field with control engineers as the intended audience.