Risk-aware revenue maximization in display advertising

Display advertising is the graphical advertising on the World Wide Web (WWW) that appears next to content on web pages, instant messaging (IM) applications, email, etc. Over the past decade, display ads have evolved from simple banner and pop-up ads to include various combinations of text, images, audio, video, and animations. As a market segment, display continues to show substantial growth potential, as evidenced by companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google actively vying for market share. As a sales process, display ads are typically sold in packages, the result of negotiations between sales and advertising agents. A key component to any successful business model in display advertising is sound pricing. Main objectives for on-line publishers (e.g. Amazon, YouTube, CNN) are maximizing revenue while managing their available inventory appropriately, and pricing must reflect these considerations.