PAY PER CLICK BIDDING AGENT COMPETITION The 2006 ACM E-Commerce Conference Sponsored Search Auctions Workshop CALL FOR PARTICIPATION and ABRIDGED RULES Complete Call For Participation and Rules available from www.biddingagentcompetition.com/rules.html THE 2006 BIDDING AGENT COMPETITION Would you like to develop a machine learning system to bid using real money on a dynamic and high-stakes auction, so as to maximize revenue? If this sounds like fun, you are welcome to join us in the 2006 Bidding Agent Competition, sponsored by ACM, Microsoft and Yahoo. INTRODUCTION Pay for click (PPC) auctions are arguably the most successful new auction format to emerge on the internet. They attract over $4 billion in advertising dollars per year, and more advertising dollars than any other form of internet advertising including banner advertisements. Pay per click auctions are fascinating both because of their commercial success, their propensity towards relevance, and because of the mathematical optimization problem which they pose. Bidders are faced with thousands of keywords that need to be priced, and these bidders need to change their prices to take advantage of changes in consumer behavior. Bidding is challenging because of the high risk inherent in maximizing revenue. If costs are incurred and revenue events do not follow due to noise or a fundamental shift in consumer behavior, then the bidders could literally go bankrupt. Sophisticated machine learning systems are therefore required to balance these risks and achieve maximal returns. The Second Sponsored Search workshop, with sponsorship from ACM Special Interest Group on E-Commerce, Microsoft Corporation and Yahoo! Inc., are pleased to announce the first ever Sponsored Search Bidding Agent Competition. The Bidding Agent Competition will allow entrants to test the effectiveness of their bidding strategies in a fair and controlled setting. Bidders will get the chance to deploy their strategies for the account of a real retailer. The winning team will be the one that generates the greatest percentage increase in profit within the time period of the competition. The purpose of the competition is to: (a) serve as an educational and fun event, which will encourage more interest in science and technology (b) contribute to the scientific literature on these fascinating auctions (c) allow teams to test different strategies and find ways of improving their monetization of these auctions, and ultimately to write about these strategies (for more details about disclosure, please see the registration process). ABRIDGED COMPETITION RULES (Complete rules available from www.biddingagentcompetition/rules.html) (b) A team may consist of 1-10 active participants, and must have a designated team leader who will act as coordinator and conduit of communications. (c) A maximum of 20 teams may compete. Teams will be registered on a first come, first served basis. (d) Non-Public Competitors: Competitors need not agree to disclose their identities to other competitors or the public in order to participate. However, non-public competitors, regardless of their performance, will not be awarded a cash prize. If their performance ranks as a first, second or third place position, the team will be offered the choice to make their identity public, or to forfeit the position. For non-public competitors, until such time as they may choose to allow the Competition Sponsors to reveal their identities, they will be known only to the Competition Sponsors and the Vendor. If a non-public team declines a prize, then the position they earned will go to the next highest scoring competitor who does agree to publicly reveal their identity. (e) Duration: Competition will be held over a one (1) day period. (f) Location: Competition will be held on-site at ACM E-Commerce 2006. (j) Retailer: Microsoft will arrange for an advertiser / retailer who will allow participating teams to try to optimize their campaign for 1 day. (k) Search Engine Platform: Microsoft AdCenter is the major sponsor of this event, and will provide access to its platform and support the teams for a good experience with its platform. (l) Entry Fees: - Participants who attend the ACM Conference on E-Commerce on either June 11th or June 12th will be asked to pay ACM E-Commerce Workshop registration fee to secure access to the competition facilities, which is where the competition organizers will be located. - Participants who attend the ACM Conference on E-Commerce on June 13th, 14th or 15th will be asked to pay for the conference registration fee. - Participants who wish to attend the Conference Banquet (at which time the awards will be presented) will be required to purchase the Banquet ticket. - Participants of the competition who do not attend in person will not be required to pay any fees. (m) Prizes: $500 for first place, $300 for second and $200 for third. The prize will be given to the team leader designated on the registration form. The ACM will present the award. The Competition Sponsors will not be in any way responsible for how or whether distribution is made to other team members. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Recipients may be required to complete a W-9 form for tax purposes. (n) Keyword allocation: The retailer's existing set of keywords for its Microsoft AdCenter account will be allocated randomly between the teams. (p) Remote bidders: Teams will be allowed to compete from remote locations. (q) Human bidders: Human (i.e. non-programmed or automated) competitors are allowed to participate. (r) Winning the competition: The winner of the competition will be the team that generates the greatest percentage increase in conversions for its set of keywords, properly filtered for refreshes and other bogus events, as measured by the conversion tracking system, whilst adhering to pre-specified constraints such as budget per day, positional constraints, and other requirements. The percentage increase will be equal to the conversions generated in the competition period, compared the conversions generated for those same keywords during a window of time prior to the competition start. The exact comparison window will be determined before the competition start by the organizers and communicated to the competitors on-site at the ACM Conference. The exact budgets, constraints, and comparison periods will be announced prior to the competition start and communicated at the ACM Conference on E-Commerce and via email to all pre-registered teams. (s) Release of data generated from competition: - Each participant must sign a Participation Agreement including confidentiality provisions. - The Competition Sponsors may seek permission from the retailer to make data publicly available at the end of the competition, but there is no commitment that specific information about the retailer will be allowed to be made public. Any future disclosure would be only with consent of the Competition Sponsor on terms to be agreed with the retailer. COMPETITION WEBSITE www.biddingagentcompetition.com TUTORIAL AND TEST DATA A five keyword set of sample data, field descriptions, and a tutorial introducing the reader to the problem of bidding, are also available from the website www.biddingagentcompetition.com/downloads. NO WARRANTY OR LIABILITY The AdCenter platform, account and API are provided as-is, with all defects and without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permissible by law, Microsoft and the Competition Sponsors will not be liable for any damages of any kind in connection with this Competition. DATES Event Date Early registration deadline May 1, 2006 On-site Registration Jun 10-11 2006 Sponsored Search Workshop held Jun 11, 2006 Competition begins Jun 12, 2006 00:00 Competition ends Jun 12, 2006 23:59 Teams get some sleep Jun 13, 2006 00:00 Teams given the option of revealing identities Jun 14, 2006 Winning teams announced. Jun 14, 2006 7pm ORGANIZING COMMITTEE David Pennock, Yahoo Brendan Kitts, Microsoft Tracy Mulen, Pennsylvania State Jason Hartline, Microsoft Kursad Asdemir, University of Alberta James Colborn, Microsoft FURTHER INFORMATION www.biddingagentcompetition.com