A 2020 perspective on “Let’s play the search game: Strategic and behavioral properties of online sponsored search auction mechanisms”

摘要

Search engines, blogs, social media, and other high-traffic web sites and mobile apps are increasingly involved in sales through the ads they display, yet it is not clear how these ads should be chosen and paid for in the most optimal way. We describe three different paths we are taking in an effort to make this choice more informed. The first explores the dynamics of consumers’ click decisions as they are determined by the belief consumers hold about ad placements. The second explores the advertisers’ dynamic decision-making process under uncertainty as advertisers are trying to optimize their profits. The third one explores the strategic interactions involving a buyer, sellers (advertisers), and an ad provider (search engine or platform) when there is value uncertainty and the ad provider has better information about product values than either the buyer or the sellers. We are hoping these paths lead to new theoretical models and experimental designs that foster our understanding of this important aspect of online and mobile commerce.