Simulating bid requests for content underdelivery analysis

Abstract

An analysis system may receive a request to determine a cause of underdelivery for an ad (“query content item”). Properties of the query content item can be processed through a matching model to determine properties of a bid request, thereby generating a bid request. The generated bid request also includes a request for the content server to return a report in response to the bid request regarding ad selection decisions. The bid request may be submitted to the content server, which causes the content server to define a set of candidate content items and select at least one of the candidate content items to submit bids on behalf of in response to the bid request. The content server also provides a report in regarding ad selection decisions. Thus, if the query content item is one of the ads that were not selected, the report may include factors contributing to the query content item not being selected.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computing system, comprising:
 at least one computing device processor; and   a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the at least one computing device processor, cause the computing system to:   submit a bid request for a content server to provide a content item;   determine, based on an underdelivery report associated with the content item, one or more factors that contributed to the content item not being selected in response to the bid request;   generate, based at least in part on the one or more factors, a recommendation for improving delivery of the content item; and   adjust, based on the recommendation, at least one property associated with the content item.   
     
     
         2 . The computing system of  claim 1 , wherein the bid request includes a request for the underdelivery report. 
     
     
         3 . The computing system of  claim 1 , wherein the bid request is based on at least a subset of properties of the content item, a bid request schema and matching rules associated with the content server, the matching rules defining how the content server selects content items in response to bid requests. 
     
     
         4 . The computing system of  claim 1 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 receive a request to troubleshoot underdelivery of the content item by the content server, wherein previous spending for the content item is below a threshold amount;   cause the content server to define a set of candidate content items for the bid request, the set including at least one of a selected content item and an unselected content item, the unselected content item including the content item; and   receive the underdelivery report from the content server, wherein the underdelivery report includes a reason for the content item not being selected.   
     
     
         5 . A computing system, comprising:
 at least one computing device processor; and   a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the at least one computing device processor, cause the computing system to:   determine properties of a bid request based at least in part on the properties of a content item;   submit the bid request to a content server, the content server determining one or more factors that contributed to whether the content item is a selected content item or an unselected content item in response to the bid request;   generate, based at least in part on the one or more factors, a recommendation for improving delivery of the content item; and   adjust, based on the recommendation, at least one property of the content item.   
     
     
         6 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the properties of the bid request and the properties of the content item are associated via a matching model associated with the content server. 
     
     
         7 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein previous spending for the content item is below a threshold amount. 
     
     
         8 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the content server determines a set of candidate content items in response to the bid request, the set of candidate content items including at least one of a selected content item or an unselected content item, the content item being among the candidate content items; and
 receive, from the content server, data representing the set of candidate content items and information associated with the set of candidate content items.   
     
     
         9 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 determine, based on data received from the content server, the one or more factors that contributed to whether the underdelivered content item is a selected content item or an unselected content item in response to the bid request.   
     
     
         10 . The computing system of  claim 6 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 determine that the underdelivered content item is not included in the candidate content items;   adjust a property of the underdelivered content item or the bid request;   process the bid request through the content server again following the adjustment; and   determine a factor contributing to the underdelivered content item not being included in the candidate content items.   
     
     
         11 . The computing system of  claim 7 , wherein the information includes the one or more factors contributing to the selected content item being selected and the unselected content item being unselected. 
     
     
         12 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 determine at least one of the properties of the content item to adjust based at least in part on the factors, adjustment of the at least one of the properties associated with the selected content item being selected.   
     
     
         13 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the content server includes logic for matching content items to bid requests, and the matching model is an estimation of the logic. 
     
     
         14 . The computing system of  claim 6 , wherein the bid request is a first bid request the set of candidate content items is a first set of candidate content items, and wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 generate a second bid request based at least in part on the properties of the content item, the second bid request having at least one property different from the first bid request;   process the second bid request through the content server, the content server determining a second set of candidate content items in response to the second bid request, the second set of candidate content items comprising at least one of a selected content item or an unselected content item;   receive, from the content server, data representing a second set of candidate content items and information associated with the second set of candidate content items;   aggregate the information associated with the first and second sets of content items; and   determine, based at least on the information associated with the first and second sets of content items, one or more factors associated with underdelivery of the content item.   
     
     
         15 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 generate the matching model based on training data including a plurality of bid requests and a plurality of sets of candidate content items respectively matched with the bid requests by the content server.   
     
     
         16 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 receive an adjustment to the properties of the bid request; and   update the matching model based at least in part on the adjustment.   
     
     
         17 . The computing system of  claim 5 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing system to:
 populate a bid request schema with the properties of the bid request to generate the bid request.   
     
     
         18 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 determining, based on data received from a content server, one or more factors that contributed to whether a content item is a selected content item or an unselected content item;   generating, based at least in part on the one or more factors, a recommendation for improving delivery of the content item; and   adjusting, based on the recommendation, at least one property of the content item.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , comprising:
 determining properties of a bid request and properties of the content item, associated via a matching model associated with the content server.   
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 19 , further comprising:
 submitting the bid request to the content server, the content server determining a set of candidate content items in response to the bid request, the set of candidate content items including at least one of a selected content item or an unselected content item, the content item being among the candidate content items; and   receiving, from the content server, data representing the set of candidate content items and information associated with the set of candidate content items.