To Broad-Match or Not to Broad-Match : An Auctioneer's Dilemma ?

We initiate the study of an interesting aspect of sponsored search advertising, namely the consequences of broad match- a feature where an ad of an advertiser can be mapped to a broader range of relevant queries, and not necessarily to the particular keyword(s) that ad is associated with. In spite of its unanimously believed importance, this aspect has not been formally studied yet, perhaps because of the inherent difficulty involved in formulating a tractable framework that can yield meaningful conclusions. In this paper, we provide a natural and reasonable framework that allows us to make definite statements about the economic outcomes of broad match. Starting with a very natural setting for strategies available to the advertisers, and via a careful look through algorithmic and complexity theoretic glasses, we first propose a solution concept called broad match equilibrium(BME) for the game originating from the strategic behavior of advertisers as they try to optimize their budget a...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Sudhir Kumar Singh, Vwani P. Roychowdhury
• Keywords: Advertisers, Broad Match, Broad Match Scenario, CORR 2008, Education