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🏗️ System DesignID: ecpm-ranking-formula

Real-Time Bidding eCPM Ranking

实时竞价 eCPM 排序与计费公式
🎯Core Definition
Real-Time Bidding (RTB) eCPM Ranking is the unifying mathematical standard across digital advertising exchanges that standardizes heterogeneous advertiser bidding models into expected revenue per thousand impressions (eCPM): 1) CPM Bidding: eCPM=bidCPM\text{eCPM} = \text{bid}_{\text{CPM}}; 2) CPC Bidding (pay-per-click): eCPM=1000×pCTR×bidCPC\text{eCPM} = 1000 \times p\text{CTR} \times \text{bid}_{\text{CPC}}; 3) CPA / oCPM Bidding (optimized target CPA): eCPM=1000×pCTR×pCVR×bidCPA\text{eCPM} = 1000 \times p\text{CTR} \times p\text{CVR} \times \text{bid}_{\text{CPA}}; The RTB engine sorts all targeted ads in descending order of eCPM; the top-scoring ad wins the impression auction and is billed according to the prevailing auction pricing mechanism.
💡Use Cases
Real-Time Bidding Exchanges (DSP, SSP, Ad Networks), sponsored search keyword auctions, and programmatic social ads.
Key Problems Solved
Different advertisers use incompatible pricing models (brand advertisers bid on CPM, performance buyers bid on CPA); eCPM normalizes all bids into expected platform revenue, mathematically maximizing total yield per available impression.
🎯5 High-Frequency Exam Points
1
Derive the oCPM dynamic bidding formula and prove why smart bidding adjusts effective CPC to bidCPC=pCVR×bidCPA\text{bid}_{\text{CPC}} = p\text{CVR} \times \text{bid}_{\text{CPA}}?
2
How to design composite ad ranking functions incorporating quality scores QQ alongside pure eCPM to protect user experience?
3
Break down the RTB latency budget across SSP request dispatch, DSP internal retrieval, pCTR inference, and auction clearance within 50ms?
4
Explain the business rules and mathematical risk controls behind platform CPA guarantee and compensation mechanisms during advertiser cold-start?
5
Derive the GSP clearing price formula for the ii-th ad: Pi=eCPMi+11000×pCTRi+0.01P_i = \frac{\text{eCPM}_{i+1}}{1000 \times p\text{CTR}_i} + 0.01?
Updated 2026-08-14
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