Table of Contents





Overview

Bid Models enable building a more complex and custom bidding strategy. These models are built offline as a data table, and then uploaded to Beeswax. The data table must define specific targeting combinations and expressions, and their associated bids or bid modifiers. Once applied to campaigns, they are used to make bidding decisions in real time. Bid models are a flexible way to create more complex bidding strategies than bid modifiers, without the use of a custom bidding agent. An example use case for building a bid model can be based on data from Beeswax logs (wins, conversions, etc). The model could use a combination of bid request fields (city, inventory source, etc.) and determine an associated bid or bid multiplier.

These three steps must be completed in order to create a bid model:

  1. Create the data model offline

  2. Upload the bid model to S3

  3. Upload the bid model to Buzz

For more information on what fields can be used in a bid model, please see Bid and Delivery Models Fields.


How To Create a Bid Model Offline

  1. The first step is to create the model offline. This can be done by training a model using Beeswax log data, or a different first/third party data source, or any other modeling technique. The bid model consists of 2 files: the manifest file and the prediction file.

  2. Creating the Prediction File: Prediction files are the table that contains the bid model. Prediction files should be kept to a maximum size of 25MB each, and an accumulative maximum size of 100MB per Bid Model, to optimize loading performance and should be in the below format:
    • pipe-delimited ("|") text files
    • no compression
    • first row of each file contains headers
    • at least one bid request key field
    • a required field called "value", which represents either the CPM Bid or Bid Multiplier for that row
    • null values should be left blank
    • an asterisk (*) can optionally be used to match any value (note: a maximum of three wildcard fields are supported)
    • max file size = 25MB
    • Prediction files can only include values that are bids or multipliers

  3. Creating the Manifest File: The manifest file is a .json file with the below format:
  • The model predictions object includes a list of S3 paths to all prediction files (previous step) associated with this model version. The files live under the following path: s3://beeswax-data-<region>/bid_models/<buzz key>/

  • The metadata.fields object contains a list of feature fields that are included in this model version and, optionally, the fields which contain wildcards. 

  • A sample manifest can be downloaded here.


How to Upload a Bid Model

  1. In order to use a bid model, the files must be uploaded to S3. Please reach out to your support team if you are not set up for this and request access. Instructions on how to access S3 buckets for upload can be found here.

  2. Once access is granted, follow the API documentation to upload the manifest and data files to s3://beeswax-data-<region>/bid_models/<buzz key>/. Regardless of which region you upload the files to, the data will be replicated to each region in which your bidder is live.

  3. File structure is largely flexible, but please note that manifest files must be under the following path: s3://beeswax-data-<region>/bid_models/<buzz key>/customer_manifests/`.

  4. An example file structure would be:
s3://beeswax-data-us-east-1/bid_models/canary/customer_manifests/manifest_20mb.json


How To Create a Bid Model in Beeswax UI

The updated versions of the bid model table can be uploaded to the same bid model object in Buzz, and the most recent upload version will be used unless otherwise specified.

  1. From Trafficking > Models, click New Model. If creating the model via API, instructions can be found here. 

  2. Complete the following fields in the Overview:
    *Required

    Field NameDescription
    Model IDAn ID associated to the model generated after creation.
    Model Name*Desired name for the Model.
    Value Type*
    • CPM Bid
    • Multiplier
    ActiveActive or Inactive.
    Alternative IDAny number or string. Used to map this object to an object in an outside system.
    NotesAny desired notes about this model.


  3. Click Save & Continue.

  4. The Model Versions screen will appear to associate a model version with this model. Enter the Manifest S3 Path (location of the pre-loaded manifest file) and a Model Version Name, then click Add Version.

  5. The model will automatically go into PENDING status. This status signifies the version is being validated and prepared to receive traffic. The Status will subsequently change to LIVE or FAILED.

  6. The final step is to associate the bid model with a line item. Under the Modifiers tab during line item creation, an existing bid model may be selected.

    Matching Bid Model’s values will be multiplied with Bid Modifier terms.


  7. Click Save & Continue to apply the model to the line item.