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I like this idea, although I do want to note: > A serious bidder could bid higher than you on your own self. At least I'd get my money back :( But it's a gre

• londons_explore 8y ago
  The mental model gets better when you realise online ad auctions have bids multiplied by the predicted click-through-rate (pCTR). That means someone can outbid you easily if it is predicted the ad will be clicked, and they have to pay a load of money if it's predicted the ad is very unlikely to be clicked. Which in turn means, you'll effectively only be shown ads you're interested in, since the predictor thinks it's very likley you'll click (or watch the whole thing for a preroll ad). Turns out, that predictor is mostly right - it did a good job of showing me ads that were funny enough to watch to the end, and correctly realised I would never watch an ad twice, so never showed me the same ad twice.