DYNAMIC CONTENT ITEM FORMAT DETERMINATION
An online system receives a content item for presentation to one or more users of the online system that includes a creative. The creative includes information describing the product or information for purchasing the product. To increase a likelihood of users interacting with the content item when it is presented, the creative includes a field for an offer associated with the product that is populated with information for the offer as the content item is presented to a user of the online system. The information for the offer populated into the field of the creative can be one of a number of offer format options (e.g., $1,600, $300 off, 25% off, etc.) available for the product and can be selected based on user engagement data associated with each of the different offer format options.
1 . A method comprising:
obtaining, at an online system, product data describing characteristics of one or more products being offered by one or more third party systems;
receiving a content item at the online system for presentation to one or more users of the online system, the content item including a creative presenting content describing a product of the one or more products and a plurality of offer formats;
identifying an opportunity to present one or more content items to a user of the online system;
accessing product engagement data for the user, the engagement data identifying products previously accessed by the user, whether the user purchased the previously accessed product, and an offer format of a plurality of offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
identifying one or more candidate products of the one or more products for presentation to the user based on characteristics of the previously accessed products and characteristics of the one or more products;
selecting a product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products;
selecting an offer format of the plurality of offer formats for the user based on the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
generating the creative including the content describing the selected product for the content item with the selected offer format;
including the content item in one or more selection processes selecting content for presentation to the user via the identified opportunity;
selecting the content item that includes the content describing the selected product and the selected offer format in the creative for presentation to the user via the identified opportunity; and
communicating the content item having the generated creative presenting content describing the selected product with the selected offer format to a client device for presentation to the user.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the creative of the content item includes a price being charged for the product by the third party system and each of the plurality of offer formats each corresponds to a different representation of the price being charged for the product by the third party system.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of offer formats for the price of the product include a percentage discount of the price, a total amount being subtracted from the price corresponding to the percentage discount, or a new price corresponding to the percentage discount subtracted from the price.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products for the user include a first set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and did not purchase and a second set of offer formats associated with products the user accessed and purchased.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein selecting the offer format of the plurality of offer formats for the user based on the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a first frequency associated with the first set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and did not purchase; and
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a second frequency associated with the second set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and purchased.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a likelihood of the user selecting the content item based on the first frequency and the second frequency.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting a product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products comprises:
determining likelihoods of the user accessing content including each of the identified candidate products; and
selecting a candidate product based on the determined likelihoods.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein selecting the product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products comprises:
selecting a candidate product associated with at least a threshold likelihood.
9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein selecting a product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products comprises:
ranking the candidate products based on the likelihoods; and
selecting the candidate product based on the ranking.
10 . A method comprising:
receiving, at an online system, product data from a third party system describing characteristics of a product being offered by the third party system;
receiving, at the online system, a content item for presentation to one or more users of the online system, the content item including a creative presenting content describing the product and criteria for presenting the content item to the one or more users of the online system;
identifying, by the online system, an opportunity to present one or more content items to a user of the online system;
accessing product engagement data for the user, the engagement data identifying products previously accessed by the user and identifying an offer format of a plurality of offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
retrieving one or more candidate content items for the opportunity, the one or more candidate content items include the content item and are retrieved based on characteristics of the user stored in a user profile of the user at the online system;
determining a score for each of the retrieved candidate content items including the content item based at least in part on characteristics of the user matching the criteria for presenting the content item;
selecting a candidate content item with a highest score among the one or more candidate content items for the opportunity;
selecting an offer format of the plurality of offer formats for the user based on the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
generating the creative including the content describing the selected product for the content item with the selected offer format; and
communicating the content item having the generated creative presenting content describing the selected product with the selected offer format to a client device for presentation to the user.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the creative of the content item includes a price being charged for the product by the third party system and each of the plurality of offer formats each corresponds to a different representation of the price being charged for the product by the third party system.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of offer formats for the price of the product include a percentage discount of the price, a total amount being subtracted from the price corresponding to the percentage discount, or a new price corresponding to the percentage discount subtracted from the price.
13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products for the user include a first set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and did not purchase and a second set of offer formats associated with products the user accessed and purchased.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein selecting the offer format of the plurality of offer formats for the user based on the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a first frequency associated with the first set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and did not purchase;
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a second frequency associated with the second set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and purchased; and
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a likelihood of the user selecting the content item based on the first frequency and the second frequency.
15 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
obtain, at an online system, product data describing characteristics of one or more products being offered by one or more third party systems;
receive a content item at the online system for presentation to one or more users of the online system, the content item including a creative presenting content describing a product of the one or more products and a plurality of offer formats;
identify an opportunity to present one or more content items to a user of the online system;
access product engagement data for the user, the engagement data identifying products previously accessed by the user, whether the user purchased the previously accessed product, and an offer format of a plurality of offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
identify one or more candidate products of the one or more products for presentation to the user based on characteristics of the previously accessed products and characteristics of the one or more products;
select a product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products;
select an offer format of the plurality of offer formats for the user based on the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products;
generate the creative including the content describing the selected product for the content item with the selected offer format;
include the content item in one or more selection processes selecting content for presentation to the user via the identified opportunity;
select the content item that includes the content describing the selected product and the selected offer format in the creative for presentation to the user via the identified opportunity; and
communicate the content item having the generated creative presenting content describing the selected product with the selected offer format to a client device for presentation to the user.
16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein identifying one or more candidate products of the one or more products for presentation to the user based on characteristics of the previously accessed products and characteristics of the one or more products comprises:
retrieving characteristics of at least a set of the products offered by the one or more third party systems;
determining characteristics of products provided by the one or more third party systems accessed by the user of the online system from the received information; and
identifying candidate products as products from the at least the set of the products that have at least a threshold amount of characteristics matching characteristics of the products associated with the third party system accessed by the user.
17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the creative of the content item includes a price being charged for the product by the third party system and each of the plurality of offer formats each corresponds to a different representation of the price being charged for the product by the third party system.
18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of offer formats for the price of the product include a percentage discount of the price, a total amount being subtracted from the price corresponding to the percentage discount, or a new price corresponding to the percentage discount subtracted from the price.
19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the offer formats associated with the previously accessed products for the user include a first set of offer formats associated with products that the user accessed and did not purchase and a second set of offer formats associated with products the user accessed and purchased.
20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein selecting a product of the candidate products based on likelihoods of the user accessing each of at least a set of the candidate products comprises:
determining, for each of the plurality of offer formats, a likelihood of the user selecting the content item based on the first frequency and the second frequency;
determining likelihoods of the user accessing content including each of the identified candidate products; and
selecting a candidate product based on the determined likelihoods.