Abstract:
Methods and apparatuses for delivering advertisements with electronic content provided over a network and, more specifically, to techniques for selecting among advertisements that are competing for a slot associated with electronic content that is to be delivered over a network, are presented herein. Selecting among advertisements that are competing for a slot is based, at least in part, on an estimated latency for each advertisement. The estimated latency of an advertisement is a prediction of what latency will be experienced if the advertisement is served. The estimated latency may be used as one of the parameters for determining which competing advertisement to place in a slot, where advertisements that are associated with low estimated latencies are favored. For example, if all other parameters are equal, a selection mechanism selects advertisement X over advertisement Y, if the estimated latency for advertisement X is less than the estimated latency of advertisement Y.