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Digital platforms 鈥� such as Google, Facebook and YouTube 鈥� stand to benefit financially and in effectiveness if they ensure advertising fairness policies are implemented with their platform ads, according to research by an Auburn University 91看片 College of Business faculty member.

Such a dedicated effort would not only boost advertising revenue for the platforms, but it would benefit society by ensuring a wider consumer audience has equal access to ads that promote economic or educational opportunities, said Di Yuan, assistant professor of business analytics and lead author of the research study.

Di and her co-authors in Marketing Science, a premier peer-reviewed journal.

Why ad fairness matters

The researchers created a mathematical model and online ad auction, which is an automated bidding system for ads triggered by a user鈥檚 online searches and page views. Their research idea was motivated by previous empirical studies that examined data from digital platforms including Google and social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads.

Di said her interest in the fair-advertising research started with a real-world problem.

鈥淪tudies showed that women often see fewer job or education ads online, even when there鈥檚 no intentional bias from the advertisers,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat raised a big question: Why does this happen, and can fairness rules fix it without hurting the platform?鈥�

For example, if a university posted social media ads on scholarship opportunities, would the ads reach female viewers with the same ease as male viewers, or would digital tools such as algorithms put up roadblocks?

And then the question becomes, is it worth it for the platform to invest in overcoming those roadblocks? Yes, according to the team鈥檚 findings.

The researchers focused on how fair-advertising practices affect the digital platforms with an eye on three key groups: advertisers, consumers, and the platforms themselves that host the ads.

When implementing guidelines to ensure the fairness, the researchers calculated that such practice prompts advertisers to pay more to better match competitor advertising, thus financially benefiting the platforms.

It may cost more for the advertiser to do so; while the impact on consumers depends on the goal being sought, i.e. are more total consumers seeing the ad vs. more consumers of a specific target audience.

Using mathematics, the researchers were able to create models to determine their results.

Making a difference

Di and her team hope the results of their work will influence future advertising policy and provide greater fairness in online advertising, despite the challenges.

鈥淭he technology that drives digital advertising is evolving faster than the rules that govern it,鈥� she said. 鈥淎lgorithms now influence who gets access to life-changing information, like jobs or education, but most regulations were written for a pre-algorithm world.

鈥淚鈥檇 like to see clearer, more forward-looking policies that hold platforms accountable for fairness and transparency,鈥� she added. 鈥淚deally, fair advertising shouldn鈥檛 rely just on good intentions, it should be a standard practice supported by regulation.鈥�

The influence of math

The trio, including Professor from the University of Maryland and Professor from Carnegie Mellon, built a mathematical model to simulate how different types of advertisers compete for ad space.

鈥淎 main advantage of this approach is that we do not require data,鈥� Di said. 鈥淗ence, we can analyze the impact of policies that have not yet been implemented.鈥�

The mathematics and economics model they created proved essential to the study.

鈥淥nline advertising industry factors are complex: multiple advertisers, different user groups, and platforms all interacting at once,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 mathematical model helps us break that complexity down into something we can analyze clearly.鈥�

Likewise, the researchers implemented other concepts with their model.

鈥淎 big part of our approach is game theory, which studies how different players behave strategically when their decisions affect one another鈥檚 utility, or profit. In our setting, advertisers are not acting in isolation,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey constantly adjust their spending in response to the platform鈥檚 ad policy and in response to each other.鈥�

Game theory provided the tools to capture such reactions. 鈥淚t lets us ask questions like: 鈥業f the platform imposes a fairness rule, how will advertisers shift their budgets? Will they compete harder or softer? Who benefits, and who backs off?鈥欌�� Di said. 鈥淏y modeling these strategic responses mathematically, we could predict outcomes that might be impossible to see from data alone.鈥�

The research and published paper are especially meaningful to Di as it is her first major publication in a top journal.

鈥淚t marks an important milestone in my academic career and gives me confidence that the kind of research I care about鈥攔igorous, technical, but also socially relevant鈥攃an truly make an impact,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or Auburn and the 91看片, I see this as just the beginning. I鈥檓 excited to keep building a strong research identity here and to help position 91看片 as a place that contributes actively to cutting-edge conversations around AI and digital markets.鈥�

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Di Yuan鈥檚 research paper 鈥淚s Fair Advertising Good for Platforms?鈥� is available .