Adaptive Budget Optimization for Multichannel Advertising Using Combinatorial Bandits

Briti Gangopadhyay (Sony), Zhao Wang (Sony), Alberto Silvio Chiappa (Sony & EPFL), Shingo Takamatsu (Sony)

Abstract

Optimizing budget allocation is vital for digital advertising, yet practical algorithms remain scarce due to limited public datasets and realistic simulation environments. While multi-armed bandit (MAB) algorithms are well-studied, they struggle in non-stationary settings requiring rapid adaptation. This paper introduces three key contributions: (1) a simulation environment that emulates multichannel advertising campaigns using logged real-world data; (2) an enhanced combinatorial bandit strategy with efficient exploration, and change-point detection to adapt dynamically to market shifts; and (3) Empirical validation showing superior performance over baselines in reward and regret metrics across real-world campaigns.