Targeting Ads by Effectively Combining Behavioral Targeting and Social Networking

A system for targeting ads by effectively combining behavioral targeting and social networking, wherein the system is configured for:

• receiving a behavioral targeting model to predict a propensity of each consumer in a network to select an ad of a particular category based on a behavior of each consumer;
• training a social network model to predict a propensity of a particular consumer to select an ad of the particular category based on features derived from a social network of the particular consumer;
• and
• training an ensemble classifier to decide when to trust the behavioral targeting model and when to defer to the social model for predicting a propensity of the particular consumer to select an ad of the particular category.

A computer readable medium carrying one or more instructions for targeting ads by effectively combining behavioral targeting and social networking, wherein the one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• receiving a behavioral targeting model to predict a propensity of each consumer in a network to select an ad of a particular category based on a behavior of each consumer;
• training a social network model to predict a propensity of the particular consumer to select an ad of the particular category based on features derived from a social network of the particular consumer;
• and
• training an ensemble classifier to decide when to trust the behavioral targeting model and when to defer to the social model for predicting a propensity of the particular consumer to select an ad of the particular category.