Selecting sponsored content and organic content for presentation to an online system user while accounting for relative positioning of sponsored content and organic content

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive, at an online system, sponsored content items, each sponsored content item including content for presentation and a bid amount specifying an amount of compensation provided to the online system;
• receive, at the online system, a request for a feed of content from a client device associated with a user of the online system;
• retrieve characteristics of the user maintained by the online system;
• retrieve organic content items maintained by the online system for the user for which the online system does not receive compensation for presenting to the user;
• select a set of organic content items by applying one or more selection processes to characteristics of the organic content items and the retrieved characteristics of the user;
• determine expected amounts of interaction by the user with each of the set of organic content items, an expected amount of interaction by the user with an organic content item of the set based on specific types of prior actions performed by the user with organic content items previously presented to the user by the online system;
• generate the feed of content including organic content items of the set in positions relative to each other based on the expected amounts of interaction by the user with organic content items of the set and position discounts applied to the expected amounts of interaction by the user with organic content items of the set and corresponding to positions in the feed of content in which organic content items of the set are presented, the feed identifying one or more positions of the feed of content for sponsored content items;
• concurrently with generating the feed of content including organic content items of the set select a subset of the sponsored content items based on expected values to the online system of presenting content included in each of at least a set of sponsored content items, an expected value to the online system of presenting content included in a sponsored content item based on a bid amount amounts included in the sponsored content item and characteristics of the user;
• select a sponsored content item of the subset for inclusion in an identified position of the feed of content relative to one or more organic content items of the set based on expected values of the sponsored content items of the subset and a position discount corresponding to the identified position of the feed;
• and
• transmit the generated feed of content including the selected sponsored content item of the subset in the identified position of the feed to the client device for presentation to the user.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive, at an online system, sponsored content items, each sponsored content item including content for presentation and a bid amount specifying an amount of compensation provided to the online system;
• receive, at the online system, a request for a feed of content from a client device associated with a user of the online system;
• retrieve characteristics of the user maintained by the online system;
• retrieve organic content items maintained by the online system for the user for which the online system does not receive compensation for presenting to the user;
• select a set of organic content items by applying one or more selection processes to characteristics of the organic content items and the retrieved characteristics of the user;
• determine expected amounts of interaction by the user with each of the set of organic content items, an expected amount of interaction by the user with an organic content item of the set based on specific types of prior actions performed by the user with organic content items previously presented to the user by the online system;
• generate the feed of content including organic content items of the set in positions relative to each other based on the expected amounts of interaction by the user with organic content items of the set and position discounts applied to the expected amounts of interaction by the user with organic content items of the set and corresponding to positions in the feed of content in which organic content items of the set are presented, the feed identifying one or more positions of the feed of content for sponsored content items;
• concurrently with generating the feed of content including organic content items of the set, select a subset of the sponsored content items based on expected values to the online system of presenting content included in each of at least a set of sponsored content items, an expected value to the online system of presenting content included in a sponsored content item based on a bid amount included in the sponsored content item and characteristics of the user;
• select a sponsored content item of the subset for inclusion in an identified position of the feed of content relative to one or more organic content items of the set based on expected values of the sponsored content items of the subset and a position discount corresponding to the identified position of the feed;
• and
• transmit the generated feed of content including the selected sponsored content item of the subset in the identified position of the feed to the client device for presentation to the user.