# Smart Fast Finish: Preventing Overdelivery via Daily Budget Pacing at DoorDash

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.07929 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07929/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 6 of its 17 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Bid Optimization by Multivariable Control in Display Advertising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.10928/) (2019)
- [Auto-bidding and Auctions in Online Advertising: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07685/) (2024)
- [Robust Auction Design in the Auto-bidding World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.02468/) (2021)
- [A Field Guide for Pacing Budget and ROS Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08530/) (2023)
- [Efficiency of the First-Price Auction in the Autobidding World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10650/) (2022)
- [Robust Budget Pacing with a Single Sample](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.02006/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a budget pacing feature called Smart Fast Finish (SFF). SFF builds upon the industry standard Fast Finish (FF) feature in budget pacing systems that depletes remaining advertising budget as quickly as possible towards the end of some fixed time period. SFF dynamically updates system parameters such as start time and throttle rate depending on historical ad-campaign data. SFF is currently in use at DoorDash, one of the largest delivery platforms in the US, and is part of its budget pacing system. We show via online budget-split experimentation data and offline simulations that SFF is a robust solution for overdelivery mitigation when pacing budget.