# Diffusion-Based Auctions for Multi-Winner Banner Ads

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.14473 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.14473/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 18 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Oct 2026.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03206/) (2024)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distribution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.05600/) (2019)
- [Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flow](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03003/) (2022)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [Ad Auctions for LLMs via Retrieval Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09459/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a new framework for banner ad auctions, leveraging diffusion models to allow for multiple bidders to co-win a single banner ad opportunity, and in particular influence the ad shown on the banner depending on the strength of their bids, enabling a far richer outcome space compared to standard banner ad auctions, where there is a single winner who shows their ad. In our framework, the outcomes are images (what ad to show) and each bidder expresses their preferences over outcomes by declaring their value per unit of alignment between the image chosen by the mechanism and a textual description of their desired image. Our proposed mechanism combines the advertisers' bids and textual descriptions into a score that drives the reverse process of a diffusion model. This is used to sample a set of candidate images from which the welfare maximizing one is eventually chosen. Extensive experimentation evaluates our proposed mechanism around the following axes: (1) efficiency improvements of our allocation rule relative to the single-winner allocation rule; (2) monotonicity of our allocation rule; and (3) approximate incentive compatibility when combining our allocation rule with Myerson lemma-based or Clarke rule-based payments. Improvements along all these axes are shown with the number of Monte Carlo samples. Meanwhile, these benefits are attained while preserving the image quality.