Determining the optimal ad load in News Feed
Overview
This question evaluates a candidate's ability to model revenue-versus-experience trade-offs, estimate long-term customer lifetime value effects, and design user segmentation and experimentation for personalized ad frequency.
Meta
Jul 12, 2025, 6:59 PM
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
15
0
Scenario: Balancing Monetization and User Experience
You are asked to set a data-driven threshold for ad frequency ("ad load" = number of ads shown per unit of experience, e.g., per session or per feed length) that maximizes long-term value while protecting user experience.
Tasks
- Determine the optimal ad load using marginal revenue vs. user tolerance and long-term LTV.
- Segment users by ad tolerance and propose personalized caps.
- Estimate long-term LTV impact of different ad loads.
- Recommend a cautious rollout and monitoring strategy.
Question 1
How would you determine optimal ad load? (Hint: marginal revenue curve, user tolerance, long‑term LTV)
Solution
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