Moving Towards Ecologically Sustainable Advertising: The Actual Method
Whereas in the Five Fives we outlined the framework for understanding sustainability in online advertising, in this article, we introduce the actual method for achieving it through optimizing the Five Aspects.
Which aspects to focus on?
There are four parts to understanding which aspects to focus on. The first part is related to the direct effect an aspect has on the energy consumption of the system. The second part is related to the indirect effect an aspect has on the energy consumption of the system. The third part is related to how hard it is to optimize the (energy efficiency of the) aspect. The fourth part is related to how many different things there are that can be optimized.
The direct effect an aspect has on energy consumption
Each of the Five Aspects can be understood through its direct effect on energy consumption.
The aspect of Creation has a negligible direct effect on energy consumption.
The aspect of Delivery has a very important direct effect on energy consumption. Depending on the system, up to 80% of all energy consumed by an advertising system is consumed by the Delivery aspect.
The aspect of Data has a very important direct effect on energy consumption. In some advertising systems, most of the energy ends up being consumed by poorly designed data architecture.
The aspect of Intelligence has a very important direct effect on energy consumption. In some systems, vast amounts of energy are consumed by poorly optimized predictive models and such.
The aspect of Access has a negligible direct effect on energy consumption in advertising systems. It should not be confused with the energy consumption resulting from an ad being displayed on a device after having delivered it, as that belongs to the aspect of Delivery.
The indirect effect an aspect has on energy consumption
In addition to their direct effect, each of the Five Aspects can be understood through its indirect effect on energy consumption.
The aspect of Creation has a major indirect effect on energy consumption in the sense of being the source for the thing that is being delivered.
The aspect of Delivery has virtually no indirect effect on the energy consumption of advertising systems.
The aspect of Data has a very important indirect effect on energy consumption in the sense that it affects everything that is later done with the data, such as accessing it, or processing it, or storing it in another system for example.
The aspect of Intelligence has virtually no indirect effect on the energy consumption of advertising systems.
The aspect of Access has virtually no indirect effect on the energy consumption of advertising systems.
How hard it is to optimize the aspect
The aspect of Creation is simple to optimize.
The aspect of Delivery is very complex to optimize.
The aspect of Data is both simple and complex to optimize. This is to say, that while other means are simple, others are complex. The ones with the greatest reduction in energy consumption generally speaking can be simple technical interventions, but hard to point out.
The aspect of Intelligence is relatively complex to optimize.
The aspect of Access is relatively simple to optimize.
How many things are there to optimize
The aspect of Creation has a moderate number of things to optimize. For example, reduce the size of objects to be displayed in various user interfaces.
The aspect of Delivery has only a few things to optimize. For example, reducing the distance between the sender (of the ad) and receiver (of the ad).
The aspect of Data has as many things to optimize as there are things to do with data. For example, reducing the sampling frequency from a minute to an hour.
The aspect of Intelligence has a moderate number of things to optimize. For example, optimizing models towards energy efficiency together with other optimization goals.
The aspect of Access has a moderate amount of things to optimize. For example, reduce the size of objects to be displayed in various user interfaces.
Focusing on Delivery and Data is Superior
By appropriately focusing on Delivery and Data aspects, the energy consumption of a typical advertising system can be reduced by roughly 90%. This means that simply by solving energy efficiency in the Delivery and Data aspects, most of the carbon emitted by an advertising system can be eradicated.
Means by which energy efficiency can be improved
Before evaluating the actual means by which energy efficiency can be improved in each of the five aspects, it is important to understand the potential of each aspect and factor. For example, even though Creation only plays a negligible role in terms of emissions, it is of practical value to understand that the factor of Size is more important for that aspect than the other factors are.
The below table illustrates the relationship each Aspect has with each Factor.
The pattern of energy efficiency optimization following the framework outlined here is straightforward; one simply combines Aspects with Factors, for example, by taking the Aspect of Delivery and then optimizing the Factor of Distance. In advertising, doing this particular thing with only moderate success will bring 50% or more of all possible benefits. Because most advertising actors do not have direct control over the Aspect of Delivery — and are therefore forced to look elsewhere — the particular way of approaching the problem remains the same. This can be understood in four steps as shown below.
- Identify which relevant Aspect is consuming the most energy
- Identify which Factor is the most important in terms of energy cost
- Identify ways in which the particular Factor in the given Aspect can be optimized
- Go back to the first step and repeat
Moreover, each of the Aspects can be analyzed systematically through each of the Factors. This means that there are in total 25 Aspect-Factor pairs (e.g., Delivery-Size). Such pairs are described as Intervention Vectors.
The below sections will highlight at least one energy efficiency optimization intervention for each of the vectors.
Interventions for the aspect of Creation
- Reduce Size by representing images and such as parameters instead of visual assets
- Reduce Size further by having fewer dependencies and by reducing the size of the dependencies
- Reduce Duration by minimizing the time it takes to complete common workflows
- Reduce Number by minimizing the need to connect to 3rd-parties
- Reduce Frequency by reducing the variety of things*
- Reduce Frequency further by caching
- Reduce Distance by delivering from edge
*NOTE: Here the emphasis is on the kind of variety reduction where the business value is not compromised. We’ve introduced this key concept in Five Fives.
Interventions for the aspect of Delivery
It is important to understand that Creation-Size has a significant impact on energy consumption in the Aspect of Delivery.
- Reduce Size by green coding practices
- Reduce Duration through avoiding connections that remain open
- Reduce Number by reducing the number of tags and other 3rd-party things loaded together with the ad
- Reduce Frequency by avoiding things such as frequent polling (for viewability and such)
- Reduce Distance by delivering from the edge
Interventions for the aspect of Data
- Reduce Size by following “Just Enough” principles* (Just enough entities, features, sampling, metrics)
- Further, reduce Reduce Frequency by caching
- Reduce Distance by delivering from edgeSize by implementing reduction techniques such as probabilistic data structures.
- Reduce Duration through better algorithm design and a greater appreciation of computational complexity
- Reduce Number by ensuring that the data model is free from unwanted redundancy
- Reduce Frequency by limiting data access to real-time streaming, after which the data is no longer available
- Reduce Distance by ensuring that all related systems are in the exact physical location (e.g., same Cloud region)
Learn more about the “Just Enough” paradigm in the article Data as Cost — Big Cakes are Nice if you Like Cake [LINK].
Interventions for the aspect of Intelligence
The aspect of Intelligence importantly depends on the aspect of Data. For example, whatever is large in the factor of Size in the aspect of Data, will be large in the factor of Size in the aspect of Intelligence. The focus here is mostly on reducing Duration by preferring shallow models over deep ones. The implementation of those (shallow) models should be where the depth is. In other words, shallow models, deep implementations. When models are initially implemented, advanced understanding of computational complexity, as well as algorithmic design, are required prerequisites; such work is otherwise not possible.
- Reduce Size by feature selection
- Reduce Duration by preferring shallower models
- Reduce Frequency by improving workflow to avoid errors and redundant training runs
The Aspects of Number and Distance have little relevance in the Factor of Intelligence.
Improving the aspect of Access
The Aspect of Access is similar to the Aspect of Creation in that it focuses on the “user experience” aspect of the system. The main difference is that the things done in Access do not affect the other Aspects.
- Reduce Size by having fewer dependencies and by reducing the size of the dependencies
- Reduce Duration by minimizing the time it takes to complete common workflows
- Reduce Number by minimizing the need to connect to 3rd-parties
- Reduce Frequency by reducing the variety of things*
- Reduce Frequency further by caching
- Reduce Distance by delivering from edge
- NOTE: Here the emphasis is on the kind of variety reduction where the business value is not compromised.
In the next article in this series, we will show the energy consumption of a single online ad impression, the carbon emitted by it, based on the 8-Phase Framework for Approximating Energy Consumption of Online Advertising.
