MetaCVR: Conversion Rate Prediction via Meta Learning in Small-Scale Recommendation Scenarios

TL;DR

MetaCVR introduces a meta-learning based approach to improve conversion rate prediction in small-scale recommendation scenarios by addressing data distribution fluctuations and uncertainty.

Contribution

The paper presents the first CVR prediction method specifically designed to handle data distribution fluctuation in small-scale scenarios using meta learning techniques.

Findings

MetaCVR outperforms existing models on real-world datasets.

Achieves 11.92% improvement in PCVR and 8.64% in GMV during online A/B testing.

Effectively mitigates distribution discrepancy in small-scale recommendation settings.

Abstract

Different from large-scale platforms such as Taobao and Amazon, CVR modeling in small-scale recommendation scenarios is more challenging due to the severe Data Distribution Fluctuation (DDF) issue. DDF prevents existing CVR models from being effective since 1) several months of data are needed to train CVR models sufficiently in small scenarios, leading to considerable distribution discrepancy between training and online serving; and 2) e-commerce promotions have significant impacts on small scenarios, leading to distribution uncertainty of the upcoming time period. In this work, we propose a novel CVR method named MetaCVR from a perspective of meta learning to address the DDF issue. Firstly, a base CVR model which consists of a Feature Representation Network (FRN) and output layers is designed and trained sufficiently with samples across months. Then we treat time periods with different data distributions as different occasions and obtain positive and negative prototypes for each occasion using the corresponding samples and the pre-trained FRN. Subsequently, a Distance Metric Network (DMN) is devised to calculate the distance metrics between each sample and all prototypes to facilitate mitigating the distribution uncertainty. At last, we develop an Ensemble Prediction Network (EPN) which incorporates the output of FRN and DMN to make the final CVR prediction. In this stage, we freeze the FRN and train the DMN and EPN with samples from recent time period, therefore effectively easing the distribution discrepancy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of CVR prediction targeting the DDF issue in small-scale recommendation scenarios. Experimental results on real-world datasets validate the superiority of our MetaCVR and online A/B test also shows our model achieves impressive gains of 11.92% on PCVR and 8.64% on GMV.