Workshops Digital Media Quantum Optimisation for Programmatic Advertising

Digital Media Full Day Workshop

Quantum Optimisation for Programmatic Advertising and Media Buying

A technical workshop for media agency data scientists and publisher yield teams assessing quantum and quantum-inspired optimisation for real-time bidding, budget allocation, and cross-channel attribution problems.

Full day (6 hours + Q&A)

In person or online

Max 30 delegates

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Workshop Description

Programmatic advertising operates under extreme latency constraints. Real-time bidding auctions close in under 100 milliseconds. Budget allocation across thousands of campaigns requires solving large combinatorial optimisation problems multiple times per day. Media mix modelling involves non-convex objective functions with hundreds of variables and interaction effects. These are the problem structures where quantum optimisation is proposed to offer advantage over classical solvers.

This workshop works through the specific formulations: expressing ad allocation as a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO) problem, mapping real-time bid strategy to quantum annealing, and structuring media mix models for variational quantum eigensolvers. For each formulation, we examine the published benchmark-specific performance comparisons, assess the gap between current NISQ hardware capabilities and production ad-tech requirements, and identify where quantum-inspired classical solvers (simulated annealing, tensor network methods) deliver near-term value. Participants leave with a structured assessment of which advertising optimisation problems have tractable quantum formulations and a realistic timeline for commercial deployment.

What participants cover

QUBO formulations for advertising allocation: mapping campaign budget distribution, frequency capping, and audience targeting constraints to binary optimisation
Quantum annealing for real-time bidding: D-Wave problem encoding, chain strength tuning, and latency constraints versus 100ms auction deadlines
Media mix modelling as combinatorial optimisation: QAOA circuit design for non-convex marketing attribution with cross-channel interaction effects
NISQ hardware honest assessment: current qubit counts, connectivity, and gate fidelities versus the variable counts in production programmatic campaigns
Quantum-inspired classical solvers (simulated annealing, tensor networks, digital annealing) that deliver near-term optimisation gains without quantum hardware
Vendor claim evaluation: structured methodology for assessing quantum optimisation proposals against classical OR solver baselines on your own campaign data

Preliminary Agenda

Full-day session structure with scheduled breaks. Content is configurable to your ad-tech stack, campaign scale, and optimisation infrastructure.

#	Session	Topics
1	Programmatic Advertising Optimisation Landscape Where quantum approaches enter the ad-tech pipeline
2	QUBO Formulations for Ad Allocation Expressing campaign optimisation as binary quadratic problems	Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO): encoding budget allocation, frequency caps, and audience overlap constraints as binary variables with penalty terms Problem scaling: typical programmatic campaigns involve 10,000-100,000 binary variables; current D-Wave Advantage systems support ~5,000 qubits with Pegasus connectivity Minor embedding overhead: mapping dense ad allocation QUBO graphs to sparse hardware topologies requires chain lengths that degrade solution quality
Break, after 50 min
3	Quantum Annealing for Real-Time Bidding D-Wave and quantum-inspired approaches to bid optimisation	Annealing schedule design for bid strategy: chain strength, anneal time, and reverse annealing for bid price refinement Latency constraint analysis: D-Wave cloud API round-trip is 50-200ms; RTB auctions close in under 100ms; hybrid strategies using pre-computed quantum solutions Published benchmarks: D-Wave performance on combinatorial auction problems versus classical CPLEX and Gurobi at comparable problem sizes
4	Interactive Demonstration Facilitator-led QUBO formulation and solver comparison	Live demonstration: encoding a sample campaign budget allocation problem as QUBO and solving on D-Wave versus classical simulated annealing Interpreting solution quality: time-to-solution, optimality gap, and constraint violation rates across solver types Discussion: identifying which of your optimisation problems have tractable QUBO formulations versus where classical solvers remain superior
Break, after 60 min
5	Media Mix Modelling and Attribution Variational approaches to non-convex marketing optimisation	QAOA circuit design for media mix models: encoding channel interaction effects and diminishing returns as cost Hamiltonians Cross-channel attribution as a combinatorial assignment problem: quantum versus classical approaches to multi-touch credit allocation Quantum-inspired classical methods: tensor network contraction and simulated bifurcation for production marketing mix modelling
6	Readiness Assessment and Timeline NISQ limitations and commercial deployment horizon	Current hardware versus production requirements: qubit count, connectivity, and coherence time gaps for ad-tech scale problems Fault-tolerant timeline: estimated 2030-2035 for quantum optimisation at commercially relevant campaign variable counts Near-term investment strategy: quantum-inspired solvers, hybrid quantum-classical pipelines, and proof-of-concept programme design
7	Q&A and Roadmap Discussion

Designed and Delivered By

Workshops are designed and delivered by QSECDEF in collaboration with sector specialists. All facilitators have direct experience in both quantum technologies and digital media systems.

QSECDEF brings world-leading expertise in post-quantum cryptography, quantum computing strategy, and defence-grade security assessment. Our advisory membership spans 600+ organisations and 1,200+ professionals working at the intersection of quantum technologies and critical infrastructure security.

Digital Media workshops are co-delivered with sector specialists who bring direct operational experience in programmatic advertising operations, yield optimisation, and ad-tech platform engineering. This ensures workshop content is grounded in the latency, throughput, and scale requirements of production media buying.

Commission This Workshop

Sessions are configured around your programmatic stack, campaign data, and optimisation objectives. Get in touch to discuss requirements and schedule a date.

Quantum technologies are evolving quickly and new developments emerge regularly. This page was last updated on 15/03/2026. For the most current information about course content and suitability for your organisation, we recommend contacting us directly.

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