Loss Harmonizing for Multi-Scenario CTR Prediction

Congcong Liu, Liang Shi, Pei Wang, Fei Teng, Xue Jiang, Changping Peng, Zhangang Lin, Jingping Shao

Abstract: Large-scale industrial systems often include multiple scenarios to satisfy diverse user needs. The common approach of using one model per scenario does not scale well and not suitable for minor scenarios with limited samples. An solution is to train a model on all scenarios, which can introduce domination and bias from the main scenario. MMoE-like structures have been proposed for multi-scenario prediction, but they do not explicitly address the issue of gradient unbalancing. This work proposes an adaptive loss harmonizing (ALH) algorithm for multi-scenario CTR prediction. It dynamically adjusts the learning speed for balanced training and improved performance. Experiments on real industrial datasets and rigorous A/B testing prove our method’s superiority.