Enhancing Ad Relevance: Integrating Real-Time Context into Sequential Recommender Models

1 · Pinterest · May 8, 2026, 7:35 p.m.
Summary
The blog post discusses a novel approach to improving ad relevance in digital advertising by integrating real-time context into sequential recommender models. The authors describe challenges with previous models that lacked online user behavior context and present a new Contextual Sequential Two Tower Model that enhances user embedding by merging real-time browsing data with historical user behavior. The results show significant improvements in ad relevance and conversion-related business metrics, with ongoing plans to extend the technique to further enhance contextual relevance.