Optimal control strategies for an advertisement viral diffusion

Abstract

The process of diffusing viral marketing campaigns through social networks can be modeled under concepts of mathematical epidemiology. Based on a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) epidemiological model, the benefits of optimal control theory on the diffusion of a real viral advertisement are studied. Two optimal control strategies that could help marketers to maximize the spread of information and minimize the costs associated to it in optimal time windows are analyzed and compared. The uniqueness of optimality system is proved. Numerical simulations show that high investment costs in publicity strategies do not imply high overall levels of information diffusion. This paper contributes to the current literature by studying a viral marketing campaign using real numerical data.