Infer As You Train: A Symmetric Paradigm of Masked Generative for Click-Through Rate Prediction

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Hauptverfasser: Zhang, Moyu, Jin, Yujun, Chen, Yun, Hu, Jinxin, Zhang, Yu, Zeng, Xiaoyi
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Zhang, Moyu
Jin, Yujun
Chen, Yun
Hu, Jinxin
Zhang, Yu
Zeng, Xiaoyi
author_facet Zhang, Moyu
Jin, Yujun
Chen, Yun
Hu, Jinxin
Zhang, Yu
Zeng, Xiaoyi
contents Generative models are increasingly being explored in click-through rate (CTR) prediction field to overcome the limitations of the conventional discriminative paradigm, which rely on a simple binary classification objective. However, existing generative models typically confine the generative paradigm to the training phase, primarily for representation learning. During online inference, they revert to a standard discriminative paradigm, failing to leverage their powerful generative capabilities to further improve prediction accuracy. This fundamental asymmetry between the training and inference phases prevents the generative paradigm from realizing its full potential. To address this limitation, we propose the Symmetric Masked Generative Paradigm for CTR prediction (SGCTR), a novel framework that establishes symmetry between the training and inference phases. Specifically, after acquiring generative capabilities by learning feature dependencies during training, SGCTR applies the generative capabilities during online inference to iteratively redefine the features of input samples, which mitigates the impact of noisy features and enhances prediction accuracy. Extensive experiments validate the superiority of SGCTR, demonstrating that applying the generative paradigm symmetrically across both training and inference significantly unlocks its power in CTR prediction.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_14403
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Infer As You Train: A Symmetric Paradigm of Masked Generative for Click-Through Rate Prediction
Zhang, Moyu
Jin, Yujun
Chen, Yun
Hu, Jinxin
Zhang, Yu
Zeng, Xiaoyi
Information Retrieval
Generative models are increasingly being explored in click-through rate (CTR) prediction field to overcome the limitations of the conventional discriminative paradigm, which rely on a simple binary classification objective. However, existing generative models typically confine the generative paradigm to the training phase, primarily for representation learning. During online inference, they revert to a standard discriminative paradigm, failing to leverage their powerful generative capabilities to further improve prediction accuracy. This fundamental asymmetry between the training and inference phases prevents the generative paradigm from realizing its full potential. To address this limitation, we propose the Symmetric Masked Generative Paradigm for CTR prediction (SGCTR), a novel framework that establishes symmetry between the training and inference phases. Specifically, after acquiring generative capabilities by learning feature dependencies during training, SGCTR applies the generative capabilities during online inference to iteratively redefine the features of input samples, which mitigates the impact of noisy features and enhances prediction accuracy. Extensive experiments validate the superiority of SGCTR, demonstrating that applying the generative paradigm symmetrically across both training and inference significantly unlocks its power in CTR prediction.
title Infer As You Train: A Symmetric Paradigm of Masked Generative for Click-Through Rate Prediction
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.14403