1. A system comprising: a third-party corpus database electronically storing various third-party content that are available to be incorporated into an electronic document, wherein the various third-party content are indexed in the third-party corpus database according to one or more parameters; a distributed computing system including a set of multiple computing devices that are interconnected and electronically access the third-party corpus database to evaluate the various third-party content, based at least in part on the one or more parameters, and transmit digital data corresponding to a set of the various third-party content to a user device, wherein: the digital data includes machine readable instructions that configure the user device to incorporate the set of various third-party content into a presentation of a given electronic document at the user device; the distributed computing system selects the set of various third-party content and formatting for the at least some of the various third-party content in the set based on multiple evaluation processes including performing: a first evaluation process that provides the distributed computing system with a separate cost-prominence relationship for each third-party content in the set, wherein performance of the first evaluation process by the distributed combing system includes performance of operations comprising: identifying, for each location among the various locations of the given electronic document, an aggregate performance of multiple different third-party content when presented in that location of the given electronic document; for each third-party content: determining a bid amount required for that third-party content to be presented in each of the various locations of the given electronic document; and fitting a cost-prominence curve to points each representing an intersection of the aggregate performance at one of the various locations of the given document and the bid amount required for that third-party content to be presented in that location of the given document; and a second evaluation process that identifies, independent of the cost-prominence relationship, a winning third-party content for each of one or more locations of the electronic document, including at least a first location; wherein: the digital data include instructions that present the winning third-party content at the user device according to a given format that is automatically selected by the distributed computing system based on the cost-prominence relationship of the first evaluation process.
1. A system comprising: a third-party corpus database electronically storing various third-party content that are available to be incorporated into an electronic document, wherein the various third-party content are indexed in the third-party corpus database according to one or more parameters; a distributed computing system including a set of multiple computing devices that are interconnected and electronically access the third-party corpus database to evaluate the various third-party content, based at least in part on the one or more parameters, and transmit digital data corresponding to a set of the various third-party content to a user device, wherein: the digital data includes machine readable instructions that configure the user device to incorporate the set of various third-party content into a presentation of a given electronic document at the user device; the distributed computing system selects the set of various third-party content and formatting for the at least some of the various third-party content in the set based on multiple evaluation processes including performing: a first evaluation process that provides the distributed computing system with a separate cost-prominence relationship for each third-party content in the set, wherein performance of the first evaluation process by the distributed combing system includes performance of operations comprising: identifying, for each location among the various locations of the given electronic document, an aggregate performance of multiple different third-party content when presented in that location of the given electronic document; for each third-party content: determining a bid amount required for that third-party content to be presented in each of the various locations of the given electronic document; and fitting a cost-prominence curve to points each representing an intersection of the aggregate performance at one of the various locations of the given document and the bid amount required for that third-party content to be presented in that location of the given document; and a second evaluation process that identifies, independent of the cost-prominence relationship, a winning third-party content for each of one or more locations of the electronic document, including at least a first location; wherein: the digital data include instructions that present the winning third-party content at the user device according to a given format that is automatically selected by the distributed computing system based on the cost-prominence relationship of the first evaluation process. 2. The system of claim 1 , wherein one of the computing devices in the distributed computing system is a server that is configured to segment the evaluation of the various third party content into multiple separate tasks that are respectively assigned to two or more other computing devices in the distributed computing system.