Patent ID: 7778874
Filing Date: 2010-08-17
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing an electronic marketplace that provides functionality for users to list items for sale and to view and make purchases from listings created by other users; storing, in an electronic data repository associated with the electronic marketplace, seller's account information for a seller's account established with the electronic marketplace by a business, said seller's account information comprising information supplied by the business about said business, wherein the electronic marketplace is configured to enable the business to use the seller's account to sell items; detecting that a user computer that has made a request for a web page is associated with said seller's account, said web page being part of a web site that is external to the electronic marketplace, said association between the user computer and the seller's account detected using a browser cookie received from said user computer; automatically causing the web page to be supplemented with a selectable ad solicitation object, said ad solicitation object including, or being displayed in conjunction with, a display of an identifier of said business, said identifier determined based on the detected association between the user computer and the seller's account; and in response to user selection of the ad solicitation object, as displayed on the user computer as part of said web page, automatically causing the user computer to display an ad campaign generation form which is at least partially pre-populated with information for creating an online ad campaign for said business, said information comprising at least a portion of said seller's account information supplied by said business, said ad campaign generation form including an element which is selectable to submit the form to a server system to cause said ad campaign to be created; wherein the method is performed automatically via execution of program instructions by one or more computing devices of said server system.