Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7680796?dq=No.+6,411,949&ei=AUR7T-LGJqSr0AHy2aSiBg
Timestamp: 2015-07-06 03:10:28
Document Index: 97858342

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 2006', 'Application No. 2004271567', 'Application No. 2004271567', 'Application No. 1144', 'Application No. 10', 'Application No. 2006']

Patent US7680796 - Determining and/or using location information in an ad system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsThe usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc. is determined (or simply accepted)...http://www.google.com/patents/US7680796?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7680796 - Determining and/or using location information in an ad systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7680796 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 10/654,265Publication dateMar 16, 2010Filing dateSep 3, 2003Priority dateSep 3, 2003Fee statusPaidAlso published asCN1864161A, US7668832, US8549033, US8560388, US8812359, US8818856, US20050050027, US20050050097, US20100131350, US20120109742, US20120109744, US20120116884, US20140316893Publication number10654265, 654265, US 7680796 B2, US 7680796B2, US-B2-7680796, US7680796 B2, US7680796B2InventorsLeslie Yeh, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Zhe QianOriginal AssigneeGoogle, Inc.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (31), Non-Patent Citations (24), Referenced by (37), Classifications (23), Legal Events (2) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetDetermining and/or using location information in an ad system
US 7680796 B2Abstract
The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc. is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information.
1. A computer-implemented method for determining a score of an ad with respect to each of a plurality of ad requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:
a) accepting, with an online ad serving system including at least one computer, each of the at least one computer including at least one processor, at least one storage device, at least one input interface and at least one output interface, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request;
b) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein geolocation-specific price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion, and wherein the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first the geolocation information accepted;
c) determining, using the online ad serving system, a score for the ad with respect to the first ad request using at least the geolocation-specific price information, wherein the general price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion;
d) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device in response to the first ad request, using the determined score of the ad;
e) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request;
f) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted;
g) determining, using the online ad serving system, a second score for the ad with respect to the second ad request using at least the general price information; and
h) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
3. A computer-implemented method for determining a score of an ad with respect to ad requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:
b) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad has geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the geolocation-specific performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted and a conversion rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted;
c) determining, with the online ad serving system, a score of the ad using at least the geolocation-specific performance information;
d) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score of the ad;
f) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad does not have geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted;
g) determining, with the online ad serving system, a second score of the ad using at least general performance information associated with the ad, wherein the general performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad and a conversion rate of the ad; and
h) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
5. A computer-implemented method for serving an ad for rendering on a client device in a network of computers, the computer-implemented method comprising:
a) accepting, with an online ad serving system including at least one computer, each of the at least one computer including at least one processor, at least one storage device, at least one input interface and at least one output interface, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request sourced from the client device;
b) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether an ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted;
c) serving, with the online ad serving system to the client device, the ad with the geolocation-specific creative information, wherein the ad being served with the geolocation-specific creative information is automatically created responsive to the request, using the geolocation information associated with the request;
d) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request;
e) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted; and
f) serving, with the online ad serving system, the ad with general creative information, wherein the ad being served with the general creative is automatically created, responsive to the second request, using the general creative information.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
7. An online ad serving system comprising:
b) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method including
1) accepting, with the online ad serving system, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request,
2) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein geolocation-specific price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion, and wherein the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first the geolocation information accepted,
3) determining, using the online ad serving system, a score for the ad with respect to the first ad request using at least the geolocation-specific price information, wherein the general price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion,
4) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device in response to the first ad request, using the determined score of the ad;
5) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request,
6) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted,
7) determining, using the online ad serving system, a second score for the ad with respect to the second ad request using at least the general price information, and
8) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.
8. The online ad serving system of claim 7 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
9. An online ad serving system comprising:
2) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad has geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the geolocation-specific performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted and a conversion rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted,
3) determining, with the online ad serving system, a score of the ad using at least the geolocation-specific performance information,
4) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score of the ad,
6) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad does not have geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted,
7) determining, with the online ad serving system, a second score of the ad using at least general performance information associated with the ad, wherein the general performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad and a conversion rate of the ad, and
8) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.
10. The online ad serving system of claim 9 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.
11. An online ad serving system comprising:
b) at least one client device on a network in communication with the at least one processor; and
c) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method including
1) accepting, with the online ad serving system, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request sourced from the client device,
2) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether an ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted,
3) serving, with the online ad serving system to the client device, the ad with the geolocation-specific creative information, wherein the ad being served with the geolocation-specific creative information is automatically created responsive to the request, using the geolocation information associated with the request,
4) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request,
5) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, and
6) serving, with the online ad serving system, the ad with general creative information, wherein the ad being served with the general creative is automatically created, responsive to the second request, using the general creative information.
12. The online ad serving system of claim 11 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code. Description
The present invention concerns advertising. In particular, the present invention concerns improving advertising using location information.
Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt to maximize the value of such advertising. In one strategy, advertisers use popular presences or means for providing interactive media or services (referred to as “Websites” in the specification without loss of generality) as conduits to reach a large audience. Using this first approach, an advertiser may place ads on the home page of the New York Times� Website, or the USA Today� Website, for example. In another strategy, an advertiser may attempt to target its ads to more narrow niche audiences, thereby increasing the likelihood of a positive response by the audience. For example, an agency promoting tourism in the Costa Rican rainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travel subdirectory of the Yahoo Website. An advertiser will normally determine such targeting manually.
Regardless of the strategy, Website-based ads (also referred to as “Web ads”) are often presented to their advertising audience in the form of “banner ads”—i.e., a rectangular box that includes graphic components. When a member of the advertising audience (referred to as a “viewer” or “user” in the Specification without loss of generality) selects one of these banner ads by clicking on it, embedded hypertext links typically direct the viewer to the advertiser's Website. This process, wherein the viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a “click-through” (“Click-through” is intended to cover any user selection.). The ratio of the number of click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed or otherwise rendered) is commonly referred to as the “click-through rate” or “CTR” of the ad.
The hosts of Websites on which the ads are presented (referred to as “Website hosts” or “ad consumers”) have the challenge of maximizing ad revenue without impairing their users'experience. Some Website hosts have chosen to place advertising revenues over the interests of users. One such Website is the OVERTURE� Website, “Overture.com,” which hosts a so-called “search engine” service returning advertisements masquerading as “search results” in response to user queries. The Overture.com Website permits advertisers to pay to position an ad for their Website (or a target Website) higher up on the list of purported search results. If such schemes where the advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the ad (i.e., cost-per-click) are implemented, the advertiser lacks incentive to target their ads effectively, since a poorly targeted ad will not be clicked and therefore will not require payment. Consequently, high cost-per-click ads show up near or at the top, but do not necessarily translate into real revenue for the ad publisher because viewers don't click on them. Furthermore, ads that viewers would click on are further down the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads is compromised.
Search engines, such as the Google™ search engine for example, have enabled advertisers to target their ads so that they will be rendered in conjunction with a search results page responsive to a query that is relevant, presumably, to the ad. Although search result pages afford advertisers a great opportunity to target their ads to a more receptive audience, search result pages are merely a fraction of page views of the World Wide Web.
Some online advertising systems may use ad relevance information and document content relevance information (e.g., concepts or topics, feature vectors, etc.) to “match” ads to (and/or to score ads with respect to) a document including content, such as a Web page for example.
The foregoing ad serving systems can be thought of as keyword-targeted systems (where ads are targeted using terms found in a search query) and content-targeted systems (where ads are targeted using content of a document). Although keyword-targeted and content-targeted ad systems have improved the usefulness of ads, and consequently their performance (e.g., in terms of click-through rate, conversion rate, etc.), there is still plenty of room for improvement. Such improvement can be expected with better targeting.
The Google keyword ad server allows advertisers to specify (e.g., for purposes of targeting) one or more countries in which their ad may be served. This permits ads to be served to particular users who presumably speak and understand a particular language. Unfortunately, however, many businesses have only a regional or local reach. For example, a restaurant may want to target ads only to potential customers within a 30 minute drive. A dry cleaner may want to target ads only to potential customers in the same town, and perhaps a few neighboring towns. As another example, a regional chain of drug stores may only want to target ads to potential customers living within their region. Even if such businesses have ads that are relevant to a search query or a Web page, if the end user viewing a search results Web page or the content of a Web page is outside the geographic reach of their business, the ads will not be very useful and will not perform well. If ads only generate revenue (e.g., for a content owner or ad system) when they perform well (e.g., if they are selected), such ads will generate little, if any, revenue.
Such businesses often advertise in local papers and the telephone book yellow pages. While such conduits for advertisements are useful, they are limited. Such businesses may also advertise on local Websites, but this requires the business to find local Websites, and to track and manage advertising on each of the Websites.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improving the usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements. In particular, there is a need to allow businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience.
The present invention improves the usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements. The present invention allows businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. The present invention may do so by determining and using location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc.
The present invention may also use location information in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information.
The present invention may also track ad performance information on the basis of location information.
The present invention may select or modify the content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page using location information. For example, location information may be inserted into an ad creative. As another example, different landing pages with different content can be used for different locations.
The present invention may also provide tools, such as user interfaces, to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information.
FIG. 3 is a bubble diagram illustrating various operations that may be performed, and various information that may be used and/or generated, by the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing an ad modification operation in a manner consistent with the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of performing user behavior feedback operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.
FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing ad information entry and/or management operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an exemplary apparatus that may perform various operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.
The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, message formats, and/or data structures for obtaining and using geolocation information in an ad system. The following description is presented to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in the context of particular applications and their requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles set forth below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown and the inventors regard their invention as any patentable subject matter described.
In the following, environments in which, or with which, the present invention may operate are described in � 4.1. Then, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in � 4.2. Finally, some conclusions regarding the present invention are set forth in � 4.3.
The ad server 120 may be similar to the one described in FIG. 2 of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900 (incorporated herein by reference), entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS BASED ON CONTENT,” filed on Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson, Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik, Deepak Jindal, and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors. An advertising program may include information concerning accounts, campaigns, creatives, targeting, etc. The term “account” relates to information for a given advertiser (e.g., a unique e-mail address, a password, billing information, etc.). A “campaign” or “ad campaign” refers to one or more groups of one or more advertisements, and may include a start date, an end date, budget information, geo-targeting information, syndication information, etc. For example, Honda may have one advertising campaign for its automotive line, and a separate advertising campaign for its motorcycle line. The campaign for its automotive line have one or more ad groups, each containing one or more ads. Each ad group may include targeting information (e.g., a set of keywords, a set of one or more topics, etc.), and price information (e.g., maximum cost (cost per click-though, cost per conversion, etc.)). Alternatively, or in addition, each ad group may include an average cost (e.g., average cost per click-through, average cost per conversion, etc.). Therefore, a single maximum cost and/or a single average cost may be associated with one or more keywords, and/or topics. As stated, each ad group may have one or more ads or “creatives” (That is, ad content that is ultimately rendered to an end user.). Each ad may also include a link to a URL (e.g., a landing Web page, such as the home page of an advertiser, or a Web page associated with a particular product or server). Consistent with the present invention, the ad information may include geolocation targeting information, geolocation performance information, and/or geolocation price information Naturally, the ad information may include more or less information, and may be organized in a number of different ways.
FIG. 2 illustrates an environment 200 in which the present invention may be used. A user device (also referred to as a “client” or “client device”) 250 may include a browser facility (such as the Internet Explorer� browser from Microsoft, the Opera� Web Browser from Opera Software of Norway, the Netscape Navigator� browser from AOL/Time Warner, etc.), an e-mail facility (e.g., Outlook� from Microsoft), etc. A search engine 220 may permit user devices 250 to search collections of documents (e.g., Web pages). A content server 210 may permit user devices 250 to access documents. An email server (such as Hotmail� from Microsoft Network, Yahoo Mail, etc.) 240 may be used to provide e-mail functionality to user devices 250. An ad server 210 may be used to serve ads to user devices 250. The ads may be served in association with search results provided by the search engine 220. However, content-relevant ads may be served in association with content provided by the content server 230, and/or e-mail supported by the e-mail server 240 and/or user device e-mail facilities.
As discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900 (introduced above), ads may be targeted to documents served by content servers. Thus, one example of an ad consumer 130 is a general content server 230 that receives requests for documents (e.g., articles, discussion threads, music, video, graphics, search results, Web page listings, etc.), and retrieves the requested document in response to, or otherwise services, the request. The content server may submit a request for ads to the ad server 120/210. Such an ad request may include a number of ads desired. The ad request may also include document request information. This information may include the document itself (e.g., page), a category or topic corresponding to the content of the document or the document request (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies, arts-music, etc.), part or all of the document request, content age, content type (e.g., text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.), geo-location information, document information, etc. Consistent with the present invention, the request may also include geolocation information, such as location information about an end user that submitted a search query.
The content server 230 may combine the requested document with one or more of the advertisements provided by the ad server 120/210. This combined information including the document content and advertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the end user device 250 that requested the document, for presentation to the user. Finally, the content server 230 may transmit information about the ads and how, when, and/or where (such as geolocation information) the ads are to be rendered (e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the ad server 120/210. Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided back to the ad server 120/210 by some other means. Consistent with the present invention, the ad server 120/210 may store ad performance information on the basis of geolocation information.
The search engine 220 may submit a request for ads to the ad server 120/210. The request may include a number of ads desired. This number may depend on the search results, the amount of screen or page space occupied by the search results, the size and shape of the ads, etc. In one embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from one to ten, and preferably from three to five. The request for ads may also include the query (as entered or parsed), information based on the query (such as geolocation information, whether the query came from an affiliate and an identifier of such an affiliate), and/or information associated with, or based on, the search results. Such information may include, for example, identifiers related to the search results (e.g., document identifiers or “docIDs”), scores related to the search results (e.g., information retrieval (“IR”) scores such as dot products of feature vectors corresponding to a query and a document, Page Rank scores, and/or combinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores), snippets of text extracted from identified documents (e.g., Web pages), full text of identified documents, topics of identified documents, feature vectors of identified documents, etc. Consistent with the present invention, the request may also include geolocation information, such as location information about an end user that submitted a search query.
Finally, the search engine 220 may transmit information about the ad and when, where (e.g., geolocation), and/or how the ad was to be rendered (e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the ad server 120/210. Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided back to the ad server 120/210 by some other means. Consistent with the present invention, the ad server 120/210 may store ad performance information on the basis of geolocation information.
FIG. 3 is a bubble diagram illustrating various operations that may be performed by the present invention, and various information that may be used and/or generated by the present invention. An ad selection operation 310 may be used to generate a set of ads 340 using ad information 330 and request information 320. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the set of ads 340 may include ads relevant to the request information 320. For example, if the request information 320 is associated with a search query, the ads 340 may be relevant to terms of the search query. Alternatively, if the request information 320 is associated with a document to be served, the ads 340 may be relevant to content of the document. In any event, the request information 320 may include geolocation information. For example, the request information 320 may include geolocation of an end user that submitted a search query or document request (or some other entity, such as a cable head end, a network access point, etc., associated with the request), or information from which such geolocation information can be derived. Exemplary data structures that may be used to store request information 320 and ad information 330 are described in � 4.2.1 below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the ad selection operation 310 are described in � 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 6.
Still referring to FIG. 3, a scoring operation 350 may be used to generate a set 360 of ads and associated scores using the first set 340 of ads and ad information 330. The scoring operation 350 may consider geolocation information, such as geolocation performance information, and/or geolocation price information for example, of the ads. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the scoring operation 350 are described in � 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 7.
Ad modification operations 370 may be used to generate a set 380 of ads with location specific creative content, and/or a location specific landing page from the set 360 of ads. Although not shown, the ad modification operations 370 may use geolocation information. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the ad modification operations 370 are described in � 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 8.
The ad information 330 may include geolocation-based performance information. Such information may be provided, and/or tracked by user behavior feedback operations 390. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the user behavior feedback operations are described in � 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 9.
Finally, the ad information 330 may include geolocation targeting, and/or geolocation price information. This information may be entered and/or modified by advertisers, or their representatives via ad information entry and/or management operations 335. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform these operations 335 are described in � 4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 10.
The present invention need not provide, and/or use all of the operations and information described with reference to FIG. 3. The present invention need not perform the operations in the order shown. Finally, the present invention may combine, or separate functionality described with respect to the various operations. For example, the selection and scoring operations 310 and 350 may be combined into a single operation.
FIG. 4 illustrates exemplary ad request information 320′ that is consistent with the present invention. The ad request information 320′ may include information such as that described in � 4.1.1 above. Further, the ad request information may include end user (or some other entity, simply referred to as “end user” in the specification) geolocation information, or information from which end user geolocation can be derived or estimated. For example, the end user geolocation information may include one or more of a country, a region (e.g., pacific coast, north-east, mid-Atlantic, south-west, etc.), a state, a metro area (e.g., San Francisco Bay Area, Metro District of Columbia Area, etc.), a city, a town, a postal zip code, a telephone area code, etc.
The present invention may be used to derive or estimate geolocation information from other information. For example, the present invention may use known techniques (such as that used by the “NetAcuity” product from Digital Envoy of Norcross, Ga.) to map Internet protocol (“IP”) address and/or domain information to geolocation information. As another example, Internet service providers may have many dial-in access servers, each associated with a telephone area code. As yet another example, an end user's location might be inferred from a regional term (e.g., hoagie, hero, grinder, sub) entered by the user. If multiple factors are used to infer geolocation, but lead to inconsistent locations, each without a desired level of confidence, a more general, consistent location, can be used. Alternatively, the present invention may simply accept previously derived or provided geolocation information. For example, the end user, or a client device used by the end user, may have voluntarily provided geolocation information. As another example, the geolocation information may have been derived and provided by a third party.
FIG. 5 illustrates exemplary ad information 330′ that is consistent with the present invention. The ad information 330′ may include information such as that described in � 4.1.1 above. For example, the ad information 330′ may include a unique ad identifier, ad creative content (or a pointer to such creative content), and/or a landing page link, etc. Further, the exemplary ad information 330′ may include at least one of geolocation targeting information and geolocation price information. Geolocation performance information (not shown) may be tracked and associated with the ad.
Geolocation targeting information may include one or more countries, one or more regions, one or more states, one or more metro areas, one or more cities, one or more towns, one or more postal zip codes, and/or one or more telephone area codes, etc. Thus, for example, a business selling irrigation systems can target its ads to the states California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, while a business selling snow blowers can target its ads to states, such as Maine and Minnesota for example, with relatively significant snowfall. A dry cleaner can target its ads to the town in which it is located, as well as neighboring towns, and/or various postal zip codes, and/or various telephone area codes. A professional sports team can target ads for tickets and/or merchandise to a metro area. A national shipping company can target its ads to a country.
Geolocation price information may include price information for each of one or more countries, one or more regions, one or more states, one or more metro areas, one or more cities, one or more towns, one or more postal zip codes, and/or one or more telephone area codes, etc. The price information should correspond to the geolocation targeting information.
In one embodiment of the present invention, geolocation targeting information can be inferred from geolocation price information. For example, if an advertiser submits a maximum bid per impression of $1.50 for the geolocation DC metro, it may be assumed that the advertiser wants to target its ads to end users in the DC metro area. Similarly, if the advertiser submits a bid per impression of $0.00 for a given state, it may be assumed that the advertiser wants to avoid serving its ads to end users in the state. For example, if a car insurance provider is licensed to provide insurance in all states except for New Jersey, and is not as interested in writing less profitable policies in Florida, it can provide the following geolocation price information:
United States: $1.00/impression; New Jersey: $0.00/impression; and Florida: $0.15/impression.
As will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7 below, a scoring operation 350 may weigh more specific geolocation price information more than less specific geolocation price information.
FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 310′ for performing a ad selection operation 310 in a manner consistent with the present invention Request information and ad information is accepted. (Block 610) The request information may include, among other things, end user geolocation information. The advertising information may include, among other things, geolocation targeting information. As indicated by loop 620-640, an act is performed for each of one or more ads. More specifically, a relevancy measure of the ad is determined using at least geolocation information associated with the request information and geolocation targeting information associated with the ad. (Block 630) After each of the one or more ads have been processed, the method 310′ is left. (Node 650)
The relevancy of the ad may be determined using keyword targeting information associated with the ad, ad relevance information associated with the ad, etc. In any event, the relevancy of the ad may be determined using, at least, geolocation information of the request and the ad. The more specific the geolocation information that matches, the more relevant, at least in terms of location, the ad is. Thus, for example, if an end user submitted a search query from San Diego, assuming all other relevancy factors are equal, an ad with geotargeting for San Diego may be more relevant than an ad with geotargeting for California, which may be more relevant for an ad with geotargeting for the West Coast, which may be more relevant for an ad with geotargeting for the United States.
Naturally, geolocation targeting may be just one of a number of relevancy factors. For example, ad relevancy may also consider (a) a comparison of ad relevancy information to the content of a document requested, (b) ad keyword targeting with respect to terms of a search query, (c) user demographic information, (d) user behavior information, (e) time/date/season targeting information, etc.
FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 350′ for performing a scoring operation 350 in a manner consistent with the present invention. The second score may be used to determine a relative presentation attribute (e.g., size, position, color, volume, etc.) of the ad. Ad information of candidate ads is accepted. (Block 710) As indicated by loop 720-740, an act is performed for each of one or more ads. More specifically, an ad score is determined using at least one of price information, geolocation price information (if available), performance information, and geolocation performance information (if available). (Block 730) Once all of the candidate ads are processed, the method 350′ is left. (Node 750)
There are a number of ways to determine an ad score consistent with block 730. A few exemplary ways are described below. If an ad system wants to maximize revenue, it may determine a score by multiplying a price per performance value by the performance of the ad. For example, it may determine cost per click*click-through rate, or cost per conversion*conversion rate. Prices may be discounted or adjusted. The present invention can advantageously use geolocation information, if available, to improve a revenue estimate. For example, suppose the end user to which the ad will be directed is located in San Diego. Suppose further that the following otherwise equally relevant ads have the associated information shown:
Ad A: max cost per click=$0.25;
max cost per click=$1.00 in San Diego; CTR=0.02 in United States; CTR=0.04 in California; CTR=0.20 in San Diego. Ad B: max cost per click=$0.50;
max cost per click=$2.00 in Florida; CTR=0.07 in United States; CTR=0.02 in California; CTR=0.02 in San Diego.
Without geolocation scoring, a simple product score for ad A would be 0.0050 (=0.25*0.02), while that for ad B would be 0.0350 (=0.50*0.07). With geolocation scoring, a simple product score for ad A would be 0.20 (=1.00*0.20), while that for ad B would be 0.01 (=0.50*0.02). Thus, without geolocation information, ad B would score higher than ad A, but with geolocation information ad A would score higher than ad B. For example, ad A may be for a restaurant in San Diego, while ad B might be for a pool construction company with a large presence in Florida. By using geolocation information, the present invention may advantageously serve ad A with some preference over ad B since it may normally be more useful for an end user in San Diego.
In one embodiment of the present invention, if more specific geolocation price information is not available, more general geolocation price information may be used in the determination of a score. Similarly, if more specific geolocation performance information is not available, more general geolocation performance information may be used. Thus, for example, an ad with only geolocation price and performance information for California may compete with an ad with geolocation price and performance information for Sacramento when serving an ad request with Sacramento geolocation information.
FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 370′ for performing an ad modification operation 370 in a manner consistent with the present invention. Ad information and/or request geolocation information is accepted. (Block 810) Request geolocation information may be provided in the creative content of the ad, and/or the ad may be provided with geolocation-dependent content (e.g., one of a number of candidate ad marketing messages may be selected using geolocation information). (Block 820) Alternatively, or in addition, request geolocation information may be provided in the content of a landing page, and/or geolocation-dependent content may be provided in the ad landing page (e.g., one of a number of candidate landing pages may be selected using geolocation information). (Block 830)
Referring back to block 820, the content of an ad creative may be modified by modifying text or by selecting one of a number of candidate texts. For example, assume that an ad request indicated that the end user is in Tampa Fla., and assume that an ad for a Honda Car Dealer was targeted to Tampa Fla. The normal ad creative may read, “Attention Car Buyers . . . Best Prices on Accords . . . Hundreds in Stock.” The modified ad creative may read, “Attention Tampa Car Buyers . . . Best Prices on Accords in Tampa.” The geolocation information may simply be added to, or replace a portion of, the ad creative. The geolocation information may be used to select a number of candidate ad creatives.
Referring back to block 830, the one of a plurality of ad landing pages may be selected based on geolocation information. For example, if the geolocation information of the request indicates that the end user is local, a retailer may have a landing page emphasizing the message “Visit our Local Showroom to see the latest merchandize.” If, on the other hand, the geolocation information of the request indicates that the end user is remote, a retailer may have a landing page emphasizing “Best Prices on the Web. Free Shipping through the end of July.”
Alternative or in addition to generating creative content targeted towards a specific location (e.g., “Find this at Office Depot on San Antonio Road/El Camino”), advertisement attributes may be determined using location information. For example, pricing can be determined using “local” competition, local demographics (e.g. income by zip code), or local buying habits. Prices and/or products may be specific to a location (e.g. a query for “NYC” yields an ad “Fly to JFK from SFO for $199”).
Thus, by using geolocation information, the present invention can be used to adapt a marketing message to the location of an end user to perceive the ad.
FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 390′ for performing user behavior feedback operation 390 in a manner consistent with the present invention. Recall from scoring operation 350 that geolocation specific performance information may be used in determining a score for an ad. The method 390′ of FIG. 9 is one way to track such information. Each time an ad is served, this event may be identified by a unique process identifier (e.g., ad server IP address, a date and a time of day). The process identifier may be associated with any geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad, or geolocation information of the relevant request. The ad may be served with its process identifier. (Block 910) As indicated by event block 920, different branches of the method 390′ may be performed in response to different events. For example, if user behavior information is received, the received user behavior information is associated with the process identifier (and therefore the geolocation information, if any, used when originally serving the ad) (Block 930) before the method 390′ branches back to event block 920. If a condition for updating performance information is met (e.g., the receipt of performance information, the receipt of a certain amount of performance information, a time expiration since the last update, an absolute time/date, etc), the ad performance information is updated considering geolocation targeting information, or geolocation request information associated with the ad serving process (Block 940), before the method 390′ branches back to event block 920.
Thus, the method 390′ can be used to track ad performance information accounting for geolocation information that may have been used when serving the ad. Various alternative ways of associating geolocation information with performance information are possible.
FIG. 10 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 335′ of performing ad information entry and/or management operations in a manner consistent with the present invention. Recall from FIG. 5 that ad information 330′ may include one or more of geolocation targeting information and geolocation price information. The method 330′ accepts authorized and/or authenticated user input. (Block 1010) As indicated by event block 1020, various branches of the method 335′ may be performed in response to various input types. If the user inputs geolocation price information, geolocation price information is added or updated. (Block 1030) Associated geolocation targeting information may also be populated or revised in accordance with the price information. (Block 1040) For example, if a user enters a maximum price per click of $0.80 for California, and if the ad does not include geolocation targeting for California, such information may be added. If the user later changes this maximum price per click for California to $0.00, the geolocation targeting for California may be turned off or removed. Referring back to block 1020, if the user inputs geolocation targeting information, the geolocation targeting information is added or updated. (Block 1050) Associated geolocation price information may be requested (Block 1060) but need not be provided.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the advertiser user interface can be location specific.
In one embodiment of the present invention, advertisers may be limited in the number and/or combination of types of geolocation information entered.
Other features of the advertiser user interface may be provided to make entering and/or managing advertising information more convenient. For example, if any advertiser has an existing campaign, but wants to add a geolocation targeted campaign, bulk importing support may be provided so that the advertiser does not need to re-enter common advertising information. Help features may be used to suggest additional geolocation information (more of the same type, more specific, more general, etc.) in response to entered geolocation information. For example, if the advertiser enters a postal zip code, they may be provided with one or more towns, regions, etc.
FIG. 11 is high-level block diagram of a machine 1100 that may perform one or more of the operations discussed above. The machine 1100 basically includes one or more processors 1110, one or more input/output interface units 1130, one or more storage devices 1120, and one or more system buses and/or networks 1140 for facilitating the communication of information among the coupled elements. One or more input devices 1132 and one or more output devices 1134 may be coupled with the one or more input/output interfaces 1130.
� 4.2.4 Alternatives
Different geolocation information may have different scope, and some geolocation information may contain other geolocation information. Generally, for purposes of determining ad relevancy, a match of more specific geolocation information (e.g., town) may be weighted more heavily than a match of less specific geolocation information (e.g., country). Generally, for purposes of ad scoring, the most specific geolocation price and/or performance information that matches will be used. That is, if an ad has price and performance information for both San Diego and California, if the request geolocation information indicates an end user in San Diego, the San Diego price and performance information will be used. If on the other hand, the request geolocation information indicates an end user in Sacramento, the California price and performance information will be used. If the request geolocation information indicates an end user in Omaha, Nebr., neither will be used.
There are many different ways to score ads. Some examples include (a) using a distance between a presence of the advertiser and the end user, (b) using a local availability of an item sought by the end user, (c) using an advertiser attributes (e.g. a location of the advertiser's closest retail outlet), etc. Ads can be ordered and/or priced using language criteria (e.g., query/display language, information derived about user or advertiser's language such as location of user in Japantown).
In view of the foregoing, the present invention allows more relevant ads to be served by using location information.
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