Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8560493B2/en
Timestamp: 2019-06-18 03:06:06
Document Index: 195515668

Matched Legal Cases: ['§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', '§4', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 04', 'Application No. 2006', 'Application No. 04']

US8560493B2 - Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system - Google Patents
Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system Download PDF
US8560493B2
US8560493B2 US10/676,369 US67636903A US8560493B2 US 8560493 B2 US8560493 B2 US 8560493B2 US 67636903 A US67636903 A US 67636903A US 8560493 B2 US8560493 B2 US 8560493B2
US10/676,369
US20050076014A1 (en
2003-10-01 Application filed by Google LLC filed Critical Google LLC
2003-10-01 Priority to US10/676,369 priority Critical patent/US8560493B2/en
2005-04-07 Publication of US20050076014A1 publication Critical patent/US20050076014A1/en
2006-01-13 Assigned to GOOGLE, INC. reassignment GOOGLE, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: AGARWAL, SUMIT, KONINGSTEIN, ROSS
2013-10-15 Publication of US8560493B2 publication Critical patent/US8560493B2/en
The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing advertisers to better target their ads to a responsive audience. For example, end user local time information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, end user local time information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such end user local time information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such end user local time information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of end user local time information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using end user local time information.
Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armed with demographic and entirely reasonable assumptions about the typical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize that much of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficult to identify and eliminate such waste.
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, end user local time 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 may 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 service). Consistent with the present invention, the ad information may include end user local time targeting information, end user local time performance information, and/or end user local time price information. Naturally, the ad information may include more or less information, and may be organized in a number of different ways.
§4.1.2 Definitions “End user local time information” may include one or more of: at least one local time-of-day; at least one local time-of-day range; at least one local date; at least one local day-of-week; at least one local date range; at least one local day-of-week range; at least one local season; etc.
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 end user local time information. For example, the request information 320 may include the local time of an end user that submitted a search query or document request (or the local time at some other entity, such as a cable head end, a network access point, etc., associated with the request), or information from which such end user local time information can be derived (e.g., IP address of a requester device, IP address from HTTP request, request language, country designated by domain, portal, etc.). For example, end user local time information can be derived from end user geolocation information. Assumptions about end user local time can be made using population densities of various time zones. 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 operations 310 in a manner consistent with the present invention 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 operations 350 in a manner consistent with the present invention may consider end user local time information, such as end user local time performance information, and/or end user local time price information for example, of the ads. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the scoring operations 350 in a manner consistent with the present invention 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 end user local time specific creative content, and/or an end user local time specific landing page from the set 360 of ads. Although not shown, the ad modification operations 370 may use end user local time information. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform the ad modification operations 370 in a manner consistent with the present invention are described in §4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 8.
The ad information 330 may include end user local time-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 390 in a manner consistent with the present invention are described in §4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 9.
Finally, the ad information 330 may include end user local time targeting, and/or end user local time price information. This information may be entered and/or modified by advertisers, or their representatives (simply referred to as “advertisers” without loss of generality) via ad information entry and/or management operations 335. Exemplary methods that may be used to perform these operations 335 in a manner consistent with the present invention are described in §4.2.2 below with reference to FIG. 10.
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) local time information, or information from which end user local time information can be derived or estimated. For example, the end user local time information may include one or more of a local time-of-day, a local day-of-week, a local date, a local month, a local season, etc.
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 end user local time targeting information and end user local time price information. End user local time performance information (not shown) may be tracked and associated with the ad.
A visual representation of a time-slot (or time-range) and target matrix with entries of price information, such as the matrix described in §4.2.1 above, may be used to provide visual feedback to advertisers. The visual representation may include color coding. Such visual feedback may help advertisers to avoid any contention regarding time-slots (or time ranges) for a given target. Even if simple rules are used to specify price information, providing such a visual representation may be useful to the advertiser.
receiving a request and information indicative of a local time in a time zone from which the request was sent;
accessing, in response to the request, a first mapping of (i) one or more first time ranges, to (ii) one or more prices to be paid for display of an advertisement;
determining, from the one or more first time ranges in the first mapping, a particular first time range that comprises the local time;
identifying, from the one or more prices in the first mapping, a particular price that is mapped to the particular first time range;
accessing a second mapping of (i) one or more second time ranges, to (ii) one or more estimated performance metrics for the advertisement;
determining, from the one or more second time ranges in the second mapping, a particular second time range that comprises the local time;
identifying, from the one or more estimated performance metrics in the second mapping, a particular estimated performance metric that is mapped to the particular second time range; and
determining, at least partly based on the particular price and the particular estimated performance metric, a score for the advertisement.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the local time comprises at least one of (a) at least one local time-of-day, (b) at least one local time-of-day range, (c) at least one local date, (d) at least one local day-of-week, (e) at least one local date range, (f) at least one local day-of-week range, and (g) at least one local season.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the score comprises a numerical value.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is sent from a system that is external to the one or more processing devices; and
wherein the time zone comprises a time zone of the system.
the local time comprises a first local time;
the time zone comprises a first time zone;
the particular price comprises a first particular price;
the score comprises a first score;
the advertisement comprises a first advertisement;
receiving a second request and information indicative of a second local time in a second time zone from which the second request was sent, wherein the first time zone differs from the second time zone, and wherein the first local time and the second local time comprise a same time when the second local time is converted to a time in the first time zone;
determining, from the one or more first time ranges in the first mapping, a third particular time range that comprises the second local time;
identifying, from the one or more prices in the first mapping, a second particular price that is mapped to the third particular time range;
determining, at least partly based on the second particular price for the first advertisement, a second score for the first advertisement;
identifying, in a third mapping based on the second local time, a third price for a second advertisement;
determining, at least partly based on the third price for the second advertisement, a third score for the second advertisement, with the third score having an increased value relative to the second score; and
selecting, at least partly based on the second score and the third score, the second advertisement for display in the second time zone, with the second advertisement being different from the first advertisement.
a computer-readable medium configured to store instructions that when executed by the one or more processing devices perform operations comprising:
determining, from the one or more second time ranges in the second mapping, a particular second time range that comprises the local time
7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the local time comprises at least one of (a) at least one local time-of-day, (b) at least one local time-of-day range, (c) at least one local date, (d) at least one local day-of-week, (e) at least one local date range, (f) at least one local day-of-week range, and (g) at least one local season.
8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the score comprises a numerical value.
9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the request is sent from a system that is external to the one or more processing devices; and
identifying, in a second third mapping based on the second local time, a third price for a advertisement;
11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to store instructions that when executed by one or more processing devices perform operations comprising:
wherein the local time comprises at least one of (a) at least one local time-of-day, (b) at least one local time-of-day range, (c) at least one local date, (d) at least one local day-of-week, (e) at least one local date range, (f) at least one local day-of-week range, and (g) at least one local season.
wherein the score comprises a numerical value.
wherein the request is sent from a system that is external to the one or more processing devices; and
the advertisement comprises a first advertisement; and
US10/676,369 2003-10-01 2003-10-01 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system Active 2028-05-03 US8560493B2 (en)
US10/676,369 US8560493B2 (en) 2003-10-01 2003-10-01 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
EP04789113A EP1676252A4 (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
BRPI0415037A BRPI0415037B1 (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 determination and / or use of local time information from the end user in an ad system
KR1020067008573A KR20060080243A (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
PCT/US2004/031707 WO2005034064A2 (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
AU2004279071A AU2004279071B2 (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
CA2540821A CA2540821C (en) 2003-10-01 2004-09-27 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
AU2009201373A AU2009201373B2 (en) 2003-10-01 2009-04-08 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
US20050076014A1 US20050076014A1 (en) 2005-04-07
US8560493B2 true US8560493B2 (en) 2013-10-15
US10/676,369 Active 2028-05-03 US8560493B2 (en) 2003-10-01 2003-10-01 Determining and/or using end user local time information in an ad system
AU (2) AU2004279071B2 (en)
BR (1) BRPI0415037B1 (en)
WO (1) WO2005034064A2 (en)
2003-10-01 US US10/676,369 patent/US8560493B2/en active Active
2004-09-27 WO PCT/US2004/031707 patent/WO2005034064A2/en active Application Filing
2004-09-27 KR KR1020067008573A patent/KR20060080243A/en active Search and Examination
2004-09-27 EP EP04789113A patent/EP1676252A4/en not_active Withdrawn
2004-09-27 AU AU2004279071A patent/AU2004279071B2/en active Active
2004-09-27 JP JP2006534004A patent/JP2007507752A/en active Pending
2004-09-27 CA CA2540821A patent/CA2540821C/en active Active
2004-09-27 CN CN 200480033746 patent/CN1926564A/en not_active Application Discontinuation
2004-09-27 BR BRPI0415037A patent/BRPI0415037B1/en active IP Right Grant
2009-04-08 AU AU2009201373A patent/AU2009201373B2/en active Active
Canadian Office Action in Canadian Application No. 2,540,821, dated Mar. 26, 2013, 4 pages.
Communication from counterpart European Application No. 04 789 113.0-1238, dated Jan. 26, 2011.
English translation of Examination Report mailed Mar. 31, 2009, for corresponding Japanese Application No. 2006-534004.
EPO Form 1503, "Supplementary European Search Report" for European Patent Application No. 04 78 9113.0, mailed Jan. 16, 2007 (1 pg.).
EPO Form 1507.4, "Communication" for European Patent Application No. E04 78 9113.0, mailed Jan. 16, 2007 (1 pg.).
EPO Form P0459, "Annex to the European Search Report on European Patent Application No. EP 04 78 9113", mailed Jan. 16, 2007 (1 pg.).
EP1676252A2 (en) 2006-07-05
EP1676252A4 (en) 2007-02-14
JP2007507752A (en) 2007-03-29
WO2005034064A3 (en) 2006-08-10
CA2540821A1 (en) 2005-04-14
AU2009201373A1 (en) 2009-04-30
CN1926564A (en) 2007-03-07
BRPI0415037A (en) 2006-12-12
CA2540821C (en) 2014-12-09
WO2005034064A2 (en) 2005-04-14
AU2004279071B2 (en) 2009-01-08
AU2004279071A1 (en) 2005-04-14
KR20060080243A (en) 2006-07-07
BRPI0415037B1 (en) 2017-03-28
AU2009201373B2 (en) 2011-11-24
US20050076014A1 (en) 2005-04-07