Patent ID: 7778872

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for ordering and serving ads, each of the ads corresponding to an advertiser, the computer-implemented method comprising: a) accepting, with a computer system including at least one computer, an ad request, the ad request associated with (A) content of a document with which the ads are to be served, and (B) a category corresponding to content of a document with which the ads are to be served; b) determining, with the computer system, a plurality of candidate ads using information included in the ad request and targeting information associated with ads; c) accepting, with the computer system, price information for each of the plurality of candidate ads; d) accepting, with the computer system, performance information for each of the plurality of candidate ads; e) weighting, with the computer system, the performance information for each of the plurality of candidate ads; f) ordering, with the computer system, at least some of the plurality of candidate ads using both the price information and the weighted performance information, to generate a set of ordered ads; and g) serving the ordered set of ads to induce presentation of the ordered set of ads to a user.