Patent ID: 8706550

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for selecting a content item to be provided, the method comprising: receiving, by a connection to a communication network, a content request to select at least one content item among multiple content items for presentation of the content item to a user; receiving, by a connection to a communication network, content item performance data that reflects historic performance of a content item for multiple presentations of the content item; receiving, by a connection to a communication network, signal data corresponding to at least one signal that is temporally correlated with the content request and that is external to the user, to a publisher of the content item, and to each content provider of the multiple content items; determining based on one or more correlations between the content item performance data and the signal data, an influence value for the at least one signal with regard to the content item, using a processor executing instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium; modifying, using the processor executing instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium, a content item prediction model based on the influence value; selecting, using the processor executing instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium, the content item among the multiple content items using the modified content item prediction model; and providing, by a connection to a communication network, the content item in response to the content request.