Patent ID: 7822745

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for generalizing one or more of an initial keyword set or an initial target audience profile for use in an online advertising campaign, comprising: receiving the initial keyword set and the initial target audience profile as input, the initial keyword set comprising a plurality of initial keywords, the initial target audience profile comprising an initial profile parameter value for each of a plurality of profile parameters; identifying a first population comprising a plurality of users each corresponding to the initial target audience profile; retrieving user data representing the first population of users and including both demographic data and online behavioral data for each of the users; processing the initial keyword set and the initial target audience profile with reference to the user data to determine relationships among the initial keyword set, the initial target audience profile, and the user data, wherein processing the initial keyword set and the initial target audience profile comprises constructing a generalization structure distinct from and representing at least some of the relationships among the initial keyword set, the initial target audience profile, and the user data, the generalization structure comprising a data structure having a plurality of nodes and connections between the nodes, each node representing one or more of the users, the connections between the nodes representing a degree of similarity between connected nodes, the degree of similarity being determined with reference to the demographic data and the online behavioral data associated with the users represented by the connected nodes, selected pairs of connected nodes having manipulable cost values associated therewith representing costs of propagating between the corresponding pairs of connected nodes, and wherein processing the initial keyword set and the initial target audience profile further comprises propagating among the nodes of the generalization structure with reference to the manipulable cost values to identify one or more of (1) additional keywords for inclusion in a generalized keyword set or (2) additional users corresponding to a generalized target audience profile; generating one or more of the generalized keyword set or the generalized target audience profile with reference to selected ones of the relationships among the initial keyword set, the initial target audience profile, and the user data, wherein the generalized keyword set represents a modification of the initial keyword set including at least some of the plurality of initial keywords and one or more of the additional keywords, and wherein the generalized target audience profile represents a modification of the initial target audience profile representing a second population of users including at least some of the first population of users and one or more of the additional users, the generalized target audience profile comprising modified profile parameter values for selected ones of the plurality of profile parameters.