Patent ID: 8296177

Claim:
A method of estimating a click-through rate for a bidded term at a bid amount by generating a standardized forecasting landscape for the bidded term in a single marketplace using data collected over at least one relevant period, said method comprising: for each of a plurality of ranks: calculating, by a server, a conditional expectation of the number of clicks given the rank; calculating, by the server, a probability distribution of the rank given at least one of a plurality of bidecpms; and multiplying the calculated conditional expectation of the number of clicks by the calculated probability distribution of the rank; generating a bid forecast based on said multiplying by: assigning at least one of the plurality of bidecpms a value associated with an expected number of clicks; generating the bid forecast given said assigned value by summing, over the plurality of ranks, the result of said multiplying; and determining an advertiser bid amount based on said bid forecast.