Patent ID: 8538809

Claim:
A method for pricing on-line advertisement inventory, comprising: at an advertisement server, receiving a request for a price of a new product, wherein the new product includes a plurality of specified characteristics of a type of on-line advertisement display, wherein the plurality of specified characteristics of the new product include one or more specified targeting parameters of the new product, at least a portion of the specified targeting parameters indicating characteristics of users that are to receive impressions that are to be delivered for the new product; at the advertisement server, predicting a sample of new impressions that are to be delivered for such new product based, at least in part, upon the specified targeting parameters of the new product; for each predicted new impression, determining at the advertisement server which bookings, specifying a booked product with specified on-line advertisement characteristics, could be served by such new impression so as to define a set of overlapping bookings; determining the price of each new impression, wherein determining the price of each new impression is based, at least in part, on a booked price for each overlapping booking for the new impression, a number of booked impressions for each overlapping booking, and a number of eligible impressions that can be served for each overlapping booking; determining the price of the new product based on an average of the prices of the new impressions; and returning from the advertisement server the price of the new product for use in a booking negotiation with a potential buyer of such new impression.