Patent Document ID: 20090210288
Application ID: 12034616
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. 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 a conditional expectation of the number of clicks given the rank; calculating 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; said method further comprising: summing, over the plurality of ranks, the result of said multiplying, wherein the at least one of the plurality of bidecpms is assigned a value associated with an expected number of clicks; wherein an advertiser uses the result of said summing to determine an amount the advertiser is willing to bid.