Patent Document ID: 8712832
Application ID: 11609782

Base Claim:
1. A computer-implemented method of allocating an advertising budget among a fixed set of keywords, each keyword having a bid, a bid intensity, and a utility associated therewith, the method comprising: raising the bid intensities associated with selected ones of the keywords using one or more computing devices such that the advertising budget is not exceeded, the selected keywords having the highest utilities among the fixed set of keywords; and when the bid intensities associated with the selected keywords reach maximum values, raising the bids associated with first ones of the selected keywords using the one or more computing devices such that the advertising budget is not exceeded, the first selected keywords having the highest utilities among the selected keywords.

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Claim 3:
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising initially setting the bid associated with each keyword at a minimum bid which guarantees appearance of a link for the associated keyword among sponsored search links associated with search results.