Selecting advertisements from one or more databases for sending to a publisher

• US 10,679,246 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2017
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Hicken, Wendell, Melick, Joshua
• Primary Examiner(s): Retta, Yehdega
• Application Number:
  US15/648,658
• Publication Number:
  US 20170330227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements

Abstract

An advertising system determines the context of a user accessing a publication media (e.g., an online web site). The advertising system retrieves candidate advertisements from one or more databases based on the user'"'"'s context (e.g., a user search request). The advertising system selects particular advertisements and then sends them to the user (e.g. for display on the user'"'"'s terminal or device).

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

processing a user operating interface programmed at a publisher server thereby presenting on a user terminal, communicably connected to the publisher server, a graphical control object as a user advertisement request field configured for receiving a user advertisement request input, and generating and transmitting, by the user operating interface, a call to an application programming interface corresponding to the user advertisement request input to the graphical control object;

processing an advertisement platform, by a server system, the call originating from the application programming interface from the publisher server of a publisher, the call corresponding to the advertisement request;

responsive to processing the call, resolving from the call transmitted, with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, a set of parameters for the user advertisement request comprising i) a publisher code for the publisher and ii) user search data corresponding to a search request received by the publisher server, the user search data comprising a search term;

based at least in part on resolving the set of parameters to obtain the publisher code, retrieving with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, previously stored rules specified by the publisher and stored in a publisher account record configured on the server system by the processing advertisement platform, the retrieving previously stored rules comprising retrieving identifiers from a blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

determining with the processing advertisement platform a user context, by the server system, based at least in part on the user search data by identifying one or more of a user demographic category and a user location from key terms contained in the search request;

retrieving, with the processing advertisement platform at the server system, candidate advertisements from advertisement databases of the server system thereby assembling an advertisement candidate pool and storing the advertisement candidate pool at the server system, wherein the retrieving the candidate advertisements i) is at least partially based on the user context comprising the search term and ii) further comprises;

retrieving a first set of one or more advertisements from a first database of the advertisement databases according to a first method, the first set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a first advertisement pricing model;

retrieving a second set of one or more advertisements from a second database of the advertisement databases according to a second method, the second set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a second advertisement pricing model, the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements is based at least in part on i) a time corresponding to the retrieving and ii) hours of operation of businesses corresponding to the second set of one or more advertisements;

wherein;

the second method is different from the first method; and

each advertisement of the first set of one or more advertisements is different from each advertisement of the second set of one or more advertisements;

the retrieving the first set of one or more advertisements and the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements comprises filtering out one or more advertisements based at least in part on one or more of the business identifiers from the blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

selecting, by the server system, a third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool based at least in part on the first set of one or more advertisements and the second set of one or more advertisements;

determining, by the server system, a priority order for the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool at least partially based on the previously stored rules specified by the publisher and the first or second advertisement pricing model,

wherein;

the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool comprises a first advertisement from the first set of one or more advertisements from the first database and a second advertisement from the second set of one or more advertisements from the second database;

the priority order comprises a first priority level and a second priority level, wherein the first priority level is greater than the second priority level; and

the determining comprises;

assigning the first priority level to the first advertisement at least partially based on the first advertisement corresponding to the first advertisement pricing model; and

assigning the second priority level to the second advertisement at least partially based on the second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement pricing model; and

sending, to and displaying at the user terminal through the application interface and through the server system of the publisher with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, at least a graphical user interface element representative of the first advertisement and the second advertisement based at least in part on the priority order in reply to the call from the server ofthe publisher.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user search data further includes a search location, and the retrieving is further based on the search location.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising logging performance data regarding user interactions with the set of advertisements, adding the performance data to an historical performance database, and wherein the retrieving is further based on data in the historical performance database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the set of advertisements comprises scoring advertisements in the advertisement candidate pool according to a ranking function.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the selecting the set of advertisements comprises selecting the set of advertisements using weighted advertisement rotation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting the set of advertisements comprises sorting advertisements in the advertisement candidate pool into at least a first bucket and a second bucket, and the selecting further comprises associating the first bucket with a higher advertisement selection priority than the second bucket.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing an annotation to each advertisement in the set of advertisements for use in tracking the respective advertisement, and receiving tracking data corresponding to each respective advertisement.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one advertisement database comprises a first database and a second database, the first database storing subscription advertisements and the second database storing pay-per-call advertisements, wherein the subscription advertisements correspond to one of the first advertisement pricing model and the second advertisement pricing model, and the pay-per-call advertisements correspond to another of the of the first advertisement pricing model and the second advertisement pricing model.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first advertisement request is a request for a subscription advertisement from a first publisher, and the method further comprising receiving a second advertisement request for a pay-per-call advertisement from a second publisher, wherein the first and second requests are received using a common application programming interface supported by the data processing system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the user context comprises identifying a user as belonging to a demographic category, and wherein the retrieving is based on the demographic category.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the sending at least the first advertisement of the set of advertisements comprises sending the at least the first advertisement of set of advertisements to a publisher, and the method further comprising eliminating advertisement candidates from consideration for the advertisement candidate pool that are not in compliance with business rules provided by the publisher prior to the retrieving.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving, via the data processing system, advertisements from an advertiser, and storing the advertisements from the advertiser in the at least one database.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first advertisement request is received through an application programming interface, and the advertisements from the advertiser are received, via a data processing system of the publisher, through the application programming interface.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing thereon computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions causing a server system to perform a method, the method comprising:

processing a user operating interface programmed at a publisher server thereby presenting on a user terminal, communicably connected to the publisher server, a graphical control object as a user advertisement request field configured for receiving a user advertisement request input, and generating and transmitting, by the user operating interface, a call to an application programming interface corresponding to the user advertisement request input to the graphical control object;

processing an advertisement platform, by the server system, the call originating from the application programming interface from the publisher server of a publisher, the call corresponding to the advertisement request;

responsive to processing the call, resolving from the call transmitted, with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, a set of parameters for advertisement request comprising i) a publisher code for the publisher and ii) user search data corresponding to a search request received by the publisher server, the user search data comprising a search term;

based at least in part on resolving the set of parameters to obtain the publisher code, retrieving with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, previously stored rules specified by the publisher and stored in a publisher account record configured on the server system by the processing advertisement platform, the retrieving previously stored rules comprising retrieving identifiers from a blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

determining with the processing advertisement platform a user context, by the server system, based at least in part on the user search data by identifying one or more of a user demographic category and a user location from key terms contained in the search request;

retrieving, with the processing advertisement platform at the server system, candidate advertisements from advertisement databases of the server system thereby assembling an advertisement candidate pool and storing the advertisement candidate pool at the server system, the retrieving the candidate advertisements i) is based at least on the user context comprising the search term and ii) further comprises;

retrieving a first set of one or more advertisements from a first database of the advertisement databases according to a first method, the first set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a first advertisement pricing model;

retrieving a second set of one or more advertisements from a second database of the advertisement databases according to a second method, the second set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a second advertisement pricing model, the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements is based at least in part on i) a time corresponding to the retrieving and ii) hours of operation of businesses corresponding to the second set of one or more advertisements;

wherein;

the second method is different from the first method; and

each advertisement of the first set of one or more advertisements is different from each advertisement of the second set of one or more advertisements;

the retrieving the first set of one or more advertisements and the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements comprises filtering out one or more advertisements based at least in part on one or more of the business identifiers from the blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

selecting, by the server system, a third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool based at least in part on the first set of one or more advertisements and the second set of one or more advertisements;

determining, by the server system, a priority order for the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool at least partially based on the previously stored rules specified by the publisher and the first or second advertisement pricing model, wherein;

the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool comprises a first advertisement from the first set of one or more advertisements from the first database and a second advertisement from the second set of one or more advertisements from the second database;

the priority order comprises a first priority level and a second priority level, wherein the first priority level is greater than the second priority level; and

the determining comprises;

assigning the first priority level to the first advertisement at least partially based on the first advertisement corresponding to the first advertisement pricing model; and

assigning the second priority level to the second advertisement at least partially based on the second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement pricing model; and

sending, to and displaying at the user terminal through the application interface and through the server system of the publisher with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, at least a graphical user interface element representative of the first advertisement and the second advertisement based at least in part on the priority order in reply to the call from the server of the publisher.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the user search data further includes a search location, and the retrieving is further based on the search location.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein

the selecting the set of advertisements comprises sorting advertisements in the advertisement candidate pool into at least a first bucket and a second bucket,

the first bucket having a higher advertisement selection priority than the second bucket, and

the selecting further comprises selecting the set of advertisements using weighted advertisement rotation.

17. A server system comprising:

An advertisement database;

One or more servers coupled to access the memory, the one or more servers configured to;

process a user operating interface programmed at a publisher server to thereby present on a user terminal, communicably connected to the publisher server, a graphical control object as a user advertisement request field configured for receiving a user advertisement request input, and generating and transmitting, by the user operating interface, a call to an application programming interface corresponding to the user advertisement request input to the graphical control object;

process an advertisement platform, by a server system, the call originating from the application programming interface from the publisher server of a publisher, the call corresponding to the advertisement request;

responsive to processing the call, resolve from the call transmitted, with the processing advertisement platform a set of parameters for advertisement request comprising i) a publisher code for the publisher and ii) user search data corresponding to a search request received by the publisher server, the user search data comprising a search term;

based at least in part on resolving the set of parameters to obtain the publisher code, retrieve with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system, previously stored rules specified by the publisher and stored in a publisher account record configured on the server system by the processing advertisement platform, the retrieving previously stored rules comprising retrieving identifiers from a blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

determine with the processing advertisement platform a user context based at least in part on the user search data by identifying one or more of a user demographic category and a user location from key terms contained in the search request;

retrieve with the processing advertisement platform at the server system, candidate advertisements from at least two of the advertisement databases of the server system thereby assembling an advertisement candidate pool and storing the advertisement candidate pool at the server system, the retrieving the candidate advertisements i) is based at least on the user context comprising the search term and ii) further comprises;

retrieving a first set of one or more advertisements from a first database of the advertisement databases according to a first method, the first set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a first advertisement pricing model;

retrieving a second set of one or more advertisements from a second database of the advertisement databases according to a second method, the second set of one or more advertisements corresponding to a second advertisement pricing model, the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements is based at least in part on i) a time corresponding to the retrieving and ii) hours of operation of businesses corresponding to the second set of one or more advertisements;

wherein;

the second method is different from the first method; and

each advertisement of the first set of one or more advertisements is different from each advertisement of the second set of one or more advertisements;

the retrieving the first set of one or more advertisements and the retrieving the second set of one or more advertisements comprises filtering out one or more advertisements based at least in part on one or more of the business identifiers from the blacklist of competitors with respect to the publisher;

select a third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool based at least in part on the first set of one or more advertisements and the second set of one or more advertisements;

determine a priority order for the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool at least partially based on the previously stored rules specified by the publisher and the first or second advertisement pricing model, wherein;

the third set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool comprises a first advertisement from the first set of one or more advertisements from the first database and a second advertisement from the second set of one or more advertisements from the second database;

the priority order comprises a first priority level and a second priority level, wherein the first priority level is greater than the second priority level; and

the determining comprises;

assigning the first priority level to the first advertisement at least partially based on the first advertisement corresponding to the first advertisement pricing model; and

assigning the second priority level to the second advertisement at least partially based on the second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement pricing model; and

send, to and displaying at the user terminal through the application interface and through the server system of the publisher with the processing advertisement platform, by the server system at least a graphical user interface element representative of the first advertisement and the second advertisement based at least in part on the priority order in reply to the call from the server of the publisher.