Targeting electronic advertising placement in accordance with an analysis of user inclination and affinity
First Claim
1. A method in a computing system for assessing, for a selected advertiser and each of a plurality of candidate advertising outlets, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, comprising, for each of the plurality of candidate advertising outlets:
- identifying a plurality of users that have visited the candidate advertising outlet;
counting the number of identified users that have also performed a selected set of actions relative to the selected advertiser; and
generating for the candidate advertising outlet a metric that compares the number of identified users to the number of counted users and constitutes a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A facility for selecting advertising outlets on which to place advertising messages for an advertiser is described. For each of a first group of advertising outlets, the facility assesses the rate at which visitors to the advertiser also visit the advertising outlet. The facility selects an advertising outlet among the first group having the highest assessed rate. For each of a second group of advertising outlets, the facility assesses the tendency of a high-performing advertising outlet to drive its visitors to the advertising outlet among the second group of advertising outlets. The facility selects an advertising outlet among the second group to which the high-performing advertising outlet has the greatest assessed tendency to drive its visitors.
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Citations
65 Claims
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1. A method in a computing system for assessing, for a selected advertiser and each of a plurality of candidate advertising outlets, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, comprising, for each of the plurality of candidate advertising outlets:
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identifying a plurality of users that have visited the candidate advertising outlet;
counting the number of identified users that have also performed a selected set of actions relative to the selected advertiser; and
generating for the candidate advertising outlet a metric that compares the number of identified users to the number of counted users and constitutes a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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17. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to assess, for a selected advertiser and each of a plurality of candidate web publishers, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate web publisher one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser by, for each of the plurality of candidate web publishers:
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identifying a plurality of users that have visited the web publisher;
counting the number of identified users that have also performed a selected set of actions at a web site operated for the selected advertiser; and
generating for the candidate advertising outlet a metric that compares the number of identified users to the number of counted users and constitutes a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate web publishers one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser.
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18. A user characterization method performed in a computing system, comprising:
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in response to user input, generating a specification of interactions that, when performed by a user on a subject web site, qualify the user as a member of a segment of the subject web site'"'"'s users; and
storing the generated specification for use in identifying users of the subject web site as members of the segment.
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32. A user characterization computing system, comprising:
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a specification generation subsystem that generates a specification of interactions in response to user input that, when performed by a user on a subject web site, qualify the user as a member of a segment of the subject web site'"'"'s users; and
a storage device on which the generated specification is stored for use in identifying users of the subject web site as members of the segment. - View Dependent Claims (33, 37, 38, 39)
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34. One or more computer memories collectively containing an activity specification data structure, comprising one or more indications of actions that must be performed relative to a subject web site in order to perform a selected activity,
such that the contents of the data structure may be compared to actions performed by a particular user to determine whether the user performed the activity with respect to the subject web site, and such that such determinations may be used to count the number of users performing the selected activity who also visited a selected advertising outlet.
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35. One or more computer memories collectively containing an advertising outlet inclination data structure, the data structure containing information indicating, for a selected advertiser having a web page and each of a plurality of candidate advertising outlets, the fraction of visitors to the candidate advertising outlet that also completed a selected sequence of actions relative to the selected advertiser web page,
such that the contents of the data structure may be used to select a candidate advertising outlet on which to place an advertising message for the selected advertiser.
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36. A method in a computing system for performing differential advertising for a selected advertiser having a web site, comprising, for each of a plurality of publishers:
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identifying a plurality of users that have visited the publisher;
establishing a first count of the number of identified users that have also performed a first set of actions relative to the web site of the selected advertiser, the first set of actions being typically performed by a first segment of users of the web site of the selected advertiser;
establishing a second count of the number of identified users that have also performed a second set of actions relative to the selected advertiser, the second set of actions being typically performed by a second segment of users of the web site of the selected advertiser;
generating for the publisher a first metric that compares the number of identified users to the first count of users and constitutes a measure of the desirability of placing with the publisher an advertising message for the selected advertiser intended for members of the first segment of users; and
generating for the publisher a second metric that compares the number of identified users to the second count of users and constitutes a measure of the desirability of placing with the publisher an advertising message for the selected advertiser intended for members of the second segment of users.
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40. A method in a computing system for assessing, for an advertiser and a selected candidate advertising outlet, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, comprising:
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identifying a set of consumers that have visited the candidate advertising outlet;
selecting consumers among the identified set of consumers to which the advertiser wishes to advertise; and
generating a measure of the usefulness of advertising at the selected candidate advertising outlet by comparing the number of selected consumers to the number of identified consumers. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A computing system for assessing, for an advertiser and a selected candidate advertising outlet, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, comprising:
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a customer identification subsystem that identifies a set of consumers that have visited the candidate advertising outlet;
a customer selection subsystem that selects consumers among the identified set of consumers to which the advertiser wishes to advertise; and
a rating subsystem that generates a measure of the usefulness of advertising at the selected candidate advertising outlet by comparing the number of selected consumers to the number of identified consumers.
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54. A method in a computing system for assessing, for an advertiser and a selected candidate advertising outlet, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, comprising:
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obtaining a first set of person identifiers corresponding to people previously reached by the selected candidate advertising outlet;
obtaining a second set of person identifiers corresponding to people among a target advertising audience for the advertiser; and
generating a measure of the usefulness of advertising at the selected candidate advertising outlet by determining the extent of overlap between the first and second set of person identifiers. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
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65. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing system to assess, for an advertiser and a selected candidate advertising outlet, a measure of the desirability of placing with the candidate advertising outlet one or more advertising messages for the selected advertiser, by:
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obtaining a first set of person identifiers corresponding to people previously reached by the selected candidate advertising outlet;
obtaining a second set of person identifiers corresponding to people among a target advertising audience for the advertiser; and
generating a measure of the usefulness of advertising at the selected candidate advertising outlet by determining the extent of overlap between the first and second set of person identifiers.
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Specification