Displaying paid search listings in proportion to advertiser spending

• US 20030220918A1
• Filed: 03/31/2003
• Published: 11/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Singh, Narinder Pal, Roy, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,454,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

In a pay for placement database search system, in which advertisers pay to include their search listings in a database to be provided with search results in response to queries from searchers, each advertiser decides how much money he wants to spend on a search term. The search provider displays the advertisers'"'"' listings in proportion to the amount of money the respective advertisers spend. This permits the advertisers to subscribe to the database search system, deciding how much to pay for a subscription for a predetermined time period. The search provider can recommend an optimal spend amount for the advertisers.

Claims

1. A business method for a database search system in which seachers submit search queries to a database and receive search listings including at least some advertiser-sponsored search listings, the business method comprising:

selling to respective advertisers a specified quantity of searcher engagements for a specified price; and

subsequently, providing search listings of respective advertisers in response to search queries and in proportion to the respective advertisers'"'"' specified quantity of searcher engagements.

2. The business method of claim 1 wherein selling a specified quantity of searcher engagements comprises:

selling searcher impressions of the respective advertisers'"'"' search listings.

3. The business method of claim 1 wherein selling a specified quantity of searcher engagements comprises:

selling searcher clickthroughs of the respective advertisers'"'"' search listings.

4. The business method of claim 1 wherein selling a specified quantity of searcher engagements comprises:

selling post-clickthrough searcher actions at web site of the respective advertiser after clickthrough of respective advertiser'"'"'s search listing.

5. The business method of claim 1 wherein selling a specified quantity of searcher engagements comprises:

selling one of searcher impressions and clickthroughs of the respective advertisers'"'"' search listings for a predetermined time period.

6. The business method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a search request;

determining for each respective advertiser a respective discrepancy value related to a respective number of searcher engagements received and a respective number of searcher engagements the each respective advertiser should have received; and

returning search listings according to the determined discrepancy value.

7. The business method of claim 1 wherein selling a specified quantity of searcher engagements comprises:

determining at least one of

a cost per click for a respective advertiser, and

an estimated number of clicks for the respective advertiser.

8. The business method of claim 7 further comprising:

determining clickthrough rate for respective advertiser based on historical data for the market.

9. The business method of claim 8 wherein determining clickthrough rate comprises:

estimating the clickthrough rate as a ratio of a number of clicks a search listing of the respective advertiser has received to the number of impressions the search listing has received.

10. The business method of claim 1 further comprising:

recommending to respective advertisers an optimal advertising spend; and

allocating the advertiser advertising spend among different markets.

11. A computer readable storage medium storing computer readable computer code configured to implement a method for a database search system in which seachers submit search queries to a database and receive search listings including at least some advertiser-sponsored search listings, the computer readable computer code comprising:

first computer readable code for offering to respective advertisers a specified quantity of searcher engagements for a specified price, the searcher engagements including at least one of searcher impressions and searcher clickthroughs; and

second computer readable code for providing search listings of respective advertisers in response to subsequently received search queries and in proportion to the respective advertisers'"'"' specified quantity of searcher engagements.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising:

third program code for determining a cost per clickthrough for a respective advertiser; and

fourth program code for determining an estimated number of clickthroughs deliverable to the respective advertiser.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the third computer program code is configured to determine the cost per clickthrough as a function of an estimated total advertising sale and an estimated clickthrough rate for the respective advertiser.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 further comprising fifth computer program code configured to determine the clickthrough rate and the estimated total advertising sale based on historical data for a market.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein the fourth computer program code is configured to determine the estimated number of clickthroughs as a function of the ratio of the respective advertiser'"'"'s advertising spend to an estimated total advertising sale.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11 further comprising:

third program code for optimizing a respective advertiser'"'"'s advertising spend based on the advertiser'"'"'s total advertising budget, the advertiser'"'"'s profit per clickthrough and an external rate of return.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising:

fourth computer program code for determining a budget scale factor for the respective advertiser.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein in the fourth computer program is configured to:

first solve for all zero constraints and traffic constraints;

determine a number of free spaces on a page of search results to be provided in response to a search query not taken up by advertisers at a traffic limit and a number of advertisers not currently at a zero limit or a traffic limit; and

solving a system of equations to determine the respective advertiser'"'"'s budget constraint.

19. An apparatus operating over a computer network for generating a result list in response to a keyword entered by a user through a remote input device, the apparatus comprising a computer system connected to the computer network and having stored thereon:

a database containing a plurality of listings, where each listing is associated with an advertiser;

programming code for generating a result list in response to a user entering a keyword, the result list including listings having an associated keyword generating a match with the keyword entered by the user; and

programming code for managing advertiser subscriptions, including accepting advertiser subscription orders specifying a number of user engagements, maintaining advertiser subscription accounts and adjusting a respective advertiser'"'"'s subscription account when an advertiser listing is included in a generated search list

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the computer system stores the number of user engagements in response to compensation provided by a respective advertiser.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the computer system determines an estimated number of clickthroughs to be provided in return for the compensation provided by the respective advertiser, the estimated number of clickthroughs being related to a ratio of the compensation provided by the respective advertiser to total compensation provided by all advertisers.

22. A subscription method for a pay or placement database search system, the method comprising:

offering advertisers a specified number of searcher engagements at a specified cost;

initiating subscription accounts with one or more subscribing advertisers;

receiving search requests from searchers;

in response to the search requests, providing search results including search listings of subscribing advertisers; and

adjusting the subscription accounts of the subscribing advertisers in response to providing the search results.

23. The subscription method of claim 22 further comprising:

recommending an optimal advertiser spend amount to a respective advertiser based on at least one of the respective advertiser'"'"'s advertising budget, profit per clickthrough and an external rate of return.

24. The subscription method of claim 23 further comprising:

determining a budget scale factor for the respective advertiser to limit spending of the advertiser across a plurality of markets.