Automated web ranking bid management account system

• US 20040107137A1
• Filed: 07/21/2003
• Published: 06/03/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Christopher J. Skinner
• Original Assignee: Christopher J. Skinner
• Inventors: Skinner, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,363,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automated web ranking system. The system monitors online marketing media (“OMM”), such as search engines, portals, affiliate programs, and other websites displaying advertiser listings or banner advertisements to determine the effectiveness of an online marketing campaign. The system is able to track online and telephonic orders or sales to a particular marketing campaign. Based on the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign, the system can automatically place bids for positioning of an advertiser'"'"'s listing on a pay-per-click search engine or make a determination as to whether or not to turn on a banner advertisement at set cost

Claims

1. An automated method for web ranking of bids, comprising the steps of:

tracking Internet user activity generated to an Online Marketing Media(OMM) and an advertiser'"'"'s website when an Internet user conducting a web-based search on the OMM enters at least one search term relating to a service or product of the advertiser;

acquiring data relating to the Internet user activity;

sorting said data to remove duplicate information;

compiling a master data set from said data wherein data values are arranged according to time of Internet user activity and a designated primary key;

determining sufficiency of data based on specified conditions;

calculating an acceptable new maximum bid for said search term;

determining whether said maximum bid is a justified expense for the advertiser in light of profit determining factors;

determining whether to maintain, modify, or remove a bid for a search term;

retrieving information on competitor'"'"'s bids;

identifying desired ranking;

preparing an insertion order with an appropriate bid for achieving the desired ranking; and

automatically uploading the insertion order to the OMM.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein Internet user activity generated to an OMM and an advertiser'"'"'s website is tracked by the OMM, the advertiser'"'"'s website, and a tracking engine.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said tracking engine tracks the Internet user'"'"'s activity by assigning a tracking URL having a keycode embedded therein that identifies the OMM and a search term which was used by the Internet user to access the advertiser'"'"'s listing.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said primary key comprises the keycode used in the tracking URL.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

providing the advertiser'"'"'s web site with content management system software displaying a plurality of web pages containing unique advertisements, each advertisement having a unique telephone number published therein;

assigning a keycode to each telephone call received at the telephone numbers published in the advertisements, the keycode identifying the telephone number uniquely associated with the advertisement;

recording data regarding receipt of each said telephone call and purchase orders resulting therefrom in said master data set.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said recording step is performed automatically by call center software.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of acquiring data relating to Internet user activity includes sending GET requests at specified time intervals to the OMM, the tracking engine, and the advertiser'"'"'s web site.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a database of a plurality of search terms relating to the advertiser'"'"'s service or product.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data set contains a designated threshold value of visits and actions taken by the user on the advertiser'"'"'s website for fulfilling said specified conditions for data sufficiency.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said profit determining factors comprise an expected return on advertising spend (ROAS) value, a minimum acceptable return on advertising spend (ROAS) value, a maximum return on advertising spend (ROAS) value, a computational linguistics value of the search term, and the new maximum acceptable bid value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of identifying desired ranking includes identifying the highest competitor bid which falls below the new maximum acceptable bid value.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of preparing insertion order with appropriate bid for achieving the desired ranking includes entering a bid that is a minimal value above the highest competitor bid which falls below the new maximum acceptable bid value.

13. A computerized method for managing online banner advertising, comprising the steps of:

tracking Internet user activity generated to an OMM and an advertiser'"'"'s website when an Internet user clicks on a banner advertisement published on an Online Marketing Media (OMM) web site;

acquiring data relating to the Internet user activity;

sorting said data to remove duplicate information;

compiling a master data set from said data wherein data values are arranged according to time of Internet user activity and a designated primary key;

determining sufficiency of data based on specified conditions;

computing a return on advertising spent for the published advertisement;

comparing the return on advertising spent to a predetermined limit; and

automatically sending a notice of cancellation of the advertisement to the OMM when the return on advertising spent is less than the predetermined limit.