System and method to merge pay-for-performance advertising models

• US 20060184417A1
• Filed: 03/09/2005
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: YellowPages.com LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Van der Linden, Sean, Halstead, Mark Arthur Buchler
• Granted Patent: US 9,202,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.460
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for merging different types of pay for performance advertisements. In one embodiment, a method includes: determining an indicator of potential revenue for a party from price information of a list of entities, which includes first price information for a first type of advertisements and second price information for a second type of advertisements; and sorting the list of entities based at least partially on the indicator of potential revenue. In one embodiment, a method includes: converting price information for an advertisement of a first type to equivalent price information for a second type of advertisements. In one embodiment, a method includes: determining automatically, based on a call bid amount for a pay per call advertisement, a click bid amount for a pay per click advertisement to provide a phone number of the pay per call advertisement.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining an indicator of potential revenue for a first party from price information of a list of entities, the price information including first price information for a first type of advertisements and second price information for a second type of advertisements; and

sorting the list of entities into a first list based at least partially on the indicator of potential revenue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second types of advertisements are different ones of a group consisting:

pay per click advertisements;

pay per call advertisements;

pay per video view advertisements; and

paid call service listings.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting the first list in a media channel, the first list including one or more advertisements of the first type interwoven with one or more advertisements of the second type.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the media channel is one from a group consisting:

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server;

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) server; and

Short Message Service (SMS) based server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting advertisements of the list of entities according to the first list in a media channel.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the price information is for the advertisements of the list of entities.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the indicator of potential revenue is partially determined based on likelihood of measurable and chargeable events resulting from the advertisements of the list of entities.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein advertisements of the first type are based on pay per call;

and advertisements of the second type are based on pay per click; and

the measurable and chargeable events include;

calls for the first type of advertisements; and

clicks for the second type of advertisements.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein likelihood of measurable and chargeable events for advertisements of the first type are based on call-through rate;

and likelihood of measurable and chargeable events for advertisements of the second type are based on click-through rate.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the call-through rate and the click-through rate are for one advertisement content category;

and advertisements for the list of entities belong to the advertisement content category.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the call-through rate and the click-through rate are for individual advertisements.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting one or more from the first list for presentation to a user in response to a search request from the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the price information is for services or goods.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the price information comprises at least one from

a group consisting:

a price for a product;

a price for a service; and

a price for an advertisement to sell a product or a service.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of potential revenue is in terms of price information for advertisements of the first type.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of potential revenue is in terms of price information for advertisements of the first type;

and the second price information for the second type of advertisements is converted to equivalent price information for advertisements of the first type.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second price information is converted to the equivalent price information according to a conversion factor between price information for the first type of advertisements and the second type of advertisements.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the conversion factor is based on a ratio of performance conversion rates between the first and second types of advertisements.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the conversion factor is manually specified.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of potential revenue is further based on costs for the first and second types of advertisements.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator of potential revenue is further based on revenue sharing between the first party and one or more second parties.

22. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed perform a method, comprising:

determining an indicator of potential revenue for a first party from price information of a list of entities, the price information including first price information for a first type of advertisements and second price information for a second type of advertisements; and

sorting the list of entities into a first list based at least partially on the indicator of potential revenue.

23. A data processing system, comprising:

means for determining an indicator of potential revenue for a first party from price information of a list of entities, the price information including first price information for a first type of advertisements and second price information for a second type of advertisements; and

means for sorting the list of entities into a first list based at least partially on the indicator of potential revenue.

24. A method, comprising:

determining automatically a click bid amount for a first pay per click advertisement, the first advertisement to provide a phone number of a second pay per call advertisement, the click bid amount to be determined based on a call bid amount for the second advertisement.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

determining whether or not the click bid amount is less expensive than the call bid amount to reach end users.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

submitting automatically the click bid amount for the first pay per click advertisement when the click bid amount is less expensive than the call bid amount to reach end users.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein said determining whether or not the click bid amount is less expensive than the call bid amount to reach end users comprises:

determining an indicator of potential revenue from the first and second advertisements for a first party based on the click bid amount and the call bid amount.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein said determining whether or not the click bid amount is less expensive than the call bid amount to reach end users is based on comparing ranking of the first advertisement at the click bid amount and the second advertisement at the call bid amount, wherein the advertisements are ranked according to an indicator of potential revenue for a first party.

29. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed perform a method, comprising:

determining automatically a click bid amount for a first pay per click advertisement, the first advertisement to provide a phone number of a second pay per call advertisement, the click bid amount to be determined based on a call bid amount for the second advertisement.

30. A data processing system, comprising:

means for determining automatically a click bid amount for a first pay per click advertisement, the first advertisement to provide a phone number of a second pay per call advertisement, the click bid amount to be determined based on a call bid amount for the second advertisement.

31. A method, comprising:

converting first price information for an advertisement of a first type to equivalent price information for a second type of advertisements.

32. The method of claim 31, where the first and second types are different ones of pay per call and pay per click.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the first price information is converted to the equivalent price information according to a conversion factor between price information for the first type of advertisements of an advertisement content category and price information for the second type of advertisements of the advertisement content category.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first and second types of advertisement are paid for performance;

the first and second types of advertisement are based on different performance measurements; and

the conversion factor is based on a ratio of performance conversion rates between the first and second types of advertisements.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the ratio of performance conversion rates is determined for a specific ordinal position or a specific aggregated ordinal position in advertisement presentation and for a specific category of advertisements.

36. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed perform a method, comprising:

converting first price information for an advertisement of a first type to equivalent price information for a second type of advertisements.

37. A data processing system, comprising:

means for converting first price information for an advertisement of a first type to equivalent price information for a second type of advertisements.