System and method allowing advertisers to manage search listings in a pay for placement search system using grouping

• US 20060206508A1
• Filed: 05/08/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Overture Services Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zhao, Peng, Soulanille, Thomas A., Phillips, Susan Florence, Cheung, Dominic Dough-Ming, Snell, Scott W., Graham, Gabriel, Kharma, Kenneth A., Watkins, Benjamin James, Ropp, Matthew S., Daw, Jeremy, Colace, Ann-Bettina
• Granted Patent: US 7,698,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system for advertisers to efficiently manage their search listings in placement database search system includes grouping means for managing multiple categories for the search listings and query means for searching search listings. The system further includes quick-fill means for modifying an attribute in plurality of search listings by specifying the modification at single location.

Claims

1. A method for an advertising campaign management system, the method comprising:

storing account information for one or more advertisers;

in association with account information, storing data defining a plurality of advertisements associated with an advertiser, the data being linked together as an advertising group according to a grouping indication received from the advertiser; and

producing a display for a computer display device showing the account information along with the associated data for the advertising group when the account information is accessed by the advertiser.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein storing data comprises:

associating the data defining a plurality of advertisements for advertisements that are to be handled in a similar manner in the advertising campaign management system.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a grouping indication from an advertiser along with an indication of advertisements associated with the advertiser to which the grouping indication should apply.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving a grouping indication comprises receiving a category name entered by the advertiser in an input text box of a web page displayed to the advertiser.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein producing a display comprises:

producing a display showing a menu selector for actuation by the advertiser to switch between multiple accounts; and

producing a display showing details of each account upon actuation of the menu selector.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein producing a display showing details of each account comprises:

producing a display showing at least one of an account identifier, an account name, a product and a market.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

calculating performance metrics for the advertising group; and

producing a display showing a statistics view based on the calculated performance metrics.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

predicting future click traffic for the advertising group.

9. An advertising campaign management system comprising:

a database to store data defining advertisements, each advertisement being associated with a respective advertiser; and

an account management server configured to receive a grouping indication for one or advertisements from the respective advertiser associated with the one or more advertisements, the account management server further configured to use the grouping indication to temporarily group the one or more search listings as an advertising group for common processing by the advertising campaign management system, and to subsequently operate commonly on the advertising group in response to information received from the respective advertiser.

10. The advertising campaign management system of claim 9 wherein the grouping indication comprises a category name.

11. The advertising campaign management system of claim 9 wherein the account management server is further configured to modify an attribute of the advertising group in response to an advertiser-specified value of the attribute received at a single location of a user interface.

12. The advertising campaign management system of claim 9 wherein the account management server is further configured to calculate performance metrics for the advertising group and to produce a display showing a statistics view based on the calculated performance metrics.

13. The advertising campaign management system of claim 12 wherein the account management server is configured to produce the display showing the statistics view for a specified time frame.

14. The advertising campaign management system of claim 13 wherein the display includes one or more menu selectors to be actuated by the respective advertiser to specify the specified time frame.

15. A search listing management method for a database search system, the method comprising:

storing in a database data which define advertisements which are associated with advertisers having accounts on the database search system, each advertisement including a searchable component;

processing search queries to the database;

receiving a grouping indication from an advertiser linking one or more advertisements as an advertising group of the advertiser;

providing information about processed search queries for advertising groups, including

receiving time windowing information from the advertiser; and

providing information about access to search listings of the advertiser during a time window defined by the time windowing information.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein providing information comprises:

providing statistical information about one or more of

accessed advertising groups of the advertiser;

accessed uniform resource locators of the advertiser; and

categories of search listings of the advertiser.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein providing information comprises:

providing statistical information about one or more of

cost per click information for advertising groups of the advertiser; and

total click information for the advertising groups of the advertiser.