System and method for providing scalability in an advertising delivery system

• US 20070027770A1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Collins, Robert, Apodaca, Paul, Harvester, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,836,752 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.710
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions

Abstract

A method comprises providing a first set of geographically distributed pods for storing account information on a first set of advertisements associated with web properties associated with a first set of geographically distributed users; enabling the first set of users to update the account information on the first set of pods, each user being associated with at least one advertisement and a particular pod that is not the most distant pod from the user; recognizing that the first set of pods cannot satisfy a user demand threshold; coupling an additional pod for storing additional account information on a second set of advertisements for a second set of users; enabling the second set of users to update the additional account information, the additional pod being not the most distant pod from the second set of users; receiving a content request; and identifying a particular advertisement based on the content request.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

users coupled to a network and disposed in various geographic locations, each user being associated with at least one advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement;

original pods coupled to the network and geographically distributed, the original pods for storing account information on a first set of the advertisements associated with a first set of the users; and

an additional pod coupled to the network after the original pods, the additional pod for storing additional account information on a second set of the advertisements associated with a second set of users, each user being associated with a given one of the original pods or the additional pod, the given pod being not the most geographically distant pod from the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the users include at least one of advertisers and agencies.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the account information includes a master account for each user, each master account being associated with multiple sub-accounts, each sub-account being associated with at least one web property.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each sub-account includes multiple ad groups, each ad group being associated with at least one advertisement and advertisement parameter indicating when to provide the advertisement.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the ad group includes a bid amount and rank information associated with each advertisement and advertisement parameter, the bid amount being an offer to present the advertisement in a particular manner based on the rank information, when the advertisement parameter indicates to provide the advertisement.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an advertisement server coupled to the network for storing the advertisements of the users.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising an advertisement channel coupled to the network proximate to the advertisement server and operative to receive a content request from a particular visitor, to identify a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request, and to provide the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the advertisement channel is operative to send an advertisement request to the advertisement server in response to the content request of the particular visitor, and the advertisement server is operative to forward one or more advertisements to the advertisement channel in response to the advertisement request.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the advertisement server is operative to compare the advertisement request against the parameters associated with the advertisements to determine which advertisements should be forwarded to the advertisement channel.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the advertisement server is operative to compare bid amounts to prioritize the advertisements being forwarded to the advertisement channel.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a tag-based tracking mechanism operative to collect visitor event information if a particular visitor navigates to a particular web property from a particular advertisement and further operative to forward visitor data based on the visitor event information to the given pod associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

12. A method comprising:

providing a first set of pods coupled to a network and geographically distributed, the first set of pods for storing account information on a first set of advertisements associated with web properties associated with users, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement;

enabling the first set of users coupled to the network and disposed in various geographic locations to access the first set of pods and to update the account information on the first set of pods, each user being associated with at least one particular advertisement of a particular associated web property, each user being associated with a particular one of the first set of pods that is not the most geographically distant pod from the user;

recognizing that the first set of pods cannot satisfy a user demand threshold;

coupling an additional pod to the network, the additional pod for storing additional account information on a second set of the advertisements for a second set of users;

enabling the second set of users to access the additional pod and to update the additional account information, the additional pod being not the most geographically distant pod from the second set of users;

receiving a content request from a particular visitor at an advertisement channel coupled to the network;

identifying a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request; and

providing the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the users include at least one of advertisers and agencies.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the user demand threshold includes a memory-based threshold.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user demand threshold includes a proximity-based threshold.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user demand includes a bandwidth-based threshold.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising storing the advertisements of the users on an advertisement server coupled to the network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the advertisement channel is coupled to the network proximate to the advertisement server and wherein the identifying is performed by the advertisement server.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising

sending an advertisement request by the advertisement channel to the advertisement server in response to the content request of the particular visitor;

and

receiving one or more advertisements from the advertisement server by the advertisement channel in response to the advertisement request.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising

comparing by the advertisement server the advertisement request against the parameters associated with the advertisements to determine which advertisements should be forwarded to the advertisement channel.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising comparing by the advertisement server bid amounts to prioritize the advertisements being forwarded to the advertisement channel.

22. The method of claim 12, further comprising

collecting visitor event information by a tag-based tracking mechanism if a particular visitor navigates to a particular web property from a particular advertisement;

and

forwarding by the tag-based tracking mechanism visitor data based on the visitor event information to the given pod associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

23. A system comprising:

a first set of pods coupled to a network and geographically distributed, the first set of pods for storing account information on a first set of advertisements associated with web properties associated with users, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement;

means for enabling the first set of users coupled to the network and disposed in various geographic locations to access the first set of pods and to update the account information on the first set of pods, each user being associated with at least one particular advertisement of a particular associated web property, each user being associated with a particular one of the first set of pods that is not the most geographically distant pod from the user;

means for recognizing that the first set of pods cannot satisfy a user demand threshold;

means for coupling an additional pod to the network, the additional pod for storing additional account information on a second set of the advertisements for a second set of users;

means for enabling the second set of users to access the additional pod and to update the additional account information, the additional pod being not the most geographically distant pod from the second set of users;

means for receiving a content request from a particular visitor at an advertisement channel coupled to the network;

means for identifying a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request; and

means for providing the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request.