Automated generation, performance monitoring, and evolution of keywords in a paid listing campaign

• US 20070100803A1
• Filed: 03/08/2006
• Published: 05/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lycos Incorporated (Brightcom Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Cava, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,463 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

Keyword candidates are identified by in response to receiving an identification of a web page. Content of the web page is analyzed to identify terms from the web page. An automated keyword expansion is performed using the identified terms to produce a set of candidate keywords. Keyword suggestions are generated for the web page using the set of candidate keywords, and one or more of the keyword suggestions are used in a paid listing campaign. A performance of a paid listing campaign is compared with a performance threshold. An automated keyword expansion is performed using one or more keywords from the set of keywords to produce a set of alternative keywords in response to the comparison. One or more alternative keywords are selected from the set of alternative keywords for use in the paid listing campaign.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for identifying keyword candidates, the method comprising:

receiving an identification of a web page;

analyzing content of the web page to identify terms from the web page;

performing an automated keyword expansion using the identified terms to produce a set of candidate keywords; and

generating keyword suggestions for the web page using the set of candidate keywords.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identification of a web page comprises a unique address associated with the web page.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein analyzing the content of the web page comprises extracting terms from the web page.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein generating keyword suggestions for the web page comprises calculating a relevance score for keywords from the set of candidate keywords.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the relevance score for each keyword is based on usage data associated with the keyword.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the usage data comprises data selected from the group consisting of a cost associated with the keyword and a click rate associated with the keyword.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

performing an automated evaluation of an advertising campaign associated with the web page that uses the keyword suggestions; and

generating at least one alternative keyword suggestions based on the automated evaluation.

8. A computer-implemented method for identifying keyword candidates, the method comprising:

comparing a performance of a paid listing campaign with a performance threshold, wherein the paid listing campaign is associated with a set of keywords used to select a listing;

performing an automated keyword expansion using at least one keyword from the set of keywords to produce a set of alternative keywords in response to the comparison; and

selecting at least one alternative keyword from the set of alternative keywords for use in the paid listing campaign.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the performance threshold relates to at least one of a click rate associated with the paid listing campaign, a conversion rate associated with the paid listing campaign, a ratio between the click rate and a cost for the paid listing campaign, or a ratio between the conversion rate and a cost for the paid listing campaign.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the paid listing campaign is associated with the set of keywords in accordance with a pay-per-click model.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

evaluating a performance of each keyword from the set of keywords; and

identifying a first keyword having a relatively favorable performance, the automated keyword expansion performed using the first keyword.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

identifying a second keyword having a relatively unfavorable performance;

removing the second keyword from use in the paid listing campaign; and

using the at least one alternative keyword in the paid listing campaign.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising calculating a relevance score for alternative keywords from the set of alternative keywords, wherein the at least one selected alternative keyword is selected, at least in part, using the relevance score.

14. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions for causing data processing apparatus to perform operations to:

receive an identification of a web page;

analyze the web page to identify terms from the web page;

perform an automated keyword expansion using the identified terms to produce a set of candidate keywords; and

generate keyword suggestions for the web page based on ratings of candidate keywords from the set of candidate keywords.

15. The article of claim 14 wherein the machine-readable medium stores instructions for causing data processing apparatus to perform further operations to:

monitor a performance of a campaign that uses at least one keyword from the keyword suggestions;

perform an automated keyword expansion on at least one keyword from the campaign in response to a determination of an inadequate performance; and

use an alternative keyword identified using the automated keyword expansion.

16. The article of claim 14 wherein the rating of each candidate keyword is based on at least one of a cost associated with the candidate keyword or click rate data.

17. The article of claim 14 wherein analyzing the web page to identify terms from the web page comprises extracting keywords from the web page.

18. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions for causing data processing apparatus to perform operations to:

monitor a performance of a campaign that uses paid listings in response to queries that include one or more particular keywords;

use a keyword expansion algorithm based on at least one of the particular keywords to produce a set of alternative keywords; and

select at least one alternative keyword from the set of alternative keywords for use in the campaign.

19. The article of claim 18 wherein monitoring performance of the campaign comprises at least one of tracking a click rate associated with the campaign, tracking a conversion rate associated with the campaign, or tracking a rate of return associated with the campaign.

20. The article of claim 18 wherein the machine-readable medium stores instructions for causing data processing apparatus to further perform operations comprising identifying at least one of the particular keywords having a relatively favorable performance, wherein using a keyword expansion algorithm is based on the at least one of the particular keywords having a relatively favorable performance.