A system and method for enabling prospects to contact sponsoring advertisers on the telephone directly from an Internet-based advertisement with just a single-click, and efficiently tracking from what Internet location (URL) the telephone contacts are initiated.
First Claim
1. A method of connecting two parties in real time, the method comprising:
- creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to an advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing the advertising listing on a multiplicity of media channels on behalf of an advertiser for display to prospects;
generating said telephone call between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of media channels;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of media channels, and identifying the individual media channel responsible for the telephone call;
and charging the advertiser for the advertisement when such telephone calls are generated through the advertisement.
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Accused Products
Abstract
It is the objective of the current invention to provide a system and method for more convenient and more measurable telephone call based pay-for-performance Internet advertising. The present invention remedies the shortcomings of the prior art by allowing callers to connect to advertisers over the telephone by just a single click from a generally distributed Internet-based advertisement, by providing the capability to efficiently track precisely from which channel, of a multiplicity of Internet-based distribution channels, a unique advertiser'"'"'s advertisement attracted an incoming call, and by providing a simple set pricing structure for advertisers and a complex, behind-the-scenes, combination of category, keyword, random selection and historical experience for priority display of advertisements.
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Citations
51 Claims
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1. A method of connecting two parties in real time, the method comprising:
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creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to an advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing the advertising listing on a multiplicity of media channels on behalf of an advertiser for display to prospects;
generating said telephone call between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of media channels;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of media channels, and identifying the individual media channel responsible for the telephone call;
and charging the advertiser for the advertisement when such telephone calls are generated through the advertisement. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of initiating a connection between two parties in real-time, identifying whether the real-time connection between two parties was successful or unsuccessful, and retrieving unsuccessful connections for display, the method comprising:
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creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to said advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing the advertisement listing from the computer database onto a multiplicity of media channels for display to prospects;
generating a telephone call between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of media channels;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of media channels, including identifying the individual media channel responsible for the telephone call;
charging the advertiser a pre-determined rate for the advertisement when such telephone calls are generated and successfully connected and completed through the advertisement;
not charging the advertiser the pre-determined successful call rate for the advertisement when an initiated call generated from the advertisement is not successfully connected and completed;
identifying an unsuccessful initiated call by one of various different possible unsuccessful outcome categories;
displaying the particular unsuccessful initiated call outcome in the advertiser'"'"'s web-based interface in the individual call log for the particular initiated call;
not displaying, within the advertiser web-based interface, the prospect contact information including specifically the prospect telephone number, and where applicable, the prospect name and email address, in the case of an unsuccessful initiated call outcome;
replacing the prospect contact information with hyper-linked text prompting the advertiser to choose to display the hidden contact information;
displaying a pre-set charge, generally a fraction of the pre-set successful call charge, for revealing the contact information upon the advertiser'"'"'s request to display the hidden contact information;
allowing the advertiser to confirm acceptance of the charge and desire to reveal the prospect contact details;
upon advertiser confirmation, displaying the prospect'"'"'s contact details in the web-based interface in substantially real-time;
and charging the advertiser in real-time by deducting from the advertiser'"'"'s account balance the pre-set charge, which is defined as some fraction of the pre-set successful lead rate. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. A method of distributing Internet-based advertisements to a multiplicity of Internet-based publishers and properties, initiating telephonic connections between two parties in real-time from said advertisements, and identifying the Internet-based location from where the real-time connection between the two parties was initiated, the method comprising:
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creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to said advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing Java-based computer programming script to a multiplicity of third-party owner/publishers of websites for placement into the computer source code of the web pages of said websites of said multiplicity of third-party publishers;
displaying relevant advertisement listing from the computer database onto the third-party publisher'"'"'s web page for display to a prospect as said prospect views said web page;
generating telephone calls between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of third-party publisher'"'"'s web pages;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of third-party publisher'"'"'s web pages, including identifying the individual web page Uniform Resource Locator (URL) from which the telephone call was initiated, thereby identifying which of the multiplicity third-party publisher'"'"'s is responsible for said telephone call;
and crediting the owner/publisher of the particular URL that published the advertisement that attracted the incoming telephone call to the advertiser with a portion of the fee charged the advertiser for the successful telephone call connection. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A system of connecting two parties in real time, the system comprising:
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an initial component that assigns a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to an advertiser'"'"'s telephone number, and embeds the code into an Internet-ready advertisement;
a secondary component that distributes and displays the advertisement, that includes to a multiplicity of Internet-based media channels;
a third component that initiates and connects a telephone call between a prospect and the advertiser via the single-click activator link embedded in the advertisement;
a fourth component that tracks the telephone call identifying call connection details including the prospect phone number, the advertiser, the time and duration of the call, and the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the particular Internet-based media channel from which the call was initiated;
and a fifth component that charges the advertiser for the advertisement in terms of telephone calls generated directly from the advertisement, and distributes a portion of the charges to the Internet-based publisher from whose URL a prospect initiated the telephone call from the advertisement. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. A method of connecting two parties in real time, the method comprising:
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creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to an advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing the advertising listing on a multiplicity of media channels on behalf of an advertiser for display to prospects;
generating said telephone call between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of media channels;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of media channels, and identifying the individual media channel responsible for the telephone call;
charging the advertiser a pre-determined rate for the advertisement when such telephone calls are generated through the advertisement;
and the pre-determined rate charged to the advertiser being defined as one of the following methods;
a flat fee per call;
a flat fee per call, including a pre-determined number of allocated free minutes, with a per-minute charge for minutes in excess of the allocated free minutes;
a per-minute fee. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50)
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51. A method of connecting two parties in real time, the method comprising:
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creating and assigning a unique batch of computer code to an advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, code that when activated will initiate a telephone call to an advertiser'"'"'s telephone number;
creating and maintaining in a database a unique advertisement listing, the advertisement listing including the unique batch of code, advertising copy text and/or graphics, a field for a prospect to enter his/her telephone number and an activation link to initiate the telephone call;
associating said advertisement listing with a chosen keyword, category, product or service, and a unique advertiser'"'"'s account also stored in a computer database;
providing the advertising listing on a multiplicity of media channels on behalf of an advertiser for display to prospects;
generating said telephone call between the prospect and the advertiser immediately upon the prospect ‘
clicking’
on the ‘
single-click’
activation link directly embedded into and displayed on the advertisement as published on the multiplicity of media channels;
tracking and recording the details the telephone calls to an advertiser generated from the advertisement displayed in the multiplicity of media channels, and identifying the individual media channel responsible for the telephone call;
charging the advertiser a pre-determined rate for the advertisement when such telephone calls are generated through the advertisement;
and providing a keyword, category, product or service term relevancy review report to the advertiser that displays the percentage of all web pages in the computer database the term is present in, the importance of the term in the web pages, and the density of the presence of the term within the web pages.
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Specification