Methods and Apparatuses for Pay for Lead Advertisements

• US 20070165805A1
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: HIRSON, Ron, FABER, Scott, ALTBERG, Ebbe, VAN DER LINDEN, Sean, MANCA, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,392 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/114.130
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for advertising where the performance is determined via tracking the communication leads generated from the advertisements. One embodiment includes: providing an advertisement on behalf of a specific party; and charging an advertisement fee responsive to a customer making a request for an in person communication with the specific party via the advertisement.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing an advertisement on behalf of a specific party; and

charging an advertisement fee responsive to a customer making a request for an in person communication with the specific party via the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication comprises a telephone conversation with the specific party.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises instant messaging.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises an electronic mail message from the customer.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises a voice message from the customer.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises a video message from the customer.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises a short message service (SMS) message from the customer.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the communication comprises a request of the customer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer making the request comprises the customer requesting a connection for real time communications.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the connection allows full duplex communications between the customer and the specific party.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the connection allows communications in at least voice, audio, video, or text.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a reference to the specific party;

embedding the reference in the advertisement; and

tracking, via the reference, requests for communications with the specific party resulted from the advertisement.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining a telephonic reference of the specific party in response to the request made via the reference assigned to the specific party; and

placing a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call to the specific party via a telecommunication carrier using the telephonic reference determined based on the assigned reference used to made the request, the telecommunication carrier to bridge the VoIP call to the specific party on a public switch telephone network (PSTN).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer making the request comprises the customer particularly requesting to reveal contact information of the specific party.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer making the request comprises the customer providing contact information for calling back to the customer.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer making the request comprises the customer requesting an appointment.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the customer making the request comprises the customer initiating a communication session.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating the in person communication between the customer and the specific party via a reference embedded in the advertisement.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

verifying that the customer is available for communication in person with the specific party.

20. A machine readable medium containing instructions which when executed on a data processing system cause the system to perform a method, comprising:

providing an advertisement on behalf of a specific party; and

charging an advertisement fee responsive to a customer making a request for an in person communication with the specific party via the advertisement.

21. A data processing system, comprising:

means for providing an advertisement on behalf of a specific party; and

means for charging an advertisement fee responsive to a customer making a request for an in person communication with the specific party via the advertisement.