Pay-for-visit advertising based on visits to physical locations

• US 20070185768A1
• Filed: 04/13/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Inventors: Holden, Jeffrey, Vengroff, Darren
• Granted Patent: US 8,311,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.640
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A method and system for providing a pay-for-visit billing model for advertisements is provided. The advertisement system provides advertisements that have associated physical visit locations. The advertisement system provides advertisements to a mobile device or fixed of a user when the user is in the vicinity of or examining locations in the vicinity of the visit location. If the user subsequently visits the visit location of the advertisement by physically going to the location, the advertisement system then bills the advertiser for the advertisement. The advertisement system bills the advertiser under the assumption that but for the advertisement, the user would not have visited the visit location.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for providing advertisements to mobile devices, comprising:

selecting an advertisement for a mobile device, the advertisement having a visit location;

providing the advertisement to the mobile device; and

charging for providing the advertisement when it is detected that the mobile device visits the visit location.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein an advertiser is charged when the visit is within a visit window.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile device provides its location to the computer system.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the mobile device determines its location using a global positioning service.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the mobile device determines its location using a terrestrial wireless network.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the mobile device determines its location by receiving an identification message transmitted from the visit location.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the visit location is a point location and the mobile device visits when it is near the visit location.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the visit location is an area and the mobile device visits when it is within the area.

9. The method of claim 1 including receiving from the mobile device a location-based query and wherein the advertisement is selected based on the location of the location-based query.

10. The method of claim 9 including providing to the mobile device a map with the visit location of the advertisement highlighted.

11. A system for providing advertisements to mobile devices, comprising:

an advertisement store that provides advertisements associated with visit locations;

an advertisement selection component that selects an advertisement for a mobile device from the advertisement store;

a component that provides the selected advertisement to the mobile device;

a reconciliation component that detects that the mobile device visited the visit location of the provided advertisement within a visit window of having been provided the advertisement; and

a billing component that charges for providing the advertisement when it is detected that the mobile device visited the visit location of the advertisement within the visit window.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the billing component does not charge for providing the advertisement when the visit is not within the visit window.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the advertisement has an associated contact address and wherein the billing component charges for providing the advertisement when the mobile device sends a communication to the contact address.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the contact address is a telephone number.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the billing component bills the advertiser only once even if multiple visits to the visit location occur within the visit window and/or multiple calls to an address associated with the advertisement occur within a call window.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the reconciliation component resides on the mobile device and the mobile device transmits an indication of a payable visit to a server system.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the reconciliation component detects a payable visit when the mobile device is used while conducting a transaction relating to the advertisement.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the mobile device is used to pay for the transaction.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the reconciliation component detects a payable visit when an identification message is exchanged between the mobile device and the visit location.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the identification message is wirelessly transmitted between the mobile device and a location beacon at the visit location.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the visit location is an area defined by a range at which the wireless transmission may be successfully completed.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the location beacon transmits the identification message to the mobile device and the identification message is associated with the visit location.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the mobile device transmits the identification message to the location beacon and the identification message is associated with the mobile device.

24. The system of claim 11 including a travel tracking component that receives at various times the location of the mobile device and stores the locations and times for use by the reconciliation component.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the mobile device determines its location using a global positioning service.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the mobile device determines its location using a terrestrial wireless network.

27. The system of claim 11 wherein the visit location is a point location and the mobile device visits when it is near the visit location.

28. The system of claim 11 wherein the visit location is an area and the mobile device visits when it is within the area.

29. The system of claim 11 including a search component that receives from the mobile device a location-based query and wherein the advertisement selection component selects the advertisement based on the location of the location-based query.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the search component provides to the mobile device a map with the visit location of the advertisement highlighted.

31. A mobile device comprising:

a query component that receives a query from a user and provides to a service the query and a query location;

a map component that receives from the service a map representing a query result based on the query and the query location, the query result including an advertisement having a visit location; and

a location component that transmits to the service locations of the mobile device at various times so that the service can detect whether the mobile device visits the visit location of the received advertisement.

32. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the map and the advertisement are displayed on the mobile device.

33. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the query location is the location of the mobile device at the time that the query is received from the user.

34. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the query location is received from the user.

35. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the query component provides to the service a query time associated with the query.

36. The mobile device of claim 35 wherein the query time is specified by a user.

37. The mobile device of claim 35 wherein the query time indicates the time at which the query was received.

38. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the query location is selected by the user.

39. The mobile device of claim 31 wherein the query location is a physical location of the mobile device.

40. A system for creating a pay-for-visit account for an advertiser, comprising:

a component that receives from the advertiser account information and a visit location;

a component that independently of the advertiser identifies a telephone number associated with the visit location;

a component that places a call to the telephone number and prompts an answering party to confirm opening of the account; and

a component that when the opening is confirmed, completes creation of the account.

41. The system of claim 40 including a component that provides a confirmation code and wherein the component that places the call prompts the answering party for the confirmation code.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the system generates the confirmation code.

43. The system of claim 41 wherein when the opening is not confirmed, the account is not created.

44. The system of claim 41 including a component that charges the advertiser for a visit of a mobile device to the visit location after the mobile device has been provided with an advertisement of the advertiser.