Systems and methods for selecting advertisements for display over a communications network

• US 20080163071A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 07/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Advertisingcom LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Galai, Yaron, Abbott, Martin, Yavonditte, Michael, Fisher, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,114 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for selecting advertisements for display over a communications network and, more particularly, to systems and methods for selecting video advertisements for display within internet web pages based on relevance, bid price, past performance, or a combination thereof.

Claims

1. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements over a communications network, the system comprising:

a database configured to store at least one advertisement; and

an advertisement selection application configured to;

receive a request for advertising from a user computer, wherein the request is generated automatically by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher upon the user computer accessing the content publisher'"'"'s page, and wherein the request further comprises one or more advertisement selection criteria; and

in response to the request, select at least one advertisement from the database for display within the page based at least in part on the one or more advertisement selection criteria.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one advertisement is a video advertisement.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one advertisement is a multimedia advertisement.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions comprise markup code provided to the user computer in response to the user computer submitting to the content publisher an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) request for access to the page.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement selection criteria is selected from the group of criteria comprising location, size, and/or format of an advertisement region within the page, an identifier of the content publisher of the page, an identifier of the page, end-user demographic data, end-user preferences, or a combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one advertisement is a plurality of advertisements and the advertisement selection application is configured to select a sequence of advertisements for display within the page.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to randomly order the display of the selected advertisements.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order the display of the sequence of advertisements at least partially according to maximum bid amounts by advertisers associated with the advertisements.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order the display of the sequence of advertisements at least partially according to actual amounts advertisers associated with the advertisements would pay based on maximum bid amounts submitted by the advertisers for the ad placement opportunity.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order the display of the sequence of advertisements at least partially according to past performance of the advertisements or similar advertisements.

11. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a content parser configured to parse the content of the page in order to determine one or more relevancy scores corresponding to the relevancy of the page to one or more themes; and

wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to order the display of the sequence of advertisements at least partially according to the relevancy scores.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one advertisement is a graphic corresponding to a single frame of video from a video advertisement stored in the database.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the advertisement selection application is configured to rotate over time the particular frame that is selected as the graphic representating the video advertisement and to track user responsiveness to the selected frames.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, the advertisement selection application receives a request from the user computer for the video advertisement corresponding to the graphic.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein in response to a selection of the graphic by a user of the user computer, a browser of the user equipment is directed to a website associated with the graphic.

16. A system for responding to a request over a communications network for access to a page, the system comprising:

a content publisher configured to;

receive a request from a user computer for access to a page; and

in response to the request, transmit both content for the page and instructions to the user computer, wherein the instructions direct the user computer to automatically request advertising from an advertisement selection system and include one or more advertisement selection criteria for use by the advertisement selection system to select at least one advertisement for display on the page.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one advertisement is a video advertisement.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one advertisement is a multimedia advertisement.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the content for the page and the instructions form at least part of an HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) response.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more advertisement selection criteria is selected from the group of criteria comprising location, size, and/or format of an advertisement region within the page, an identifier of the content publisher of the page, an identifier of the page, end-user demographic data, end-user preferences, or a combination thereof.

21. A method for selecting and displaying advertisements within a page, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of advertisements;

receiving a request for at least one of said advertisements; and

in response to the request, selecting at least one of the plurality of stored advertisements for display within the page, wherein the selecting is based at least in part on past performance of an advertisement on the page.

22. A method for responding to a request over a communications network for access to a page, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user computer for access to a page; and

in response to the request, transmitting both content for the page and instructions to the user computer, wherein the instructions direct the user computer to automatically request advertising from an advertisement selection system.

23. A system for selecting and displaying advertisements within a page, the system comprising:

means for storing one or more advertisements;

means for receiving a request for an advertisement from a user computer, wherein the request is generated automatically by the user computer in accordance with instructions provided to the user computer by a content publisher upon the user computer accessing a page provided by the content publisher, and wherein the instructions include one or more advertisement selection criteria; and

means for selecting, in response to the request, at least one of the one or more stored advertisements for display within the page based at least in part on the one or more advertisement selection criteria.

24. A system for responding to a request over a communications network for access to a page, the system comprising:

means for receiving a request from a user computer for access to a page; and

means for transmitting, in response to the request, both content for the page and instructions to the user computer, wherein the instructions direct the user computer to automatically request advertising from an advertisement selection system and include one or more advertisement selection criteria for use by the advertisement selection system to select at least one advertisement for display on the page.