SYSTEMS AND METHODS RELATING TO AN OPPORTUNITY DISTRIBUTION ENGINE AND DISTRIBUTION SIMULATION

• US 20080201205A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AutoWeb, Inc. (California)
• Original Assignee: Autobytel Incorporated
• Inventors: Dohoney, John L., Sward, Jeffrey E., Dunkle, Glenn R., Rose, C. Michael, Mathews, Peter D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,256 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds

Abstract

Opportunity distribution systems and methods distribute business opportunities received from lead sources for routing to one or more destination businesses that will make use the opportunity, such as an opportunity to place a webpage advertisement on a webpage that is being served to a viewer. The system identifies a set of most profitable destinations for each opportunity, for each routing, while complying with business rules associated with the opportunity source and the destination businesses. System variables associated with the lead source and the destinations may be advantageously adjusted to maintain desired flow rate and quality levels of leads to each destination and to maximize profit to the system. A system administrator module and log of lead transactions allows the system to review previous performance and to carry out simulations in order to identify desired adjustments to system variables.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine configured to populate a table with stored data about candidate businesses for a business opportunity available for purchase, wherein said stored data includes a least four different types of data values for each candidate business, said opportunity distribution engine further configured to further populate said table with additional data values about said candidate businesses, wherein said additional data values are derived, at least in part, from said stored data values, said opportunity distribution engine further configured to select, based at least in part on said data values in said populated table, a set of one or more candidate businesses which may purchase said business opportunity.

2. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 1, wherein said business opportunity is an opportunity to place an advertisement in each of one or more advertisement spaces on a webpage currently being served to a viewer.

3. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 2, further configured to cause one or more advertisements to be placed in one or more of the advertisement spaces on the webpage being served to the viewer on behalf of the one or more candidate businesses.

4. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 2, wherein each of the one or more advertisement spaces is associated with a cost that may be different from the cost of the other advertisement spaces, said opportunity distribution engine being configured to use said table to select a preferred destination for each of said one or more advertisement spaces in order to obtain a preferred monetary or other business benefit.

5. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 1, wherein said business opportunity is a business lead regarding a consumer who is potentially interested in making a purchase.

6. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 1, wherein said opportunity distribution engine is configured to identify candidate businesses for a first type of business opportunity and to identify candidate businesses for at least one additional type of business opportunity.

7. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 6, configured to identify candidate businesses for an opportunity to place an advertisement on a webpage being served to a viewer and configured to identify candidate businesses for a business lead regarding a consumer who is potentially interested in making a purchase.

8. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 7, configured to identify when a candidate business for a first opportunity, which is the opportunity to place an advertisement on the webpage, is also a candidate business for a second business opportunity, which is the business lead regarding a consumer who is potentially interested in making a purchase, the opportunity distribution engine further configured to use the data values that populate the table for the first opportunity to change one or more data values that populate the table for the second opportunity, and/or to use the data values that populate the table for the second opportunity to change one or more data values that populate the table for the first opportunity, as appropriate to effect a desired business goal.

9. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 8, wherein the one or more data values that are changed affect a margin score that represents a perceived level of monetary and/or other business benefit from providing the first opportunity or the second opportunity or both to one of the candidate businesses.

10. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 6, configured to identify when a candidate business for a first opportunity is also a candidate business for a second business opportunity, and wherein data values that populate the table for the first opportunity may affect data values that populate the table for the second opportunity, and data values that populate the table for the second opportunity may affect data values that populate the table for the first opportunity.

11. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 1, further configured to store, over the course of a selected time period, a historical log of said populated table and said selected set of candidate businesses, in addition to other populated tables used to select other sets of candidate businesses for other business opportunities during said selected time period;

wherein said opportunity distribution engine is further configured to review said historical log in order to make changes to one or more stored or derived future data values used to populate future tables, resulting in a better business benefit going forward.

12. The processor-implemented opportunity distribution engine of claim 11, further configured to identify preferred changes to make by re-populating said tables in accordance with said changed future data values, selecting simulated sets of one or more candidate businesses, based, at least in part on said re-populated tables, and analyzing business benefit results associated with said selected simulated sets of candidate businesses.

13. A method for maintaining an opportunity distribution system, comprising:

using tables, populated with stored data about businesses that are candidates for purchasing available business opportunities, in order to select a set of one or more preferred candidate businesses that may purchase the business opportunities, wherein the stored data includes at least five different types of data for each candidate business;

storing, for a selected time period, the data from the populated tables and the sets of one or more preferred candidate businesses;

using modified versions of the stored data to re-populate one or more of the tables in order to select, for each table, a simulated set of preferred candidate businesses;

comparing a business benefit accrued from allowing the stored sets of preferred candidate businesses to purchase the business opportunities with a simulated business benefit associated with allowing the simulated sets of preferred candidate businesses to simulate purchasing the business opportunities; and

modifying the stored data, based at least in part on the comparison, so that future selections of preferred candidate businesses result in a better business benefit going forward.

14. A lead distribution engine, comprising:

a processor-readable storage medium that comprises information about lead sources, lead users, and lead intermediaries;

a lead source interface module that accepts information from a lead source about a business lead being offered for sale by the lead source;

a collection module configured to receive information about lead users who are interested in purchasing the business lead and about lead intermediaries who are interested in providing the business lead to one or more of the lead users, the collection module further configured to organize the information by identifying pairs, each pair comprising a lead user and a lead intermediary who is interested in providing the business lead to the lead user; and

a selection module configured to receive the information about the pairs from the collection module, and to access, for each pair, a score from the processor-readable storage medium that is indicative of a level of monetary profit and business gain associated with sale of the business lead to the pair, the selection module further configured to identify a preferred subset of the pairs, such that each of the pairs in the subset are associated with a desirable score and such that the lead users from the pairs in the subset are different from one another.

15. The lead distribution engine of claim 14, further comprising

a log of lead transactions;

and

a control module that carries out analysis of past lead distribution performance and/or simulation of hypothetical system performance with modified system settings.

16. The lead distribution engine of claim 15, wherein the modified system settings include at least one of the set consisting of:

blocking rules, quality settings, cost scores, and revenue scores.

17. The lead distribution engine of claim 15, wherein the log of lead transactions includes information about potential lead transactions and actual lead transactions.

18. The lead distribution engine of claim 15, further comprising a configuration module that adjusts the system settings in accordance with results of the simulation and/or analysis.

19. A processor-implemented method for distributing a business opportunity available from a source, said method comprising:

partially populating a table with stored data values associated with a set of candidate businesses for purchase of said business opportunity;

further populating the table with additional data values that are derived, at least in part, from the stored values; and

selecting, based at least in part on the stored values and on the derived values, a set of one or more preferred candidate businesses for purchasing the business opportunity.

20. A system for maintaining an opportunity distribution system, comprising:

means for using tables, populated with stored data about businesses that are candidates for purchasing available business opportunities, in order to select a set of one or more preferred candidate businesses that may purchase the business opportunities, wherein the stored data includes at least five different types of data for each candidate business;

means for storing, for a selected time period, the data from the populated tables and the sets of one or more preferred candidate businesses;

means for using modified versions of the stored data to re-populate one or more of the tables in order to select, for each table, a simulated set of preferred candidate businesses;

means for comparing a business benefit accrued from allowing the stored sets of preferred candidate businesses to purchase the business opportunities with a simulated business benefit associated with allowing the simulated sets of preferred candidate businesses to simulate purchasing the business opportunities; and

means for modifying the stored data, based at least in part on the comparison, so that future selections of preferred candidate businesses result in a better business benefit going forward.

21. A processor-implemented method for offering an opportunity to place an advertisement on a webpage currently being served to a viewer, said method comprising:

partially populating a table with stored data values associated with a set of candidate businesses for purchase of the webpage advertisement space;

further populating the table with additional data values that are derived, at least in part, from the stored values; and

selecting, based at least in part on the stored values and on the derived values, a set of one or more preferred candidate businesses for purchasing the webpage advertisement space.