USE OF NATURAL SEARCH CLICK EVENTS TO AUGMENT ONLINE CAMPAIGNS

• US 20080263025A1
• Filed: 04/20/2007
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koran, Joshua M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,844,605 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search

Abstract

A method is described for augmenting sponsored search results in a search engine, which includes extracting attribute data from a plurality of natural searches for a search term linked to a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), analyzing the attribute data of one or more attributes for clickers and non-clickers to determine at least one greatest distinguishing factor between the clickers and non-clickers, and integrating the at least one greatest distinguishing factor into a matching algorithm used by the search engine to rank order and display a plurality of the most relevant ads corresponding to the plurality of URLs in response to a search for the term. The method may also integrate the at least one greatest distinguishing factor into a marketer algorithm to enable a marketer of a URL to strategically choose a search term, along with the at least one greatest distinguishing factor, on which to bid.

Claims

1. A method for augmenting sponsored search results in a search engine, comprising:

extracting attribute data from a plurality of natural searches for a search term linked to a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs);

analyzing the attribute data of one or more attributes for both clickers and non-clickers to determine at least one greatest distinguishing factor between the clickers and non-clickers for the one or more attributes; and

integrating the at least one greatest distinguishing factor into a matching algorithm used by the search engine to rank order and display a plurality of the most relevant ads corresponding to the plurality of URLs in response to a search for the term.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

integrating the at least one greatest distinguishing factor into a marketer algorithm used by the search engine to enable a marketer of a URL to strategically choose a search term, along with the at least one greatest distinguishing factor, on which to bid.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

grouping the one or more attributes having at least one greatest distinguishing factor to identify one or more non-overlapping segments of clickers; and

using the aggregate of non-overlapping segment data to match a relevant ad to a searching user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprise user geography.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one greatest distinguishing factor comprises at least one of country, state, city, and zip code.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprise a user technographic, and the at least one greatest distinguishing factor comprises at least one of a connection speed, a type of browser, a size or quality of monitor, an operating system, and a plug-in of a connection device used by the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprise a user demographic, and the at least one greatest distinguishing factor comprises at least one of age, gender, race, and disability.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more attributes comprise an aspect of user purchasing history, and the aspect of user purchasing history comprises at least one of a quantity purchased, a price paid per item, and a total price paid.

5. (canceled)

10. A method for augmenting sponsored search results in a search engine, comprising:

extracting attribute data from a plurality of natural searches for a search term associated with a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs);

analyzing the data of a plurality of attributes for both clickers and non-clickers to determine at least one attribute that differentiates clickers from non-clickers;

grouping the clickers into segments based on the at least one differentiating attribute; and

calculating relative click-through rates of each segment to be associated therewith.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

presenting the relative click-through rate results to a marketer to improve campaign optimization when deciding whether to bid on the term.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

integrating the at least one differentiating attribute into a matching algorithm used by the search engine to rank order and display at least one of the most relevant URL results and the most relevant ads corresponding to the plurality of URLs in response to a search for the term.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one differentiating attribute comprises at least one of a user geography, a user technographic, a user demographic, and a user purchasing history.

14. A method for augmenting sponsored search results in a search engine, comprising:

extracting attribute data from a plurality of natural searches for search terms linked to a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs);

associating the attribute data in memory with the specific users that conducted the natural searches;

executing a targeting algorithm that incorporates the associated attribute data for a user performing a search for a search term; and

re-ranking a set of URL results based on the executed targeting algorithm before being displayed to the user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein re-ranking the set of URL results comprises re-ranking the set of URL results based on the relevancy of a plurality of ads corresponding to the URLs of the results as determined by the targeting algorithm.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

analyzing the attribute data of one or more attributes for both clickers and non-clickers to determine at least one greatest distinguishing factor between the clickers and non-clickers for the one or more attributes;

integrating the at least one greatest distinguishing factor into a matching algorithm used by the search engine to rank order and display a plurality of the most relevant ads corresponding to the plurality of URLs in response to a search for the term;

grouping the one or more attributes having the at least one greatest distinguishing factor to identify one or more overlapping segments of clickers; and

re-ranking the set of URL results based on the aggregate of overlapping segment data before being displayed to the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the matching algorithm includes the targeting algorithm.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the attribute data comprises at least one of a user geography, a user technographic, a user demographic, and a user purchasing history.

19. A system for augmenting sponsored search results in a search engine, comprising:

an index manager to extract attribute data from a plurality of natural searches performed by a search engine for a search term linked to a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs);

a database in communication with the index manager to store the extracted attribute data, wherein the database comprises user attributes associated in memory with specific users that performed the natural searches and the aggregates of the user attributes grouped by type of attribute; and

a processor in communication with the database to perform a method comprising;

analyzing the aggregates of the user attributes for both clickers and non-clickers to determine at least one attribute that differentiates clickers from non-clickers;

grouping the clickers into one or more segments based on the at least one differentiating attribute; and

storing the grouped segments in the database.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a memory having a matching algorithm, wherein the processor integrates the at least one differentiating attribute into the matching algorithm used by the search engine to rank order and display the most relevant URL or ad results in response to a search for the term.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising a memory having a marketer algorithm, wherein the processor integrates the at least one differentiating attribute into the marketer algorithm to enable a marketer of at least one URL to choose a strategic search term, along with the at least one differentiating attribute, on which to bid.

22. The system of claim 19, further comprising a memory having a targeting algorithm, wherein the processor:

executes the targeting algorithm that incorporates the associated attribute data for an identified user performing a search for a search term; and

re-ranks a set of URL results based on the executed targeting algorithm before being displayed to the identified user.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more segments of clickers comprise one or more overlapping segments, and wherein the processor:

determines the relative click-through rates of the one of more overlapping segments of clickers; and

uses the aggregates of the user attributes corresponding to the one or more overlapping segments to match a relevant ad or URL to a searching user.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the attribute types comprise user geography, and the at least one differentiating attribute comprises at least one of country, state, city, zip code, and Internet Protocol (I.P.) address.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the attribute types comprise a user demographic, and wherein the at least one differentiating attribute comprises at least one of age, gender, race, and disability.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the attribute types comprise an aspect of user purchasing history, which comprises at least one of a quantity of items purchased, a price paid per item, and a total price paid.

25. (canceled)