PAY-PER-ACTION SYSTEM FOR SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS

• US 20090043648A1
• Filed: 08/08/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yahoo AD Tech LLC
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mahdian, Mohammad, Tomak, Kerem
• Granted Patent: US 8,069,083 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.390
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0274 Split fees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A system is disclosed for a pay-per-action (PPA) advertising model. An advertiser reports actions and pays an advertising provider for each action that is reported. The payment may be based on the rate at which the actions are reported. The action rate may be updated based on each reported action, which may modify the payment for that action and may modify the payment for previous actions. A one-time premium may be charged to advertisers and a minimum action rate may be established to encourage advertisers to accurately report actions.

Claims

1. A method for providing an advertisement based on a bid, the method comprising:

charging an advertiser a premium for bidding for displaying an advertisement;

receiving a bid for displaying the advertisement from the advertiser upon the charging of the premium;

receiving an indication from the advertiser regarding an occurrence of at least one action, wherein the at least one action is measured by the advertiser and occurs after a click-through on an advertisement from the advertiser;

calculating an action rate corresponding to the number of at least one actions per impressions of the advertisement, wherein the impressions are displays of the advertisement; and

displaying the advertisement while the action rate exceeds a minimum action rate;

wherein the bid is based at least partially on the calculated action rate.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the premium is an initial fee paid by the advertiser by its first bid.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the premium is based at least partially on a number of impressions recorded between impressions that led to actions, wherein the premium is based at least partially on the minimum action rate.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the premium comprises kp(1/δ

−

1), where k is the number of impressions between actions, δ

is the minimum action rate, and p is the reserve bid price.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the bid comprises an amount per action multiplied by the calculated action rate.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein the advertisement from the advertiser is displayed while the bid is greater than a reserve bid price and a bid from a second advertiser.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the action rate is based on a number of impressions between actions.

8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the action rate is updated upon each of the indications from the advertiser of an action.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein the impressions is a display of the advertisement.

10. A method for receiving a payment for displaying an advertisement comprising:

receiving a request from an advertiser for an advertisement to be displayed, wherein the request includes a bid amount and the advertisement is displayed when the bid amount exceeds a threshold bid;

calculating an action rate of actions per impressions, wherein the actions are taken after a click-through of the advertisement and the impressions are a number of times the advertisement is displayed; and

determining a payment to be paid by the advertiser based on the action rate, wherein the payment comprises the difference between the bid amount and the threshold bid divided by the action rate.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the bid amount comprises a price per impression.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the threshold bid is the smaller of a bid per impression and a minimum price, wherein the minimum price is one of a reserve price or a second highest bid amount.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the action comprises a click on the advertisement displaying a page and a subsequent interaction with the displayed page.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving an indication of a first action;

receiving an indication of a second action;

determining a number of impressions between the first and second actions; and

calculating the action rate as the inverse of the number of impressions between the first and second actions.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the action rate is updated upon receiving each indication of a subsequent action, wherein each of the subsequent actions are divided by the number of impressions between those actions.

16. In a computer readable storage medium having stored therein data representing instructions executable by a programmed processor for displaying an advertisement, the storage medium comprising instructions operative for:

receiving a first bid for display of a first advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, wherein the first bid is based on at least one action resulting from an impression of the first advertiser'"'"'s advertisement;

receiving a second bid for display of a second advertiser'"'"'s advertisement, wherein the second bid is based on at least one action resulting from an impression of the second advertiser'"'"'s advertisement;

comparing the first bid and the second bid;

displaying the first advertiser'"'"'s advertisement when the first bid exceeds the second bid and displaying the second advertiser'"'"'s advertisement when the second bid exceeds the first bid; and

determining an action rate based on a number of the at least one action resulting from an impression of the advertisement for the displayed advertiser divided by a total number of impressions occurring between each of the at least one action;

wherein payment for an advertisement displayed is based on the action rate, and the action rate is updated for each recorded action from the advertiser of the displayed advertisement.

17. The storage medium according to claim 16 further comprising:

receiving an indication from the first advertiser regarding the at least one action resulting from an impression of the first advertiser'"'"'s advertisement; and

receiving an indication from the second advertiser regarding the at least one action resulting from an impression of the second advertiser'"'"'s advertisement.

18. The storage medium according to claim 17 wherein the updating of the action rate comprises receiving additional indications of actions.

19. The storage medium according to claim 18 wherein the payment may be adjusted based on the updated action rate.

20. The storage medium according to claim 16 wherein the advertisement is displayed while the action rate exceeds a minimum action rate.

21. The storage medium according to claim 16 further comprising:

receiving an initial premium fee from the first advertiser before the first advertiser submits its initial bid; and

receiving an initial premium fee from the second advertiser before the second advertiser submits its initial bid.

22. A method for establishing a payment for displaying an advertisement comprising:

recording each impression of a displayed advertisement from an advertiser;

receiving an indication of actions and corresponding impressions that resulted in each of the actions;

determining a number of impressions between successive actions;

calculating an action rate based on an average number of impressions between successive actions;

revising the action rate upon receiving an indication of an additional action; and

receiving a payment for the displayed advertisement, wherein the payment is based on the revised action rate.

23. The method according to claim 22 further comprising:

displaying the advertisement when the action rate is above a minimum rate.

24. The method according to claim 22 wherein each of the actions are an interaction with the advertiser.