System for and method of automatic optimizing quantitative business objectives of sellers (advertisers) with synergistic pricing, promotions and advertisements, while simultaneously minimizing expenditure discovery and optimizing allocation of advertising channels that optimize such objectives

• US 20090099902A1
• Filed: 10/16/2007
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Original Assignee: Peak Silver Advisors LLC
• Inventors: Goyal, Rohit, Soong, Shiao-bin, Chatter, Mukesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,522,270 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.43
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

An Internet system for and method of automatic optimizing quantitative business objectives of sellers (advertisers) with synergistic pricing, promotions and advertisements, while simultaneously minimizing expenditure and discovery and optimizing allocation of advertising channels that optimize such objectives.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing quantitative business objectives and targets of product or service sellers together with synergistic pricing, promotions and advertisements, including one or more of search engine-based advertising, Internet web-based on-line display advertising, and TV advertising,

the method comprising,

providing the seller/advertiser with an automated, adaptive, real-time SAEJ engine capable of determining the optimal price that the market will bear at any point of time, and capable of computing such price in real-time in order to optimize the sellers business targets;

evaluating the sellers advertising needs in the context of current CPC/CPM prices, of the status of said targets, and the current market conditions,

triggering advertisements in response to said evaluating, as and when appropriate, and computing bids in real-time, taking into consideration the expense associated with each bid, the current status of said targets, and the requisite pricing needed to optimize said targets; and

causing the SAEJ thereupon automatically and optimally to allocate advertising selections in real-time, thereby to optimize allocation of advertising to achieve said targets while minimizing expenditure.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the optimal CPC/CPM bids are discovered and rank-ordered according to the contribution made by each towards meeting the seller'"'"'s unique targets while simultaneously minimizing advertising expenditure in anticipation of receiving corresponding clicks or leads resulting in consequent business based on an expected conversion rate.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein synergistic computation is affected by the SAEJ of the optimum product or service price for such advertising to further optimize said targets.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the SAEJ is caused to adjust such product or service price automatically and in real-time.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the SAEJ is caused automatically and appropriately to adjust ad placement, corresponding CPC bids, number of display ads with corresponding CPM, and simultaneous product or service price adjustment, all within unique seller-provided constraints.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein, following a short term ad promotion, reverting back to normal mode of operation for both CPC/CPM bids and also that of product or service pricing.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the SAEJ is caused to optimize the sellers targets by computing optimal CPC/CPM advertising channel selection, placement and pricing as well as the optimal product or service pricing.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said optimizing as effected according to the formula of equations (1) through (26) herein.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein, beyond automatic price discovery, promotion and optimizing across said targets, the SAEJ is operated automatically to compute CPC bid values per product, per set of keywords, per ad placement, per search engine in real-time, all as a function of and synergistically with each of the CPC bid history, prevailing competitive CPC pricing, the sellers time-sensitive objectives and targets, and the prevailing market conditions.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein there is automatic computing of the optimum CPC bids for each search engine, for each set of key words, for each ad position for each product, and for selected geographical regions.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein there is automatic evaluating and ranking of the order of the prevailing CPC bids according to the contribution to the unique business targets, with minimum expenditure, and for each search engine, for each set of key words, for each ad position, for each product, and for selected geographical regions.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the CPC bids are automatically computed in real-time as a function of the seller'"'"'s targets, including revenue, profit, product inventory, supplier'"'"'s break, current target status as a function of time, desired relative degree of emphasis at that time, and the competitive market pricing for CPC for the desired ad placement.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein each CPC bid is computed in a manner so as to optimize the seller'"'"'s unique targets, while simultaneously minimizing the CPC expenditure and without manual intervention and associated inherent speculation while computing the CPC bids, thereby eliminating significant inherent margins of error.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the SAEJ enables instantaneous adaptation and responsiveness to evolving competitive market conditions in terms of ad placement location and corresponding CPC pricing for each set of key words, for each product and for each search engine, such that contribution to the seller'"'"'s unique business targets is optimized while minimizing expenditure, all of it performed without any manual intervention.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the pricing decisions on sale automatically and instantaneously adapt to the dynamically altering market place as reflected by the variance in the CTR, and to dynamically altering competitive pressures reflected by the variations in the CPC bid prices, and in a manner to optimize the targets.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein automatic evaluating and ranking of the prevailing CPM bids is according to the contribution to the unique business targets and with minimum expenditure, for each desirable web site for display ads, for each set of contextual key words for each product, and for selected geographical regions simultaneously computing the appropriate product price in addition to the CPM bid to optimize the targets, and with the seller'"'"'s CPM bid decisions completely synergistic with its unique business targets, while minimizing the expenditure, and while staying within its budgetary constraints.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein there is provided in real-time dynamic arbitraging of the advertising expenditure among both search engine-based advertising channels and display ad channels, and in a manner which optimizes business targets while minimizing the advertising expenditure, and while staying within the budgetary constraints.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the advertiser has the ability to make a bid on higher quality of leads using sorting buckets at the search engine, optimizing the percentage of bids picked from each such bucket.

19. The method of claim 7 wherein the advertiser is enabled to make iterative competitive bids in response to a specific user query with its unique characteristics instead of making CPC bids in advance in anticipation of a query.

20. A novel method of optimizing a sellers television advertising to the benefit of both advertiser and television network, that comprises,

conducting a real-time competition and iterative on-line auction among would-be advertisers to win advertising rights for a commercial slot in the next POD for currently presented TV shows over participating networks;

collecting actual real-time demographics and providing such to each participating advertiser in the auction; and

automatically computing the bid price for the auctioning of the next lot of the selected show from such real-time demographics and from prevailing market conditions and within each advertiser'"'"'s budgetary constraints as configured by that advertiser, such as to optimize the aggregating demographic targets over a pre-defined time frame.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein each advertiser is provided with an SAEJ that automatically selects the commercial slot with the demographic characteristics best suited to optimize that advertiser'"'"'s unique demographics targets as derived from its own unique business objectives, while simultaneously automatically minimizing the expenditure, all in real-time.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the influence of competing shows at the same time, or in preceding or following time segments, or any other extraneous factor across networks are fully accounted for, without need to speculate about the impact on a specific slot of a specific POD of a specific show, from other shows.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the SAEJ also accounts for the changes occurring in real-time, while the show is on, and correspondingly decides to bid or not to bid, and the amount to bid, depending on the then prevailing demographics immediately prior to the next POD, and the competitive bids.

24. The method of claim 21 wherein there is enabled automatic adjusting in real-time of the ad spending as a function of time based on the unique demographics for each slot for each show across all the shows.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein, in the event that slots are sold in advance, the SAEJ is used to participate in iterative bids for such slots, while simultaneously optimizing the anticipated demographics for each slot for each show across the networks.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein a bump-up BUF bid is used to accelerate the auction process.

27. The method of claim 25 where optimizing is effected in accordance with the formula of equations (27)-(41) herein.

55. The method of claim 20 wherein automatic price discovery is enabled in real-time for each slot in each POD in each show for each participating network thereby benefiting both the advertisers and the networks and providing a fair process to both.

56. The method of claim 20 wherein automatic iterative competitive bidding among advertisers for each slot enables the networks to receive maximum advertising revenue from each slot in each POD in each show.

57. The method of claim 20 wherein sub-demographics are auctioned off individually, thereby enabling advertisers to target their advertisements, and with the ability to click on an ad as if a web display ad had been placed, thereby enabling a more effective measurement of the impact an advertisement has had on the viewers.

28. A system for optimizing quantitative business objectives and targets of product or service sellers together with synergistic pricing, promotions and advertisements, including one or more of search engine-based advertising, Internet web-based on-line display advertising, and TV advertising,

the system having, in combination,

a plurality of seller/advertiser automated, adaptive, real-time SAEJ engines capable of determining the optimal price that the market will bear at any point of time, and capable of computing such price in real-time in order to optimize each sellers business targets;

means for evaluating the sellers advertising needs in the context of current CPC/CPM prices, of the status of said targets, and the current market conditions,

means for triggering advertisements in response to said evaluating, as and when appropriate, and means for computing bids in real-time, taking into consideration the expense associated with each bid, the current status of said targets, and the requisite pricing needed to optimize said targets; and

means for causing the SAEJ thereupon automatically and optimally to allocate advertising selections in real-time, thereby to optimize allocation of advertising to achieve said targets while minimizing expenditure.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein means is provided whereby the optimal CPC/CPM bids are discovered and rank-ordered according to the contribution made by each towards meeting the seller'"'"'s unique targets while simultaneously minimizing advertising expenditure in anticipation of receiving corresponding clicks or leads resulting in consequent business based on an expected conversion rate.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein synergistic computation is affected by the SAEJ of the optimum product or service price for such advertising to further optimize said targets.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the SAEJ is caused to adjust such product or service price automatically and in real-time.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the SAEJ is caused automatically and appropriately to adjust ad placement, corresponding CPC bids, number of display ads with corresponding CPM, and simultaneous product or service price adjustment, all within unique seller-provided constraints.

33. The system of claim 32 wherein, following a short term ad promotion, means is provided for reverting back to normal mode of operation for both CPC/CPM bids and also that of product or service pricing.

34. The system of claim 31 wherein the SAEJ is caused to optimize the sellers targets by computing optimal CPC/CPM advertising channel selection, placement and pricing as well as the optimal product or service pricing.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein said optimizing as effected according to the formula of equations (1) through (26) herein.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein, beyond automatic price discovery, promotion and optimizing across said targets, the SAEJ is operated automatically to compute CPC bid values per product, per set of keywords, per ad placement, per search engine in real-time, all as a function of and synergistically with each of the CPC bid history, prevailing competitive CPC pricing, the sellers time-sensitive objectives and targets, and the prevailing market conditions.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein there is means for automatic computing of the optimum CPC bids for each search engine, for each set of key words, for each ad position for each product, and for selected geographical regions.

38. The system of claim 34 wherein there is means for automatic evaluating and ranking of the order the prevailing CPC bids according to the contribution to the unique business targets, with minimum expenditure, and for each search engine, for each set of key words, for each ad position, for each product, and for selected geographical regions.

39. The system of claim 37 wherein the CPC bids are automatically computed in real-time as a function of the seller'"'"'s targets, including revenue, profit, product inventory, supplier'"'"'s break, current target status as a function of time, desired relative degree of emphasis at that time, and the competitive market pricing for CPC for the desired ad placement.

40. The system of claim 37 wherein each CPC bid is computed in a manner so as to optimize the seller'"'"'s unique targets, while simultaneously minimizing the CPC expenditure and without manual intervention and associated inherent speculation while computing the CPC bids, thereby eliminating the significant inherent margins of error.

41. The system of claim 37 wherein the SAEJ enables instantaneous adaptation and responsiveness to evolving competitive market conditions in terms of ad placement location and corresponding CPC pricing for each set of key words, for each product and for each search engine, such that contribution to the seller'"'"'s unique business targets is optimized while minimizing expenditure, all performed without any manual intervention.

42. The system of claim 37 wherein means is provided for enabling the pricing decisions to be made automatically and instantaneously to adapt to the dynamically altering market place as reflected by the variance in the CTR, and to dynamically altering competitive pressures reflected by the variations in the CPC bid prices, and in a manner to optimize the targets.

43. The system of claim 37 wherein automatic evaluating and ranking of the prevailing CPM bids is according to the contribution to the unique business targets and with minimum expenditure, for each desirable web site for display ads, for each set of contextual key words for each product, and for selected geographical regions simultaneously computing the appropriate product price in addition to the CPM bid to optimize the targets, and with the seller'"'"'s CPM bid decisions completely synergistic with its unique business targets, while minimizing expenditure, and staying within its budgetary constraints.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein there is provided in real-time dynamic arbitraging of the advertising expenditure among both, search engine-based advertising channels and display ad channels, and in a manner which optimizes business targets while minimizing the advertising expenditure, and while staying within the budgetary constraints.

45. The system of claim 43 wherein means is provided to enable the advertiser to make a bid on higher quality of leads using sorting buckets at the search engine. optimizing the percentage of bids picked from each such bucket.

46. The system of claim 34 wherein means is provided to enable the advertiser to make iterative competitive bids in response to a specific user query with its unique characteristics instead of making CPC bids in advance in anticipation of a query.

47. A novel system optimizing a seller'"'"'s television advertising, having, in combination,

means for conducting a real-time competition and iterative on-line auction among would-be advertisers to win advertising rights for a commercial slot in a next POD for currently presented TV shows over participating networks;

means for collecting actual real-time demographics and providing such to each participating advertiser in the auction; and

means for automatically computing the bid price for the auctioning of a next slot for the selected show from such real-time demographics and from prevailing market conditions and within each advertiser'"'"'s budgetary constraints as configured by that advertiser, such as to optimize the aggregating demographic targets over a pre-defined time frame.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein each advertiser is provided with an SAEJ that automatically selects the commercial slot with the demographic characteristics best suited to optimize advertiser'"'"'s unique demographics targets as derived from its own unique business objectives, while simultaneously automatically minimizing the expenditure, all in real-time.

49. The system of claim 48 wherein the influence of competing shows at the same time, or in preceding or following time segments, or any other extraneous factor across networks are fully accounted for, without the need to speculate about the impact on a specific slot of a specific POD of a specific show, from other shows.

50. The system of claim 48 wherein the SAEJ also adjusts for the changes occurring in real-time while the show is on, and correspondingly decides to bid or not to bid, and the amount to bid, depending on the then prevailing demographics immediately prior to the next POD, and the competitive bids.

51. The system of claim 48 wherein means is provided for enabling automatic adjusting in real-time of the ad spending as a function of time based on the unique demographics for each slot for each show across all the shows.

52. The system of claim 48 wherein, in the event that slots are sold in advance, the SAEJ could be used to participate in iterative bids for such slots, while simultaneously optimizing the anticipated demographics for each slot for each show across the networks.

53. The system of claim 52 wherein a bump-up BUF bid is used to accelerate the auction process.

54. The system of claim 52 wherein the optimizing is effected in accordance with the formulas of equations (27)-(41) herein.