SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FORECASTING AN INVENTORY OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT IMPRESSIONS FOR TARGETING IMPRESSION ATTRIBUTES

• US 20100114710A1
• Filed: 10/30/2008
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sordo, Mark, Chu, Victor K., Swanson, Donald, Chen, Peiji, Lin, Long-Ji, Agarwal, Deepak K., Zhang, Danny
• Granted Patent: US 8,311,882 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.660
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

An improved system and method for forecasting an inventory of online advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes is provided. An index of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties may be built for a targeting profile of attributes from forecasted impression pools. Impression pools of advertisements sharing the same attributes and trend forecast data for web pages and advertisement placements on the web pages may be integrated to generate the forecasted impression pools. An index of several index tables may be generated from forecasted impression pools. A query may be submitted to obtain an inventory forecast of advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes and the index may be searched to match forecasted impression pools for the targeted profile of attributes. Then the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties may be returned as query results for the targeting profile of attributes.

Claims

1. A computer system for forecasting an inventory of online advertising impressions, comprising:

an impression inventory forecaster that receives a plurality of queries to obtain an inventory forecast of a plurality of advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes and returns the inventory forecast of the plurality of advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes;

a query handler operably coupled to the impression inventory forecaster for receiving the plurality of queries to obtain the inventory forecast of the plurality of advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes; and

a storage operably coupled to the impression inventory forecaster that stores a plurality of index tables for finding trend forecast data of forecasted impression inventory indexed by a plurality of attributes from a plurality of forecasted impression pools.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising an impression inventory indexer operably coupled to the storage that generates the plurality of index tables from the plurality of forecasted impression pools for finding trend forecast data of forecasted impression inventory indexed by a plurality of attributes.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a impression forecast data integrator operably coupled to the storage that generates the plurality of forecasted impression pools from a plurality of impression pools and trend forecast data.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a query interface operably coupled to an application that sends the plurality of queries to the impression inventory forecaster to obtain the inventory forecast of the plurality of advertisement impressions for targeting profiles of attributes.

5. A computer-implemented method for forecasting an inventory of online advertising impressions, comprising:

receiving a query specifying a targeting profile of a plurality of attributes and a time period;

searching an index to find a plurality of forecasted impression pools that match the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period;

determining an inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties by summing a plurality trend forecasts during the time period for each forecasted impression pool that match; and

outputting the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties during the time period for the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein outputting the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties during the time period for the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes comprises sending the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties during the time period for the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes to an application executing on a client device.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving the query specifying the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period further comprises receiving at least one web page attribute.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising building the index to find the plurality of forecasted impression pools that match the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising storing the index to find the plurality of forecasted impression pools that match the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein building the index to find the plurality of forecasted impression pools that match the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period comprises building a plurality of index tables, one index table for each attribute value of the plurality of forecasted impression pools.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein building the index to find the plurality of forecasted impression pools that match the targeting profile of the plurality of attributes and the time period comprises retrieving a plurality of historical impressions of a plurality of advertisements served to a plurality of online users from a plurality of impression logs.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising creating a plurality of impression pools with a plurality of unique attributes from the plurality of impression logs.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising extracting a plurality of sample impressions of advertisements from the plurality of impression logs.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising assigning the plurality of sample impressions of advertisements from the plurality of impression logs to the plurality of impression pools.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising retrieving trend forecast data for untargeted inventory forecasting of a plurality of advertisement impressions and matching the trend forecast data for untargeted inventory forecasting of the plurality of advertisement impressions to the plurality of impression pools of sample impressions.

16. The method of claim 5 wherein determining an inventory forecast of advertisement impressions on display advertising properties by summing a plurality trend forecasts during the time period for each forecasted impression pool that match comprises multiplying a size of a forecasted impression pool that match trend forecast data for untargeted inventory forecasting of the plurality of advertisement impressions by the trend forecast data for the untargeted inventory forecasting.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 5.

18. A computer system for forecasting an inventory of online advertising impressions, comprising:

means for building an index of forecasted advertisement impressions available on display advertisement properties for targeting a profile of attributes;

means for receiving a query specifying a targeting profile for a time period;

means for determining an inventory forecast of advertisement impressions available on display advertisement properties for targeting the profile of attributes; and

means for outputting the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions available on display advertisement properties for targeting the profile of attributes.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising means for searching the index of forecasted advertisement impressions to find the inventory forecast of advertisement impressions available on display advertisement properties for targeting the profile of attributes.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein means for building the index of forecasted advertisement impressions available on display advertisement properties for targeting the profile of attributes comprises means for matching trend forecast data for untargeted inventory forecasting of a plurality of advertisement impressions to a plurality of historical advertisement impressions.