METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DELIVERING TARGETED CONTENT TO WEBSITE VISITORS

• US 20110054983A1
• Filed: 12/22/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Resonate Networks
• Original Assignee: Resonate Networks
• Inventors: Brady, John, Tabbal, Nicolas, Taylor, Sara, Hunn, Andreas J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,475,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/313 Selection or weighting of terms for indexing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics

Abstract

A method of selecting a website for delivery of targeted content to an audience member computer based on attitude values associated with audience members who participate in a computer implemented survey is disclosed. The survey response information, as well as website visitation information, and demographic information associated with the audience members may be collected and stored in a central database. An attitude value may be determined from the survey response information and/or the other information for the audience members. The attitude value may indicate the audience member'"'"'s view about an issue, topic, product, service or the like. The attitude value in conjunction with other website visitation information may be used to select a website for delivery of the targeted content to the audience members.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting content for viewing on a display connected to an audience member computer based on attitude values determined for audience members who participate in a computer implemented survey, and website visitation information and demographic information for the audience members, the method comprising:

receiving at a central database survey response information transmitted over a computer network from participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database website visitation information for the participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database demographic information which is associated with the (i) participating audience members, and (ii) non-participating audience members from whom no survey response information is received;

determining an attitude value for each of the participating audience members using a non-audience member computer based on one or more of the survey response information, the website visitation information and the demographic information;

determining a Quality Visitation Index (QVI) value for a website from the website visitation information and attitude values using the non-audience member computer;

providing content to the website based on the QVI value for the website; and

transmitting the content over the computer network to one of said participating or non-participating audience member computers as a result of one of said participating or non-participating audience member computers accessing the website.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the QVI value is based on a value selected from the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from two or more of the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from three or more of the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

displaying the content on the display connected to one of said participating or non-participating audience member computers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the QVI value is determined at least in part from a computer implemented comparison of (i) a percentage of participating audience member computers associated with a selected attitude value which visited the website in a selected time period, and (ii) a percentage of participating audience member computers which visited the website in the selected time period.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the percentage of participating audience member computers associated with a selected attitude value which visited the website in a selected time period is determined based on a computer implemented comparison of (i) a number of participating audience member computers associated with the selected attitude value and which visited the website in the selected time period, and (ii) a number of participating audience member computers which are associated with the selected attitude value.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of associating in the central database the attitude value, the survey response information, the website visitation information and the demographic information with an anonymous identifier for each participating audience member.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the demographic information associated with the participating audience member computers and the non-participating audience members.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the demographic information is selected from the group consisting of:

age, income, gender, census region, race, education level, religious affiliation, frequency of attendance at religious services, union participation, and frequency of Internet use information.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the time periods for which website visitation information is received.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the amount of time between the receipt of survey response information and the determination of the QVI value.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the QVI value comprises:

determining a net support score for the website based on the attitude values associated with the participating audience member computers; and

ranking the net support score for the website against the net support scores for other websites.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein determining the QVI value further comprises:

determining that a threshold number of participating audience member computers visited the website in a predetermined period of time.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein determining the QVI value further comprises:

determining that a threshold number of participating audience member computers associated with the selected attitude value visited the website in the predetermined period of time.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein said website visitation information includes website URL information, website page visitation information, session information, online purchase information, search term information, visitation time information, visitation duration information, and visitation date information.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the website visitation information includes page clutter information based on one or more of:

page length, number of advertisements on a page, location of advertisements on a page, and size of advertisements on a page information.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the survey response information is received from one of said participating audience member computers on two different days more than thirty days apart.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the attitude value is determined from information selected from the group consisting of:

orientation information, level of engagement information, level of support for an issue information, voting history information, media consumption information, and political party affiliation information.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the participating audience member computers are associated with multiple attitude values which are determined from political orientation information and level of engagement information.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein one of the multiple attitude values is determined from voting history information.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the one of the multiple attitude values are determined from political party affiliation information.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting the content over the computer network to one of said participating or non-participating audience member computers is dependent in part on the demographic information associated with the participating audience member computers which visited the website in the preselected time period.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the step of providing the content to the website based on the QVI value for the website is dependent in part on the demographic information associated with the non-participating audience members which visited the website in the selected time period.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the website visitation information relates to at least a multiple session period.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the multiple session period comprises a more than thirty day period.

28. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

receiving additional survey response information from additional participating audience member computers more than thirty days after the survey response information is received from the participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database the additional survey response information transmitted over the computer network from the additional participating audience member computers; and

determining the attitude value for each of the participating and additional participating audience member computers based on the survey response information and the additional survey response information.

29. A method of determining content for display on a website, the method comprising:

receiving at a central database survey response information transmitted over a computer network from participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database website visitation information for the participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database demographic information which is associated with the (i) participating audience members, and (ii) non-participating audience members from whom no survey response information is received;

determining an attitude value for each of the participating audience;

determining a Quality Visitation Index (QVI) value for a website from the website visitation information and attitude values; and

providing content to the website based on the QVI value for the website.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the QVI value is based on a value selected from the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from two or more of the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from three or more of the group consisting of:

a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, a pages per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the QVI value is based on values selected from a target group Reach Index, an opposing group Reach Index, a Net Support Score, a minutes per unique visitor Index, an ad clutter Index, a past performance Index, a minutes per page Index, and an ads per page Index.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising the step of:

displaying the content on the display connected to one of said participating or non-participating audience member computers.

35. The method of claim 29, wherein the QVI value is determined at least in part from a computer implemented comparison of (i) a percentage of participating audience member computers associated with a selected attitude value which visited the website in a selected time period, and (ii) a percentage of participating audience member computers which visited the website in the selected time period.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the percentage of participating audience member computers associated with a selected attitude value which visited the website in a selected time period is determined based on a computer implemented comparison of (i) a number of participating audience member computers associated with the selected attitude value and which visited the website in the selected time period, and (ii) a number of participating audience member computers which are associated with the selected attitude value.

37. The method of claim 29 further comprising the step of associating in the central database the attitude value, the survey response information, the website visitation information and the demographic information with an anonymous identifier for each participating audience member.

38. The method of claim 29 wherein the step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the demographic information associated with the participating audience member computers and the non-participating audience members.

39. The method of claim 29 wherein the step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the time periods for which website visitation information is received.

40. The method of claim 29 wherein step of determining a QVI value includes the step of weighting the website visitation information for the participating audience member computers by a factor based on the amount of time between the receipt of survey response information and the determination of the QVI value.

41. The method of claim 29 wherein determining the QVI value comprises:

determining a net support score for the website based on the attitude values associated with the participating audience member computers; and

ranking the net support score for the website against the net support scores for other websites.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein determining the QVI value further comprises:

determining that a threshold number of participating audience member computers visited the website in a predetermined period of time.

43. The method of claim 41 wherein determining the QVI value further comprises:

determining that a threshold number of participating audience member computers associated with the selected attitude value visited the website in the predetermined period of time.

44. The method of claim 29 wherein said website visitation information includes website URL information, website page visitation information, session information, online purchase information, search term information, visitation time information, visitation duration information, or visitation date information.

45. The method of claim 29 wherein the website visitation information includes page clutter information based on one or more of:

page length, number of advertisements on a page, location of advertisements on a page, and size of advertisements on a page information.

46. The method of claim 29 wherein the attitude value is determined from information selected from the group consisting of:

orientation information, level of engagement information, level of support for an issue information, voting history information, media consumption information, and political party affiliation information.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the participating audience member computers are associated with multiple attitude values which are determined from political orientation information and level of engagement information.

48. The method of claim 47 wherein one of the multiple attitude values is determined from voting history information.

49. The method of claim 47 wherein the one of the multiple attitude values are determined from political party affiliation information.

50. The method of claim 29 further comprising the steps of:

receiving additional survey response information from additional participating audience member computers more than thirty days after the survey response information is received from the participating audience member computers;

receiving at the central database the additional survey response information transmitted over the computer network from the additional participating audience member computers; and

determining the attitude value for each of the participating and additional participating audience member computers based on the survey response information and the additional survey response information.