RULE-BASED BIDDING PLATFORM

• US 20110184816A1
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Connexity, Inc.
• Original Assignee: PG USA, LLC
• Inventors: Jones, Graham, Jean, Dominique, Ritter, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,279 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A computing system is configured to accept bid rules from merchants for the placement of ads for a plurality of products. The bid rules comprise a bid amount, a rule definition and a priority. The bid amount may be an absolute bid or it may be relative to base advertising rate. The rule definition comprises criteria for describing products to determine when the bid rule is applied to a product for sale. The priority indicates whether the bid rule applies to a particular product when the rule definition of more than one bid rule could be applied to a product. The computing system is also configured to generate a list of product offers based at least in part on the bids. The system may also generate reports for merchants.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

one or more processors configured to execute software instructions;

one or more computer readable medium storing a first data structure comprising information regarding a plurality of products offered by a merchant and a second data structure comprising information regarding one or more bid rules of the merchant, the bid rules each including;

a bid amount;

a bid type indicating whether the bid amount comprises an absolute advertising rate or a relative bid adjustment to be made to a base advertising rate;

a rule definition comprising criteria for identifying matching products, the criteria comprising one or more price criteria, taxonomy criteria, or manufacturer criteria; and

a bidding priority indicating a respective priority of the bid rule in relation to other bid rules; and

a computer readable medium storing software instructions executable by the one or more processors in order to cause the computing system to perform operations comprising;

applying the bid rules to the products offered by the merchant in an order starting with a high priority bid rule having a highest bidding priority, and ending with a low priority bid rule having a lowest bidding priority, said applying the bid rules comprises, for each bid rule;

comparing the rule definition of the bid rule to attributes of respective products that have not yet been assigned an advertising rate; and

in response to identifying one or more products having attributes matching the rule definition of the bid rule, assigning respective advertising rates to the identified one or more products based on the bid type and bid amount of the bid rule.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a computer interface configured to allow the merchant to provide the bid rules;

transmitting the computer interface to a merchant computing device, and receiving the bid rules from the merchant computing device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said assigning respective advertising rates comprises:

in response to determining that the bid type of the bid rule is an absolute advertising rate, setting the advertising rate for the product as the bid amount; and

in response to determining that the bid type of the bid rule is a relative bid adjustment, setting the advertising rate for the product as the bid amount plus an applicable bid rate from a rate card.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some price criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products having prices that are less than, equal to, or greater than a threshold price match the respective price criteria.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some price criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products having prices that are within a range of prices match the respective price criteria.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some taxonomy criteria of respective rule definitions indicate the only products of a particular type match the respective taxonomy criteria.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein that particular type indicates one or more of a product channel, a product category or a product sub-category.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some product manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products manufactured by one or more manufactures indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of products offered by the merchant comprise vouchers or coupons.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein at least some of the manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only vouchers or coupons redeemable at one or more goods or services providers indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein at least some of the manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only vouchers or coupons redeemable for products manufactured by one or more manufactures indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.