Method and Apparatus for Transaction Tracking Over a Computer Network

• US 20110196721A1
• Filed: 04/21/2011
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Addante, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 8,965,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

An apparatus and a method for tracking transactions over a computer network is provided. An advertisement is provided to a user using a web client, such as a web browser, at a user node. The user selects the advertisement, e.g., by clicking on the advertisement, to request to an ad server for redirection to a transaction node associated with the advertisement. The ad server formats a cookie and provides to the user node. When the user requests a transaction after the redirection, the transaction node sends a transaction confirmation after performing the transaction. The transaction confirmation includes a command to record the transaction. In response to the command, the user node provides a query string and the cookie to the ad server for the transaction to be recorded.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, from a computing device, a request for an advertisement for display in a content provider network location that depicts content generated by a content provider;

sending, to the computing device, the advertisement;

receiving, from the computing device, a request for re-direction to a network location associated with the advertisement;

formatting a cookie with information indicative of the content provider network location;

sending, to the computing device, (i) a redirection command to redirect the computing device to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie;

receiving, from the computing device, (i) information indicative of a transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie; and

generating, at least partly based on contents of the cookie, information to attribute the content provider network location with (i) redirection to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content provider network location comprises a content site, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving information indicative of a selection of the advertisement displayed in the content site.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

formatting the cookie using information related to the selection of the advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

recording a cookie setting time to indicate a time at which the cookie is formatted.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording (i) the information indicative of the transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the cookie comprises information related to a campaign during which the advertisement is provided.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cookie is stored on the computing device.

8. A system comprising:

one or more processing devices;

an

one or more machine-readable media configured to store instructions that are executable by the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a computing device, a request for an advertisement for display in a content provider network location that depicts content generated by a content provider;

sending, to the computing device, the advertisement;

receiving, from the computing device, a request for re-direction to a network location associated with the advertisement;

formatting a cookie with information indicative of the content provider network location;

sending, to the computing device, (i) a redirection command to redirect the computing device to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie;

receiving, from the computing device, (i) information indicative of a transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie; and

generating, at least partly based on contents of the cookie, information to attribute the content provider network location with (i) redirection to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the transaction.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the content provider network location comprises a content site, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicative of a selection of the advertisement displayed in the content site.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

formatting the cookie using information related to the selection of the advertisement.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

recording a cookie setting time to indicate a time at which the cookie is formatted.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

recording (i) the information indicative of the transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the cookie comprises information related to a campaign during which the advertisement is provided.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the cookie is stored on the computing device.

15. One or more machine-readable media configured to store instructions that are executable by one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a computing device, a request for an advertisement for display in a content provider network location that depicts content generated by a content provider;

sending, to the computing device, the advertisement;

receiving, from the computing device, a request for re-direction to a network location associated with the advertisement;

formatting a cookie with information indicative of the content provider network location;

sending, to the computing device, (i) a redirection command to redirect the computing device to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie;

receiving, from the computing device, (i) information indicative of a transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie; and

generating, at least partly based on contents of the cookie, information to attribute the content provider network location with (i) redirection to the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the transaction.

16. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the content provider network location comprises a content site, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicative of a selection of the advertisement displayed in the content site.

17. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 16, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

formatting the cookie using information related to the selection of the advertisement.

18. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein formatting the cookie comprises:

recording a cookie setting time to indicate a time at which the cookie is formatted.

19. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

recording (i) the information indicative of the transaction performed through the network location associated with the advertisement, and (ii) the cookie.

20. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the cookie comprises information related to a campaign during which the advertisement is provided.