Determining Supply and Demand Using Online Advertisements

• US 20110225035A1
• Filed: 03/09/2010
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Markov, Martin, Patwa, Pritesh
• Application Number:
  US12/709,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20110225035A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer media for determining supply of and demand for a category of product or service are provided. Demand for a category of good or service is determined by combining advertising performance information for online advertisements relating to the category of goods or services and Internet query information relating to the category of goods or services using a weighting scheme. Supply of the category of good or service is determined by combining online advertisement placement information, offline advertisement placement information, and offline sales location information relating to the category of good or service using a weighting scheme. A user may select to view supply, demand, or supply and demand for the category of good or service.

Claims

1. One or more computer storage media storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method for determining demand for a category of goods or services, the method comprising:

retrieving advertising performance information for a plurality of online advertisements placed by a plurality of advertisers, the plurality of online advertisements relating to the category of goods or services;

retrieving search query information for a plurality of user Internet queries relating to the category of goods or services; and

determining demand for the category of goods or services by combining the retrieved advertising performance information and the retrieved search query information using a weighting scheme.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein advertising performance information includes ad clicks and ad conversion information.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the weighting scheme weights purchase-related advertising performance information most heavily.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein search query information includes one of Internet Protocol address or cookie-provided information.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the user Internet queries are categorized, and wherein the weighting scheme considers the total number of user Internet queries for each category and an Internet Protocol address for each user Internet query.

6. The media of claim 1, further comprising transmitting instructions for displaying demand for the category of goods or services according to a user-selected display preference.

7. The media of claim 6, wherein the user-selected display preference is one of gender, income, or geographic selection.

8. The media of claim 6, wherein demand is displayed spatially.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the spatial display is a chloropleth map.

10. One or more computer storage media storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method for determining supply of a category of goods or services, the method comprising:

retrieving, for a plurality of online advertisers, online advertisement placement information relating to the category of goods or services;

retrieving, for a plurality of entities, offline advertisement placement information and offline sales location information relating to the category of goods or services; and

determining supply of the category of goods or services by combining the retrieved online and offline advertisement placement information and the offline sales location information using a weighting scheme.

11. The media of claim 10, wherein the offline advertisement placement information is retrieved from a yellow pages telephone directory.

12. The media of claim 10, wherein the offline sales location information is retrieved from a business listing.

13. The media of claim 10, wherein online advertisement placement information includes the number of advertisements in a particular category placed in a particular geographic area.

14. The media of claim 10, further comprising transmitting instructions for displaying supply of the category of goods or services according to a user-selected display preference.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein the user-selected display preference is one of gender, income, or geographic selection.

16. The media of claim 14, wherein supply is displayed spatially.

17. The media of claim 16, wherein the spatial display is a chloropleth map.

18. One or more computer storage media storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method for determining supply and demand for a category of goods or services, the method comprising:

presenting a user interface allowing a user to select and view supply, demand, or supply and demand for the category of goods or services;

upon receiving a user selection to view supply or supply and demand, determining supply by;

retrieving, for a first plurality of online advertisers, online advertisement placement information relating to the category of goods or services,

retrieving, for a plurality of entities, offline advertisement placement information and offline sales location information relating to the category of goods or services, and

combining the retrieved online and offline advertisement placement information and offline sales location information using a weighting scheme;

upon receiving a user selection to view demand or supply and demand, determining demand by;

retrieving advertising performance information for a plurality of online advertisements placed by a second plurality of advertisers, the plurality of online advertisements relating to the category of goods or services,

retrieving search query information for a plurality of user Internet queries relating to the category of goods or services, and

combining the retrieved advertising performance information and the retrieved search query information using a weighting scheme; and

displaying supply, demand, or supply and demand.

19. The media of claim 18, wherein the user selection is displayed spatially in a chloropleth map.

20. The media of claim 18, wherein the offline advertisement placement information is retrieved from a yellow pages telephone directory.