ADVERTISING VENUES AND OPTIMIZATION

• US 20110231242A1
• Filed: 03/16/2011
• Published: 09/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AppNexus Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Himrod, David M., Nolet, Michiel C., Dilling, Andrew S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,176,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

A system for providing an online advertising platform includes a first non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more data processors to group impression inventory units based at least in part on performance characteristics of the impression inventory units.

Claims

1. A system that provides an online advertising platform, the system comprising:

a first non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more data processors to;

group impression inventory units based at least in part on performance characteristics of the impression inventory units.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second non-transitory machine-readable medium storing data characterizing performance characteristics of at least some of the impression inventory units.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the performance characteristics are measured using one or more of the following revenue models:

cost-per-mille, cost-per-click, cost-per-action, click-through-rate, and cost-per-conversion.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions to group the impression inventory units comprise instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

examine data characterizing performance characteristics of at least some of the impression inventory units; and

based at least in part on results of the examination, identify, as a group, a cluster of impression inventory units that share similar performance characteristics.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions to group the impression inventory units comprise instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

examine data characterizing impression volume associated with at least some of the impression inventory units; and

based at least in part on results of the examination, identify, as a group, a cluster of impression inventory units that have an aggregate impression volume that exceeds a threshold.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first non-transitory machine-readable medium further stores instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

examine pricing data associated with at least some of the impression inventory units; and

determine an initial bid price for a first campaign based at least in part on one or more bidding goals associated with the first campaign and results of the examination.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first non-transitory machine-readable medium further stores instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

execute a plurality of first campaign transactions based at least in part on the initial bid price;

analyze events associated with the executed plurality of first campaign transactions; and

determine a final bid price for the first campaign based on results of the analysis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the events include conversion events and click events.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of first campaign transactions are executed on select groups of the set of groups.

6. The system of claim 6, wherein the first non-transitory machine-readable medium further stores instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

rank order groups of impression inventory units based at least in part on one or more of the following the respective aggregate impression volumes and a financial metric.

11. A system that provides an online advertising platform, the system comprising:

a first non-transitory machine-readable medium storing first data characterizing a set of venues, each venue including a set of impression inventory units that share similar performance characteristics, each venue having an estimated aggregate impression volume that exceeds a threshold;

a second non-transitory machine-readable medium storing second data characterizing member-specific prior executed transactions on the platform;

a third non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by one or more data processors to;

accept, from a first member, a specification of a first campaign, the specification including one or more bidding goals;

examine the second data to generate a rank ordered set of venues for the first member;

execute a first plurality of first campaign transactions on a first venue of the rank ordered set to determine a first bid valuation for the first campaign that satisfies the specification.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first venue of the ranked ordered set is the highest ranked venue of the ranked ordered set.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions to execute the first plurality of first campaign transactions comprises instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

iteratively execute the first plurality of first campaign transactions until a first events criteria is satisfied.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first events criteria includes a comparison of a number of success events and a learn threshold.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the success events include one of conversion events and click events.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the third non-transitory machine-readable medium stores instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

execute a second plurality of first campaign transactions on the first venue of the ranked ordered set to determine a second bid valuation for the first campaign that satisfies the specification.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the second bid valuation is capped in accordance with a maximum cost-per-mille revenuemodel.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions to execute the second plurality of first campaign transactions comprises instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

iteratively execute the second plurality of first campaign transactions until a second events criteria is satisfied.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the second events criteria includes a comparison of a number of success events and a confidence threshold.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the success events include one of conversion events and click events.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the third non-transitory machine-readable medium stores instructions executable by the one or more data processors to:

apply a cadence modifier to the second bid valuation.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the cadence modifier includes at least one of a recency component and a frequency component.