USING LOCATION INFORMATION FROM A REQUEST TO CONTROL AD SERVING

• US 20120109742A1
• Filed: 10/31/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: YEH, Leslie, RAMASWAMY, Sridhar, QIAN, Zhe, ROSE, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,388 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.43
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information. The location information used to target and/or score ads may be, include, or define an area. The area may be defined by at least one geographic reference point (e.g., defined by latitude and longitude coordinates) and perhaps additional information. Thus, the area may be a circle defined by a geographic reference point and a radius, an ellipse defined by two geographic reference points and a distance sum, or a polygon defined by three or more geographic reference points, for example.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a) accepting, by a computer system including at least one computer on a network, geolocation information associated with a request;

b) receiving, with the computer system, an ad determined to be relevant to the request;

c) determining, with the computer system, a geolocation of a presence of an advertiser of the ad found to be relevant to the request;

d) determining, with the computer system, a distance using both (1) the geolocation information associated with the request, and (2) the geolocation of the presence of the advertiser;

e) determining, with the computer system, a score of the ad using the determined distance; and

f) controlling serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the request further includes search terms, and wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of keyword targeting associated with the ad and terms included in the request.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the request further includes document relevance information, and wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of relevance information of the ad and the document relevance information.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses price information associated with the ad.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses performance information associated with the ad.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the geolocation information associated with the request and the geolocation of a presence of an advertiser each include at least one of (a) at least one region, (b) at least one state, (c) at least one metro area, (d) at least one city, (e) at least one town, (f) at least one postal zip code, and (g) at least one telephone area code.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

a) accepting, by a computer system including at least one computer on a network, geolocation information associated with a request, the request identifying an item of interest to an end user;

b) receiving, with the computer system, an ad determined to be relevant to the request;

c) determining, with the computer system, local availability of the item of interest at a location of a presence of an advertiser of the ad found to be relevant to the request;

d) determining, with the computer system, a score of the ad using the determined local availability; and

e) controlling serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of keyword targeting associated with the ad and the item of interest identified in the request.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses price information associated with the ad.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses performance information associated with the ad.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, wherein the geolocation information associated with the request and the geolocation of a presence of an advertiser each include at least one of (a) at least one region, (b) at least one state, (c) at least one metro area, (d) at least one city, (e) at least one town, (f) at least one postal zip code, and (g) at least one telephone area code.

13. A non-transitory storage medium storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method including:

a) accepting geolocation information associated with a request;

b) receiving an ad determined to be relevant to the request;

c) determining a geolocation of a presence of an advertiser of the ad found to be relevant to the request;

d) determining a distance using both (1) the geolocation information associated with the request, and (2) the geolocation of the presence of the advertiser;

e) determining a score of the ad using the determined distance; and

f) controlling serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score.

14. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 13 wherein the request further includes search terms, and wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of keyword targeting associated with the ad and terms included in the request.

15. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 13 wherein the request further includes document relevance information, and wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of relevance information of the ad and the document relevance information.

16. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 13 wherein the geolocation information associated with the request and the geolocation of a presence of an advertiser each include at least one of (a) at least one region, (b) at least one state, (c) at least one metro area, (d) at least one city, (e) at least one town, (f) at least one postal zip code, and (g) at least one telephone area code.

17. A non-transitory storage medium storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method including:

a) accepting geolocation information associated with a request, the request identifying an item of interest to an end user;

b) receiving an ad determined to be relevant to the request;

c) determining local availability of the item of interest at a location of a presence of an advertiser of the ad found to be relevant to the request;

d) determining a score of the ad using the determined local availability; and

e) controlling serving of the ad using the determined score.

18. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 17 wherein determining a score of the ad further uses a comparison of keyword targeting associated with the ad and the item of interest identified in the request.

19. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 17 wherein the geolocation information associated with the request and the geolocation of a presence of an advertiser each include at least one of (a) at least one region, (b) at least one state, (c) at least one metro area, (d) at least one city, (e) at least one town, (f) at least one postal zip code, and (g) at least one telephone area code.