TRACKING LOCATION-SPECIFIC AD PERFORMANCE

• US 20120109744A1
• 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: Leslie Yeh, Mark Rose, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Zhe Qian
• Inventors: YEH, Leslie, RAMASWAMY, Sridhar, QIAN, Zhe, ROSE, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,818,856 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.45
• 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) selecting, with the computer system, an ad using the request;

c) serving, with the computer system, the ad to induce an impression of the ad;

d) receiving, with the computer system, a user selection of the ad served; and

e) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user selection of the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate defined as a number of received user selections of the ad divided by a number of ad impressions.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying, with the computer system, the serving of the ad with a unique process identifier.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the unique process identifier includes at least one of (A) an ad server identifier, or (B) a date and time of day.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the server identifier is an Internet Protocol address of the ad server.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:

associating the unique process identifier with the geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising:

associating the unique process identifier with the geolocation information associated with the request.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

f) receiving, with the computer system, a user conversion on the ad served; and

g) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user conversion on the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

10. Apparatus comprising:

a) at least one processor; and

b) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method including;

1) accepting geolocation information associated with a request;

2) selecting an ad using the request;

3) serving the ad to induce an impression of the ad;

4) receiving a user selection of the ad served; and

5) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user selection of the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate defined as a number of received user selections of the ad divided by a number of ad impressions.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the method further includes:

6) receiving a user conversion on the ad served; and

7) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user conversion on the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

14. 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) selecting an ad using the request;

c) serving the ad to induce an impression of the ad;

d) receiving a user selection of the ad served; and

e) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user selection of the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.

15. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate.

17. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14 wherein the geolocation-specific performance information is a geolocation-specific selection rate defined as a number of received user selections of the ad divided by a number of ad impressions.

18. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14, wherein the method further includes:

f) receiving a user conversion on the ad served; and

g) determining geolocation-specific performance information of the ad using (1) information about the impression, (2) information about the received user conversion on the ad, and (3) at least one of (A) the geolocation information associated with the request, or (B) geolocation targeting information used when serving the ad.