INVENTORY ALLOCATION FOR ADVERTISING WITH CHANGEABLE SUPPLY LANDSCAPE

• US 20120191541A1
• Filed: 01/24/2011
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yang, Jian, Mao, Jianchang
• Granted Patent: US 8,856,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.53
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0245 Surveys
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

An advertisement impression distribution system is programmed to generate an allocation plan for serving a number of advertisement impressions changeable as a result of one or more events, the allocation plan to allocate a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand. The system includes an optimizer programmed to establish a relationship between the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions, the relationship defining a range of possible proportions of allocation of the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions; and to impose at least one objective on the relationship including moderating an increase in the number of advertisement impressions available for allocation to the first and second portions, to minimize a cost associated with reducing a quality of the advertisement impressions as their volume increases. The system outputs the allocation plan to an ad serving module to control serving of the advertisement impressions according to the range of possible proportions of allocation between the first and the second portions.

Claims

1. An advertisement impression distribution system, comprising:

a data processing system including a processor and memory, the data processing system programmed to generate an allocation plan for serving a number of advertisement impressions eligible to meet a demand of a plurality of advertisers, the allocation plan to allocate a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand, the number of advertisement impressions being changeable as a result of one or more events;

where the data processing system includes an optimizer, the optimizer programmed to;

establish a relationship between the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions, the relationship defining a range of possible proportions of allocation of the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions; and

impose at least one objective on the relationship, wherein the at least one objective comprises moderating an increase in the number of advertisement impressions available for allocation to the first and second portions, to minimize a cost associated with reducing a quality of the advertisement impressions as their volume increases;

where the data processing system is further programmed to output the allocation plan to an ad serving module of the data processing system to control serving of the advertisement impressions according to the range of possible proportions of allocation between the first and the second portions.

2. The system of claim 1, where the one or more events that cause the advertisement impressions to change comprise one or more of:

changing a score threshold for qualifying a user into a specified interest category;

changing navigational links on a web page; and

dynamically changing displayed content on a web page;

where the interest category depends on user behavior, and where the cost of the advertisement impressions comprises a cost associated with a function that increases with an increase in the number of advertisement impressions.

3. The system of claim 1, where the at least one objective comprises minimizing a supply cost of the advertisement impressions, the optimizer further programmed to impose one or more of the following objectives in the relationship:

maximizing guaranteed demand representativeness, maximizing non-guaranteed demand revenue, and minimizing under-delivery penalties.

4. The system of claim 3, where the allocation plan is generated as goal programming, the optimizer further programmed to:

solve for a first of the objectives, resulting in a first requirement, then solve for a second of the objectives to generate a second requirement while relaxing the first requirement, where relaxing is to allow departure from a determined optimum value.

5. The system of claim 4, where the first requirement comprises a minimum penalty cost and the second requirement comprises a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, and where relaxing the first requirement comprises allowing the first requirement to be greater than the solved minimum penalty cost.

6. The system of claim 4, where the optimizer is further programmed to:

solve a third objective to generate a third requirement while relaxing one or more of the first and second requirements.

7. The system of claim 6, where the first requirement comprises a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, the second requirement comprises a minimum penalty cost, and the third requirement comprises a maximum guaranteed demand representativeness, and where relaxing the one or more of the first and second requirements comprises one or more of:

allowing the first requirement to be less than the solved maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue; and

allowing the second requirement to be greater than the solved minimum penalty cost.

8. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

solving a fourth objective to generate a fourth requirement while relaxing one or more of the first, second, and third requirements.

9. The system of claim 8, where the first, second, and third requirements comprise a minimum penalty cost, a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, and a minimum supply cost of the advertising impressions in any order, and where the fourth requirement comprises a maximum guaranteed demand representativeness.

10. The system of claim 9, where the first through fourth objectives are ordered according to priority and the highest priority objective is solved first.

11. The system of claim 3, where the optimizer is further programmed to:

combine the under-delivery penalties, the non-guaranteed demand revenue, and the supply cost of the advertisement impressions using a weighted sum of monetary objectives, the method further including;

first optimizing the monetary objectives; and

next optimizing the guaranteed demand representativeness.

12. A method for distributing advertisement impressions, the method executable by a data processing system having a processor and memory, and in the memory stored instructions, comprising:

generating, with the system through execution of the instructions, an allocation plan for serving a number of advertisement impressions eligible to meet a demand of a plurality of advertisers, the allocation plan to allocate a first portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy guaranteed demand and a second portion of advertisement impressions to satisfy non-guaranteed demand, the number of advertisement impressions being changeable as a result of one or more events, where generating comprises;

establishing a relationship between the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions, the relationship defining a range of possible proportions of allocation of the first portion of advertisement impressions and the second portion of advertisement impressions; and

imposing at least one objective on the relationship, wherein the at least one objective comprises moderating an increase in the number of advertisement impressions available for allocation to the first and second portions, to minimize a cost associated with reducing a quality of the advertisement impressions as their volume increases; and

outputting the allocation plan to an ad serving module of the system through execution of the instructions, to control serving of the advertisement impressions according to the range of possible proportions of allocation between the first and the second portions.

13. The method of claim 12, where the one or more events that cause the advertisement impressions to change comprise one or more of:

changing a score threshold for qualifying a user into a specified interest category;

changing navigational links on a web page; and

dynamically changing displayed content on a web page;

where the interest category depends on user behavior, and where the cost of the advertisement impressions comprises a cost associated with a function that increases with an increase in the number of advertisement impressions.

14. The method of claim 12, where the at least one objective comprises minimizing a supply cost of the advertisement impressions, the method further comprising also imposing one or more of the following objectives in the relationship:

maximizing guaranteed demand representativeness, maximizing non-guaranteed demand revenue, and minimizing under-delivery penalties.

15. The method of claim 14, where the allocation plan is generated as goal programming, the method further comprising:

solving for a first of the objectives, resulting in a first requirement, followed by solving for a second of the objectives to generate a second requirement while relaxing the first requirement, where relaxing is to allow departure from a determined optimum value.

16. The method of claim 15, where the first requirement comprises a minimum penalty cost and the second requirement comprises a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, and where relaxing the first requirement comprises allowing the first requirement to be greater than the solved minimum penalty cost.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

solving a third objective to generate a third requirement while relaxing one or more of the first and second requirements.

18. The method of claim 17, where the first requirement comprises a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, the second requirement comprises a minimum penalty cost, and the third requirement comprises a maximum guaranteed demand representativeness, and where relaxing the one or more of the first and second requirements comprises one or more of:

allowing the first requirement to be less than the solved maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue; and

allowing the second requirement to be greater than the solved minimum penalty cost.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

solving a fourth objective to generate a fourth requirement while relaxing one or more of the first, second, and third requirements.

20. The method of claim 19, where the first, second, and third requirements comprise a minimum penalty cost, a maximum non-guaranteed demand revenue, and a minimum supply cost of the advertising impressions in any order, and where the fourth requirement comprises a maximum guaranteed demand representativeness.

21. The method of claim 19, where the first through fourth objectives are ordered according to priority and the highest priority objective is solved first.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

combining the under-delivery penalties, the non-guaranteed demand revenue, and the supply cost of the advertisement impressions using a weighted sum of monetary objectives, the method further including;

first optimizing the monetary objectives; and

next optimizing the guaranteed demand representativeness.