DETERMINING WHETHER TO PROVIDE AN ADVERTISEMENT TO A USER OF A SOCIAL NETWORK

• US 20130275212A1
• Filed: 05/29/2013
• Published: 10/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Excalibur IP, LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Inventors: Agarwal, Deepak K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,805,391 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.52
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• 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 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Techniques are described herein for determining whether to provide an advertisement to a user of a social network. The determination is based on a click probability and a social network value for the user. The click probability indicates a likelihood of the user to select the advertisement if provided to the user via the social network. The social network value is based on a subscription probability of the user and further based on subscription probabilities of other users in the social network that are included in an affinity set of the user. Each subscription probability indicates a likelihood of a respective user to subscribe to a paid service with respect to the social network.

Claims

1. An advertisement serving system comprising:

a communication interface configured for data communication with user systems operated by users and social network server forming a social network;

a targeted advertisement module including one or more processors and configured to determine whether to provide specified advertisements to the user systems of the social network, the targeted advertisement module comprising;

a click probability module including at least one of the one or more processors and configured to determine a click probability for a first user of the social network, the click probability indicating a likelihood of the first user selecting a first advertisement if the first advertisement is provided to the first user via the social network;

a network value module including at least one of the one or more processors and configured to determine a social network value of a first user based on social network data; and

a provision determination module including at least one of the one or more processors and configured to determine whether to provide the first advertisement through the communication interface to the first user based on the click probability and the social network value.

2. The advertisement serving system of claim 1 wherein the network value module is further configured to:

retrieve social network link data about links between users of the social network;

determine the social network value of the first user using the retrieved social network link data.

3. The advertisement serving system of claim 2 wherein the network value module is further configured to:

retrieve social network link data having an associated link weight indicative of number, frequency or quality of communications between the first user and other users of the social network.

4. The advertisement serving system of claim 3 wherein the network value module is further configured to:

retrieve social network link data for communications between the first user and an affinity set of second users associated with the first user.

5. The advertisement serving system of claim 3 wherein the network value module comprises:

an iterative calculation module configured to calculate a score for users including the first user using the retrieved social network link data,

wherein the network value module is configured to implement a ranking algorithm and the calculated scores for the users to determine the social network value.

6. The advertisement serving system of claim 1 wherein the provision determination module is configured to determine a risk value for the first advertisement based on the click probability and the social network value and to use the risk value to determine whether to provide the first advertisement.

7. The advertisement serving system of claim 6 wherein the provision determination module is configured to determine a risk value indicative of a likelihood of the first advertisement negatively impacting an experience of the first user with respect to the social network.

8. The advertisement serving system of claim 1 further comprising:

a subscription probability module including at least one of the one or more processors and configured to determine a plurality of subscription probabilities for a plurality of respective users of the social network, the plurality of users including the first user and second users that are included in an affinity set of the first user, each subscription probability indicating a likelihood of a respective user of the plurality of users to subscribe to a paid service with respect to the social network.

9. The advertisement serving system of claim 8 wherein the network value module is further configured to determine the social network value for the first user based on the plurality of subscription probabilities.

10. The advertisement serving system of claim 9 wherein the provision determination module is configured to determine whether to provide the first advertisement by comparing the social network value for the first user to a threshold.

11. The advertisement serving system of claim 9 wherein the provision determination module is configured to determine whether to provide the first advertisement by:

comparing the click probability for the first user for the first advertisement to a click probability threshold; and

comparing the social network value for the first user to a social network value threshold.

12. A method comprising:

at one or more processors,

determining a social network value of a user to advertisers on a social network;

selecting an advertisement to show to a user having a relatively high social network value to minimize a negative impact on user experience of the user of a social network; and

selecting advertisements to show to users to maximize revenue of the social network due to showing of advertisements to users including the user of the social network.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining a social network value comprises:

identifying other uses of the social network with which the user has a relationship through the social network; and

determining a value for the relationships between the user and the identified other users.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein determining a value for the relationships comprises determining a value using a number of connections the user has with the identified other users through the social network.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein determining a value for the relationships comprises determining a value using information about the extent with which the user communicates with the other users through the social network.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

for a respective advertisement, determining a risk value which is indicative of a likelihood the respective advertisement will negatively impact the user experience of the user;

comparing the determined risk value to a risk threshold; and

selecting the advertisement to show to the user if the determined risk value does not exceed the risk threshold.

17. A method comprising:

using one or more processors of and advertising server system,

determining click probabilities for advertisements for a first user of a social network;

determining social network value for the first user;

combining the click probabilities for the advertisements and the first user and the social network value for the first user, determining a risk value which indicates a likelihood of the first advertisement to negatively impact an experience of the first user with respect to the social network; and

using the determined risk value, selecting an advertisement to provide to the first user.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

comparing the determined risk value with a risk threshold; and

selecting the advertisement to provide to the first user based on the comparison.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

determining a subscription probability for the first user of the social network, the subscription probability indicating a likelihood that the first user will subscribe to a paid service with respect to the social network; and

determining social network value for the first user using the subscription probability.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

determining a user score value as an initial score for the first user based on the subscription probability;

iteratively updating the user score value based on social network data for the user in the social network; and

determining the risk value based on the updated user score.