Method and System for Measuring the Effectiveness of Search Advertising

• US 20130325588A1
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Published: 12/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Original Assignee: Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford Management Co.)
• Inventors: Narayanan, Sridhar, Kalyanam, Kirthi
• Application Number:
  US13/910,097
• Publication Number:
  US 20130325588A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns

Abstract

Embodiment of the present invention relate to algorithms for computing the causal effect of position in search engine advertising listings on outcomes such as click-through rates and sales orders.

Claims

1. A method for determining a position effect of a first advertising slot relative to a second advertising slot wherein the first advertising slot is of lower rank than the second advertising slot, comprising:

selecting a plurality of observations by which to measure the position effect of the first advertising slot;

selecting a bandwidth for a regression discontinuity algorithm;

collecting observations with scores within the selected bandwidth;

controlling for fixed effects; and

computing a position effect using the regression discontinuity algorithm.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising testing for the robustness of the selected bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected observations are used to measure a position effect of the second advertising slot.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the bandwidth is selected to be from 1% to 10% of a standard deviation of the selected observations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein controlling for fixed effects is performed using a computed mean-difference value of a plurality of outcome values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the position effect is performed using two limiting values of a mean difference measurement on two sides of a predetermined cutoff

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the measurement is a click through rate.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the position effect is performed using a local polynomial regression.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing a measure of robustness for the position effect.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the measure of robustness is performed by varying the bandwidth.

11. A computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing unit, cause the processing unit to implement a method for determining a position effect of a first advertising slot relative to a second advertising slot wherein the first advertising slot is of lower rank than the second advertising slot, by performing the steps of

selecting a plurality of observations by which to measure the position effect of the first advertising slot;

selecting a bandwidth for a regression discontinuity algorithm;

collecting observations with scores within the selected bandwidth;

controlling for fixed effects; and

computing a position effect using the regression discontinuity algorithm.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising testing for the robustness of the selected bandwidth.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the selected observations are used to measure a position effect of the second advertising slot.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the bandwidth is selected to be from 1% to 10% of a standard deviation of the selected observations.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein controlling for fixed effects is performed using a computed mean-difference value of a plurality of outcome values.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein computing the position effect is performed using two limiting values of a mean difference measurement on two sides of a predetermined cutoff

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the measurement is a click through rate.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein computing the position effect is performed using a local polynomial regression.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising computing a measure of robustness for the position effect.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the measure of robustness is performed by varying the bandwidth.

21. A computing device comprising:

a data bus;

a memory unit coupled to the data bus;

at least one processing unit coupled to the data bus and configured to

select a plurality of observations by which to measure the position effect of the first advertising slot;

select a bandwidth for a regression discontinuity algorithm;

collect observations with scores within the selected bandwidth;

control for fixed effects; and

compute a position effect using the regression discontinuity algorithm.