OFFLINE CONVERSION MEASUREMENT FOR ADVERTISEMENTS PRESENTED TO USERS OF AN ONLINE SYSTEM

• US 20150142551A1
• Filed: 11/20/2013
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Papakipos, Matthew Nicholas, Toksvig, Michael John, Hughes, Charles Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 10,467,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

An online system identifies a conversion of an advertisement when a client device associated with an online system user is within a threshold distance of a physical location associated with the advertisement. The client device sends obfuscated information identifying the user associated with the client device and the location of the client device to an independent third party when the client device is within a threshold distance of the physical location associated with the advertisement. Using information from the client device, the third party requests information from the online system identifying one or more groups including the user. Based on information identifying groups including various online system users, the third party generates information identifying conversions associated with different groups. The online system may determine effectiveness of various advertisements using the information from the third party identifying conversions associated with different groups.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an obfuscated identifier associated with a user of an online system from a third party, the identifier received by the third party via one or more devices;

identifying one or more groups maintained by the online system including the user of the online system based on the obfuscated identifier associated with the user;

obfuscating information identifying the one or more groups;

sending the obfuscated information describing the one or more groups to the third party;

receiving information from the third party describing a number of client devices within a threshold distance of a geographic location associated with an advertisement presented to one or more users of the online system in at least one group; and

determining a metric describing an effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups based on the received information from the third party.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the online system, information identifying one or more geographic locations associated with an advertisement;

sending information to one or more client devices identifying the user of the online system associated with a client device;

identifying an opportunity to present the advertisement to one or more users of the online system; and

sending the advertisement and the information identifying one or more geographic locations associated with the advertisement to the client devices associated with the one or more users of the online system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a group includes at least one selected from a group consisting of:

one or more users of the online system having at least one common demographic characteristic in user profiles associated with the one or more users, one or more users of the online system associated with a specific action captured by the online system, one or more users of the online system associated with a specific type of action captured by the online system, one or more users of the online system having a connection to an object maintained by the online system, one or more users associated with a geographic location, and any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices are selected from a group consisting of:

a device associated with the user, a computer networking device, a device associated with a retail location, and any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the metric describing the effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups based on the received information from the third party comprises:

identifying a number of client devices associated with a group of one or more users of the online system that were not presented with the advertisement from the received information from the third party;

identifying a number of client devices associated with an additional group of one or more users of the online system presented with the advertisement from the received information from the third party; and

generating the metric describing the effectiveness of the advertisement for the additional group based at least in part on the number of client devices associated with the group and at least in part on the number of client devices associated with the additional group.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the metric describing the effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the metric describing the effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographic location associated with the advertisement is based on information selected from a group consisting of:

a coordinate specifying a physical location and a dimension associated with the coordinate, coordinates of one or more physical locations, an identifier of a wireless access point and a minimum signal strength from the wireless access point, an identifier of a cellular telephone site and a minimum signal strength from the cellular telephone site, a model predicting a location of the user based on one or more point clouds, and any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more groups maintained by the online system including the user of the online system based on the obfuscated identifier associated with the user comprises:

determining information associated with the user based at least in part on the obfuscated identifier;

retrieving one or more privacy settings associated with the user by the online system; and

retrieving information identifying a group including the user if the one or more privacy settings associated with the user authorize communication of the information identifying the group to an entity external to the online system.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a query to the third party system; and

wherein receiving information from the third party describing a number of client devices within a threshold distance of a geographic location associated with an advertisement presented to one or more users of the online system in at least one group, is in response to the sent query.

11. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor, the computer-readable storage medium having instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive an obfuscated identifier associated with a user of an online system from a third party, the identifier received by the third party via one or more devices;

identify one or more groups maintained by the online system including the user of the online system from the obfuscated identifier;

obfuscate information identifying the one or more groups;

send the obfuscated information identifying the one or more groups to the third party;

receive information from the third party describing a number of client devices within a threshold distance of a geographic location associated with an advertisement presented to one or more users of the online system in one or more of the groups; and

determine a metric describing an effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups based on the received information from the third party.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions cause the processor to determine the metric describing an effectiveness of the advertisement for one or more groups based on the received information from the third party by causing the processor to:

identify a number of client devices associated with a group of one or more users of the online system that were not presented with the advertisement from the received information from the third party;

identify a number of client devices associated with an additional group of one or more users of the online system presented with the advertisement; and

generate the metric describing the effectiveness of the advertisement for the one or more groups based at least in part on the number of client devices associated with the group and at least in part on the number of client devices associated with the additional group.

13. A method comprising:

receiving obfuscated information identifying a user of an online system that is associated with a client device, and an obfuscated location associated the client device;

requesting obfuscated group information that includes the user from the online system based on the obfuscated identifier;

receiving the obfuscated group information from the online system; and

associating the obfuscated information identifying the user and the obfuscated location with the received obfuscated group information.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the obfuscated information identifying the user of the online system associated with the client device is selected from a group consisting of:

encrypted information identifying the user of the online system associated with the client device, hashed information identifying the user of the online system associated with the client device, additional information generated from the information identifying the user of the online system associated with the client device, and any combination thereof.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the obfuscated group information that includes the user is selected from a group consisting of:

one or more users of the online system having at least one common demographic characteristic in associated user profiles, one or more users of the online system associated with a specific action captured by the online system, one or more users of the online system associated with a specific type of action captured by the online system, one or more users of the online system having a connection to an object maintained by the online system, one or more users associated with a geographic location, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the obfuscated information identifying a user of an online system that is associated with a client device, and an obfuscated location associated the client device is received via one or more devices, including an identifier of a wireless access point.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the obfuscated information identifying a user of an online system that is associated with a client device is an encrypted media access control address associated with the client device.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the obfuscated location is selected from a group consisting of:

a coordinate specifying a physical location and a dimension associated with the coordinate, coordinates of one or more physical locations, an identifier of a wireless access point and a minimum signal strength from the wireless access point, an identifier of a cellular telephone site and a minimum signal strength from the cellular telephone site, a model predicting a location of the user based on one or more point clouds, and any combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

sending to the online system information describing a number of client devices associated with the obfuscated location within a particular time range.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the information is sent responsive to a request received from the online system.