Method and system for advertisement placement based on network trail proximity

• US 7,779,147 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 08/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pope, Elmore, Marshall, Brad, Scofield, Christopher, Saunders, Colin, Wang, Jiong
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yohannes; Tesfay
• Application Number:
  US11/541,038
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/235
• US Class Current: 709/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Users that visit a network site typically visit other sites in the same session. The surfing pattern or “trail” through the sites is significant because it may outline the underlining relationship between those sites. Once such data is available, the relationship between sites on the same user trails may be used to determine the placement of advertisements for sites by publishers. Additionally, the popularity or volume of traffic that navigates along a particular user trail may be used to affect the ranking/ordering of advertisements placed on a certain publisher site. An advertising broker may determine advertising pricing in part based on navigational path or user trail information. Thus, placing advertising on sites that are closer in proximity to the advertised site may cost more than placing advertising on sites not as close in proximity to the advertised site.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises program instructions executable by the processor to;

determine one or more proximate network sites within a given proximity of a particular network site on one or more network navigation paths, wherein the one or more proximate network sites are determined dependent upon user network traffic generated by a plurality of users visiting the particular network site from other network sites, wherein the given proximity of a given network site is determined dependent on one or more of the following characteristics of the user network traffic;

a quantity or type of the plurality of users visiting the particular network site from the given network site, a number of intermediate network sites visited by one or more users between the given network site and the particular network site, or an amount of time elapsed between one or more users visiting the given network site and visiting the particular network site;

rank the one or more proximate network sites according to a level of proximity within the given proximity for each respective proximate network site to the particular network site; and

associate advertising content regarding the particular network site with at least one of the proximate network sites and instruct display of the advertising content in association with the at least one of the proximate network sites, wherein the advertising content comprises a commercial advertisement of products or services related to the particular network site.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions are further executable to determine an advertising cost for said associating advertising content according to said ranking, wherein the determined advertising cost is higher to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate network sites with a higher level of proximity than to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate network sites with a lower level of proximity.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of users that navigate from the respective proximate network site to the particular network site.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of intermediate network sites which users visit between visiting the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an aggregate level of user quality regarding users visiting both the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an amount of time between users accessing the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the program instructions are further configured to determine a level of prominence for an advertisement regarding the particular network site on the at least one proximate network site according to said ranking.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial placement of the advertisement on the at least one proximate network site.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a link on the at least one proximate network site to the particular network site.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a target of an anchor link from another site to the at least one proximate network site.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the program instructions are further configured to charge to a user the determined advertising cost for said associating advertising content.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein the program instructions are further configured to bid the determined advertising cost in an auction for said associating advertising content.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein to associate the advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site, the program instructions are executable to insert an advertisement into content of the at least one proximate network site.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein to associate advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site, the program instructions are executable to insert a link to the particular network site on a network site displaying search query results including the at least one proximate network site.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein to associate advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site, the program instructions are executable to configure a trackback link to the particular network site on the at least one proximate network site.

16. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining one or more proximate network sites within a given proximity of a particular network site on one or more network navigational paths, wherein said determining is dependent upon user network traffic generated by a plurality of users visiting the particular network site from other network sites, wherein the given proximity of a given network site is determined dependent on one or more of the following characteristics of the user network traffic;

a quantity or type of the plurality of users visiting the particular network site from the given network site, a number of intermediate network sites visited by one or more users between the given network site and the particular network site, or an amount of time elapsed between one or more users visiting the given network site and visiting the particular network site;

ranking the one or more proximate network sites according to a level of proximity within the given proximity for each respective proximate network site to the particular network site; and

associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with at least one of the proximate network sites, wherein said associating further comprises instructing display of the advertising content in association with the at least one of the proximate network sites, wherein the advertising content comprises a commercial advertisement of products or services related to the particular network site.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining an advertising cost for said associating advertising content according to said ranking, wherein the determined advertising cost is higher to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate sites with a higher level of proximity than to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate network sites with a lower level of proximity.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of users that navigate from the respective proximate network site to the particular network site.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of intermediate network sites which users visit between visiting the respective proximate site and the particular network site.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an aggregate level of user quality regarding users visiting both the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an amount of time between users accessing the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising determining a level of prominence for an advertisement regarding the particular network site on the at least one proximate network site according to said ranking.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial placement of the advertisement on the at least one proximate network site.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a link on the at least one proximate network site to the particular network site.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a target of an anchor link from another site to the at least one proximate network site.

26. The method of claim 17, further comprising charging to a user the determined advertising cost for said associating advertising content.

27. The method of claim 17, further comprising bidding the determined advertising cost in an auction for said associating advertising content.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises inserting an advertisement into the content of the at least one proximate network site.

29. The method of claim 16, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises inserting a link to the particular network site on a network site displaying search query results including the at least one proximate network site.

30. The method of claim 16, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises configuring a trackback link to the particular network site on the at least one proximate network site.

31. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions executable to implement:

determining one or more proximate network sites within a given proximity of a particular network site on one or more network navigational paths, wherein said determining is dependent upon user network traffic generated by a plurality of users visiting the particular network site from other network sites, wherein the given proximity of a given network site is determined dependent on one or more of the following characteristics of the user network traffic;

a quantity or type of the plurality of users visiting the particular network site from the given network site, a number of intermediate network sites visited by one or more users between the given network site and the particular network site, or an amount of time elapsed between one or more users visiting the given network site and visiting the particular network site;

ranking the one or more proximate network sites according to a level of proximity within the given proximity for each respective proximate network site to the particular network site; and

associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with at least one of the proximate network sites, wherein said associating further comprises instructing display of the advertising content in association with the at least one of the proximate network sites, wherein the advertising content comprises a commercial advertisement of products or services related to the particular network site.

32. The medium of claim 31, further comprising determining an advertising cost for said associating advertising content according said ranking, wherein the determined advertising cost is higher to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate sites with a higher level of proximity than to associate the advertising content with one of the proximate network sites with a lower level of proximity.

33. The medium of claim 31, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of users that navigate from the respective proximate network site to the particular network site.

34. The medium of claim 31, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to a number of intermediate network sites that users visit between visiting the respective proximate site and the particular network site.

35. The medium of claim 31, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an aggregate level of user quality regarding users visiting both the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

36. The medium of claim 31, wherein the level of proximity for each respective proximate network site corresponds to an amount of time between users accessing the respective proximate network site and the particular network site.

37. The medium of claim 31, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement determining a level of prominence for the advertising content associated with the at least one proximate network site.

38. The medium of claim 37, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial placement of the advertisement on the at least one proximate network site.

39. The medium of claim 37, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a link on the at least one proximate network site to the particular network site.

40. The medium of claim 37, wherein the level of prominence corresponds to a spatial proximity of the advertisement to a target of an anchor link from another site to the at least one proximate network site.

41. The medium of claim 32, wherein the program instructions are further configured to charge to a user the determined advertising cost for said associating advertising content.

42. The medium of claim 32, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement bidding the determined advertising cost in an auction for said associating advertising content.

43. The medium of claim 31, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises inserting an advertisement into the content of the at least one proximate network site.

44. The medium of claim 31, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises inserting a link to the particular network site on a network site displaying search query results including the at least one proximate network site.

45. The medium of claim 31, wherein said associating advertising content regarding the particular network site with the at least one proximate network site comprises configuring a trackback link to the particular network site on the at least one proximate network site.