Methods and apparatuses for pay for lead advertisements

• US 8,140,392 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: UTBK, Inc.
• Inventors: Altberg, Ebbe, Faber, Scott, Hirson, Ron, Van Der Linden, Sean, Manca, Paul G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US11/688,115
• Publication Number:
  US 20070165805A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,828 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.4, 705/14.69, 379/112.01, 379/114.01, 379/114.05
• US Class Current: 705/14.69
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for advertising where the performance is determined via tracking the communication leads generated from the advertisements. One embodiment includes: providing an advertisement on behalf of a specific party; and charging an advertisement fee responsive to a customer making a request for an in person communication with the specific party via the advertisement.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, via a computing device, to a user an advertisement on behalf of the advertiser of the advertisement, the advertisement including a communication reference to the advertiser, including contact information for addressing a request message by the user of the communication reference to establish a communication link through a first session initiation protocol message connection server;

receiving from the user a transmission of a request message comprising a request to establish the communication link to the advertiser using the request message to define the advertiser end point of the communication link;

establishing the communication link to the advertiser using the request message through one of the first session initiation protocol message connection server forwarding the request message to a second session initiation protocol message connection server of the advertiser, addressing a separate session initiation protocol request message to establish a second communication link to the advertiser and placing a telephone call to a number of the advertiser encoded in the communication reference to the advertiser; and

charging an advertisement fee responsive to the receipt of the request message from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises a telephone conversation with the advertiser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises instant messaging.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises an electronic mail message from the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises a voice message from the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises a video message from the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises a short message service message from the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication link comprises a request of the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the request message comprises the user requesting a connection for real time communications.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the connection allows full duplex communications between the user and the advertiser.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the connection allows communications in at least one of voice, audio, video and text.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a specific communication reference to the advertiser;

embedding the specific communication reference in the advertisement; and

tracking, using the specific communication reference, any request message.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining a telephonic reference of the advertiser in response to the request message; and

placing a voice over Internet protocol call to the advertiser using a telecommunication carrier using the communication link determined from the request message, the telecommunication carrier bridging the voice over Internet protocol call to a connection for the advertiser through a switch on a public switched telephone network.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the user transmitting the request message comprises the user particularly requesting to reveal contact information of the advertiser.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the user transmitting the request message comprises the user providing contact information for a call back to the user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the user transmitting the request message comprises the user requesting an appointment.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the user transmitting the request message comprises the user initiating a communication session.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating communication between the user and the advertiser using a reference embedded in the advertisement.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

verifying that the user is available for communication in person with the advertiser.

20. A tangible machine readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing to a user an advertisement on behalf of an advertiser of the advertisement, the advertisement including a communication reference to the advertiser, including contact information for addressing a request message by the user of the communication reference to establish a communication link through a first session initiation protocol message connection server;

receiving from the user a transmission of a request message comprising a request to establish the communication link to the advertiser using the request message to define the advertiser end point of the communication link;

establishing the communication link to the advertiser using the request message through one of the first session initiation protocol message connection server forwarding the request message to a second session initiation protocol message connection server of the advertiser, addressing a separate session initiation protocol request message to establish a second communication link to the advertiser and placing a telephone call to a number of the advertiser encoded in the communication reference to the advertiser; and

charging an advertisement fee responsive to the receipt of the request message from the user.

21. A system, comprising:

a computing device configured to;

provide to a user an advertisement on behalf of the advertiser of an advertisement, the advertisement including a communication reference to the advertiser, including contact information for addressing a request message by the user of the communication reference to establish a communication link through a first session initiation protocol message connection server;

receive from the user a transmission of a request message comprising a request to establish the communication link to the advertiser using the request message to define the advertiser end point of the communication link;

establish the communication link to the advertiser using the request message through one of the first session initiation protocol message connection server forwarding the request message to a second session initiation protocol message connection server of the advertiser, addressing a separate session initiation protocol request message to establish a second communication link to the advertiser and placing a telephone call to a number of the advertiser encoded in the communication reference to the advertiser; and

charge an advertisement fee responsive to the receipt of the request message from the user.