Pay-for-visit advertising based on visits to physical locations

• US 8,311,845 B2
• Filed: 04/13/2006
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Groupon Incorporated
• Inventors: Vengroff, Darren E., Holden, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Khanh H
• Application Number:
  US11/404,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20070185768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,406 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.4, 705/1.1, 705/44, 705 50- 79, 713/155, 713/170
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0266 based on the position of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

A method and system for providing a pay-for-visit billing model for advertisements is provided. The advertisement system provides advertisements that have associated physical visit locations. The advertisement system provides advertisements to a mobile device or fixed of a user when the user is in the vicinity of or examining locations in the vicinity of the visit location. If the user subsequently visits the visit location of the advertisement by physically going to the location, the advertisement system then bills the advertiser for the advertisement. The advertisement system bills the advertiser under the assumption that but for the advertisement, the user would not have visited the visit location.

Claims

1. A system for creating a pay-for-visit account for an advertiser, comprising:

a processor; and

one or more components that are configured to, when executed by the processor;

receive information from the advertiser about the pay-per-visit account and about a visit location;

identify a telephone number associated with the visit location independently of any telephone number information supplied by the advertiser;

place a call to the identified telephone number and obtain confirmation from an answering party to open the pay-per-visit account; and

complete creation of the pay-per-visit account in response to obtaining the confirmation from the answering party.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more components are further configured to, when executed by the processor, provide a confirmation code, and prompt the answering party for the confirmation code as part of obtaining confirmation to open the pay-per-visit account.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the one or more components are part of an advertising system and are further configured to generate the confirmation code before the providing of the confirmation code.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the one or more components are further configured to not complete the creation of the pay-per-visit account if the confirmation is not obtained from the answering party.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the one or more components of the advertising system each includes software instructions for execution by the processor.

6. The system of claim 2 further comprising an additional component that is configured to, when executed by the processor, charge the advertiser for a visit of a mobile device to the visit location after the mobile device has been provided with an advertisement of the advertiser.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by one or more programmed computer systems, information from an advertiser about an account to be opened and about an associated visit location;

identifying, by the one or more programmed computer systems and independently of any telephone number information supplied by the advertiser, a telephone number associated with the visit location;

placing, by the one or more programmed computer systems, a call to the identified telephone number and obtaining confirmation from an answering party to open the account; and

completing, by the one or more programmed computer systems, creation of the account in response to obtaining the confirmation from the answering party.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising performing interactions with the advertiser that include providing a confirmation code to the advertiser, wherein the receiving of the information from the advertiser is part of the interactions, and wherein the obtaining of the confirmation from the answering party includes prompting the answering party for the confirmation code.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the interactions with the advertiser occur via one or more web pages, and wherein the received information from the advertiser includes at least one of a business name and of a business location indicated on a map.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the one or more programmed computer systems are part of an advertising system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising not completing the creation of the account if the confirmation is not obtained from the answering party.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 further comprising, after the creation of the account, charging the advertiser based on an advertisement of the advertiser that is provided to a user.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the created account is a pay-for-visit account, wherein the visit location corresponds to a business of the advertiser, and wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on a visit of a mobile device of the user to the visit location of the advertiser.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on the user calling a specified telephone number associated with the advertisement.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on the user participating in a financial transaction with a business corresponding to the visit location.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 wherein the identifying of the telephone number associated with the visit location includes retrieving information from a mapping of business locations to telephone numbers.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored contents that configure a computer system to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, by the configured computer system, information for an advertiser about an account to be opened and about an associated visit location;

identifying, by the configured computer system and independently of any telephone number information supplied for the advertiser, a telephone number associated with the visit location;

using, by the configured computer system, the identified telephone number to contact an answering party and obtaining confirmation from the answering party to open the account; and

completing, by the configured computer system, creation of the account in response to obtaining the confirmation from the answering party.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises performing interactions with the advertiser that include providing a confirmation code to the advertiser, wherein the receiving of the information from the advertiser is part of the interactions, and wherein the obtaining of the confirmation from the answering party includes prompting the answering party for the confirmation code.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the interactions with the advertiser occur via one or more web pages, and wherein the received information from the advertiser includes at least one of a business name and of a business location indicated on a map.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the configured computer system is part of an advertising system.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises not completing the creation of the account if the confirmation is not obtained from the answering party.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises, after the creation of the account, charging the advertiser based on an advertisement of the advertiser that is provided to a user.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the created account is a pay-for-visit account, wherein the visit location corresponds to a business of the advertiser, and wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on a visit of a mobile device of the user to the visit location of the advertiser.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on the user calling a specified telephone number associated with the advertisement.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22 wherein the charging of the advertiser is further based on the user participating in a financial transaction with a business corresponding to the visit location.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the identifying of the telephone number associated with the visit location includes retrieving information from a mapping of business locations to telephone numbers.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises, before the obtaining of the confirmation from the answering party, providing a generated text message to the advertiser.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the using of the identified telephone number to contact the answering party includes providing a generated text message to the answering party.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 28 wherein the using of the identified telephone number to contact the answering party further includes placing a call to the identified telephone number, and wherein the generated text message provided during the placed call confirms previously provided information.