Arbitrage broker for online advertising exchange

• US 8,589,233 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Flake, Gary W., Brewer, Brett D., Meek, Christopher A., Chickering, David Max, Biggs, Jody D., Dominowska, Ewa, Burdick, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Bekerman, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, LUIS A
• Application Number:
  US11/763,542
• Publication Number:
  US 20080103903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,349 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.71, 705/14.7, 705/14.69, 705/14.48, 705/14.46, 705/14.4, 705/14.49, 705/14.73, 705/14.42, 705/400, 705/7.31
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

For a multi-party online advertising exchange including advertising and publishing entities and one or more third party participants, the disclosed systems and methods enable third party participation in arbitrage opportunities in online advertising transactions. A plurality of underlying transaction details are abstracted and provided to the third party participants without loss of generalization and while preserving relationships in the transaction data, to enable a third party share risk in advertising transactions. Various system refinements are provided and disclosed according to a host of optional embodiments.

Claims

1. A method for providing third party participation in an electronic online advertising exchange advertising transaction, comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a publishing entity electronic communication representing an ad placement ask price and associated publisher transaction data and associated one or more publisher requirements;

receiving, at a computing device, an advertising entity electronic communication representing an ad placement bid price and associated advertiser transaction data and associated one or more advertiser requirements;

determining, at a computing device, a match of the one or more publisher requirements with the one or more advertiser requirements, where there exists a mismatch between the ad placement bid price and the ad placement ask price;

storing information contained in the advertising and publishing entities electronic communications;

providing, at a computing device, dynamic electronic access to the stored information to a third-party;

receiving, at a computing device, a third party electronic communication indicating the third party decision to consummate an advertising transaction between the publisher and advertiser by contributing at least a portion of the mismatch between the ad placement bid price and the ad placement ask price; and

delivering a benefit to the third party when a user clicks on an advertisement that is displayed as part of the advertising transaction, wherein the benefit is a portion of the amount paid by the advertiser to the publisher for the user click.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored information includes one or more additional online advertising exchange information stores.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more additional online advertising exchange information stores includes one or more of demographic data, historical transaction data, exchange participant performance data, online advertising exchange audience member data, and online advertising exchange performance statistics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing information further comprises:

storing information in a format to preserve online advertising exchange participant and user privacy.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

creating the format to preserve online advertising exchange participant and user privacy through the use of one or more of one-way hashing techniques and n-ary trees.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing access to the third party to online advertising exchange value add brokers to assist the third party in determining whether to consummate the advertising transaction.

7. A method to share online advertising risk, comprising:

determining a publisher ask price for an advertising space;

determining an advertiser bid price for the advertising space, wherein the ask price is more than the bid price;

identifying, at a computing device, that the publisher ask and the advertiser bid is an undervalued online advertising transaction for the advertising space, wherein an undervalued online advertising transaction comprises a potential transaction where a mismatch between an ask price and a bid price exists;

assuming, by a third party arbitrageur to the undervalued online advertising transaction, the risk of the undervalued online advertising transaction, wherein the third party arbitrageur assumes the risk by paying the ask price to the publisher and receiving the bid price from the advertiser; and

rewarding the third party arbitrageur for assuming the risk when the undervalued online advertising transaction succeeds, wherein the online advertising transaction succeeds when a conversion results, and wherein the reward is a portion of the amount paid by the advertiser to the publisher for the conversion.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the risk assumption means includes one or more of the underlying undervalued online advertising transaction data, information sources external to the online exchange means, and online exchange value add brokers.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises protecting, at a computing device, exchange advertising transaction data through one or more of one-way hashing techniques and n-ary trees.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprise receiving, at a computing device, one or more exchange advertising transaction data privacy preferences.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the third party arbitrageur assumes less than the total risk of the transaction.