Method for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage

• US 9,076,162 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Issued: 07/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: McElfresh, Charles, Mineiro, Paul, Radford, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): STIBLEY, MICHAEL R
• Application Number:
  US11/963,551
• Publication Number:
  US 20080097834A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,755 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.52
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A method for the placement of advertisements on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such advertisements. The advertisements might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on an advertisement. Data regarding the past performance of the advertisements is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with the system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the advertisements on the page. The server performs a calculation regarding the likelihood that an event will occur for a given advertisement displayed to a user. The advertisements are arranged according to this calculation and returned to the user on the requested page. The likelihood can also be multiplied by a weighting factor and the advertisements arranged according to this product.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of providing placement of a plurality of advertisements on a page accessible by a user, the page having positions for receipt of the advertisements, each advertisement having at least one link to information, the link being invoked by an event identifying the advertisement by a computer pointing device, the method comprising:

at a server, storing in a database and retrieving from the database performance data associated with the likelihood of the event occurring for each advertisement;

at the server, in response to a request for advertisements from a website, arranging the advertisements relative to one another on the page using the performance data; and

delivering data defining the arranged advertisements for placement on the page by the website.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the server uses the performance data to calculate a likelihood that the event will occur, and the server prioritizes the arranging of the advertisements using this likelihood calculation.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein each advertisement has an associated weighting factor, the likelihood calculation is multiplied times the weighting factor by the server, and the arranging of the advertisements is prioritized by the server using this product.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the weighting factor includes a price of the advertisement.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood calculation includes computing, by the server, a statistical probability that a user will identify the advertisement.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising grouping and sorting the performance data for the advertisements by an arbitrator processor according to user characteristics, and the statistical probability is computed by the server based upon the user characteristics and upon past performance data for that advertisement.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the price of an advertisement is measured by the amount paid by the advertiser for each time a user identifies the advertisement.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the page includes a web page, on at least one website, accessible by an Internet based system, and the link includes a Uniform Resource Locator.

9. A computer implemented method of arranging a plurality of advertisements on a page viewable by a user on a computer display, comprising:

storing a plurality of advertisements in a database;

at a server calculating a value indicative of the rate that a specified event occurs for each advertisement displayed to the user; and

delivering to a web site at least some of the advertisements for display by the web site to the user, where the displayed advertisements are defined by the server to be arranged by the web site relative to one another on the page using the calculated values.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the displayed advertisements are arranged by the server for display in decreasing visual prominence on the page in decreasing order of calculated value.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein each displayed advertisement includes a link to information, and the specified event is a user invoking the link.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the specified event is a click-through and the calculated value for an advertisement is indicative of the rate that users click through the link associated with the advertisement.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein a stored advertisement may have associated with it in the database at least one constraint on the display of the advertisement.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein a constraint is one of a restriction on pages or positions where the advertisement may be displayed, and a restriction on a demographic variable of a user to whom the advertisement should be displayed.

15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the displayed advertisements are defined to be arranged on the page by the server in descending order using the product of the calculated value and a weighting factor.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the weighting factor is a monetary amount.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein each displayed advertisement includes a link to information, the specified event is a user invoking the link, and the monetary amount is a price per click through when a user invokes a link to information associated with an advertisement.

18. A method of displaying a plurality of advertisements on a page viewable by a user on a computer display, comprising:

storing a plurality of advertisements in a database, each advertisement including a link to information that is able to be invoked by a user identifying the advertisement by use of a computer pointing device;

at a server, calculating the probability that a user will invoke the link associated with an advertisement displayed to the user; and

at the server, selecting at least some of the advertisements for display on the page viewable by the user on the computer display when the ads are communicated with the page to the user, where the advertisements are determined by the server to be arranged relative to one another on the page in descending order as a function of the calculated probability that the user will invoke the link for each displayed advertisement.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the displayed advertisements are determined by the server to be arranged on the page in descending order using the product of the calculated probability and a weighting factor relating to a monetary amount.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the monetary amount is one of a revenue per user and a price per click-through when a user invokes a link associated with an advertisement.

21. The method according to claim 18, wherein a stored advertisement may have associated with it at least one constraint on the display of the advertisement.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein one constraint is a restriction on pages or positions where the advertisement may be displayed.

23. The method according to claim 21, wherein one constraint is a restriction on a demographic variable of a user to whom the advertisement should be displayed.

24. The method according to claim 18, wherein the calculated probability is based, at least in part, on the prior performance of the advertisement.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein when an advertisement is new, the calculated probability initially is set to an overestimated value so that the calculated probability converges from above.