Personal ad targeting

• US 9,152,984 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2012
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Inventors: Schoettler, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Weiss, John G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Scott C
• Application Number:
  US13/549,252
• Time in Patent Office: 1,180 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.12
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0209 Incentive being awarded or redeemed in connection with the playing of a video game
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute

Abstract

A system and method for selecting and customizing advertisements to be provided to a user includes monitoring user interactions within a virtual gaming environment and indirectly determining user characteristics based on the monitored user interactions. A user profile is generated from the user characteristics. An advertisement is selected and customized for the user based on the user profile. The advertisement is provided for display to the user in the virtual gaming environment.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for customizing advertisements for a user of an online game, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client device of the user, data indicative of user interactions of the user within the online game;

determining, based on the user interactions, one or more user characteristics of the user for a user profile of the user;

selecting, by at least one processor, an advertisement based on the user profile;

customizing, by the at least one processor, a color of at least a portion of content of the selected advertisement based on the user profile;

identifying a first particular number of display instances of a previously selected advertisement;

identifying that a final display instance of the previously selected advertisement resulted in a purchase request from the user profile;

customizing, based on the first particular number of display instances of the previously selected advertisement and the purchase request resulting from the final display instance, a second particular number of display instances the customized content of the selected advertisement will be displayed to the user; and

providing the customized content of the selected advertisement for display within the online game.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user characteristics include at least one of a color preference of the user, a game personality of the user, a purchasing habit of the user, a user frequency of play of the online game, and a social behavior of the user.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating an experiment to interact with the user within the online game;

causing the experiment to be presented within the online game;

receiving data indicative of a response from the user to the experiment; and

determining a characteristic of the user based on the user response to the experiment.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a weight factor for each user characteristic, each weight factor having a value based on the user interactions; and

applying each weight factor to the corresponding user characteristic,

wherein the advertisement is selected and the content of the selected advertisement is customized using the weighted user characteristics.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user characteristics include a personality of the user, the personality of the user determined based on a frequency of user interactions with the online game and types of user interactions with the online game.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the types of user interactions with the online game include user interactions with gameplay elements of the online game, user interactions with other users of the online game, and user interactions with aesthetic elements of the online game.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user characteristics include a purchasing profile of the user, the purchasing profile based on a monitored purchasing history of the user, and wherein the advertisement selected is for an item having a price within a price range of items contained in the monitored purchasing history of the user.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein customizing a color of at least a portion of content of the selected advertisement based on the user profile comprises at least:

changing, based on the user characteristics, a color of a particular portion of the content of the selected advertisement.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining, based on the user interactions, one or more user characteristics of the user for a user profile of the user comprises:

generating the user profile for the user based on the user characteristics.

10. A machine-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a client device of a user, data indicative of user interactions of the user within an online game;

determining, based on the user interactions, one or more user characteristics of the user for a user profile of the user;

selecting an advertisement based on the user profile;

customizing a color of at least a portion of content of selected advertisement based on the user profile;

identifying a first particular number of display instances of a previously selected advertisement;

identifying a final display instance of the previously selected advertisement resulted in a purchase request from the user profile;

customizing, based on the first particular number of display instances of the previously selected advertisement and the purchase request resulting from the final display, a second particular number of display instances the customized content of the selected advertisement will be displayed to the user; and

providing the customized content of the advertisement for display within the online game.

11. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the user characteristics include at least one of a color preference of the user, a game personality of the user, a purchasing habit of the user, a user frequency of play of the online game, and a social behavior of the user.

12. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising:

generating an experiment to interact with the user within the online game;

causing the experiment to be presented within the online game;

receiving data indicative of a response from the user to the experiment; and

determining a characteristic of the user based on the user response to the experiment.

13. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising:

generating a weight factor for each user characteristic, each weight factor having a value based on the user interactions; and

applying each weight factor to the corresponding user characteristic,

wherein the advertisement is selected and the content of the selected advertisement is customized using the weighted user characteristics.

14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the user characteristics include a personality of the user, the personality of the user determined based on a frequency of user interactions with the online game and types of user interactions with the online game, wherein the types of user interactions with the online game include user interactions with gameplay elements of the online game, user interactions with other users of the online game, and user interactions with aesthetic elements of the online game.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the user characteristics include a purchasing profile of the user, the purchasing profile based on a monitored purchasing history of the user, and wherein the advertisement selected is for an item having a price within a price range of items contained in the monitored purchasing history of the user.

16. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

a monitoring module implemented by the at least one processor and configured to monitor user interactions of a user within an online game;

an analysis module implemented by the at least one processor and configured to determine, based on monitored user interactions, one or more user characteristics of the user for a user profile of the user;

an ad customization module implemented by the at least one processor and configured to select and customize a color of at least a portion of content of an advertisement based on the user profile containing the user characteristics, the customized content of the selected advertisement being provided for display within the online game; and

a display customization module implemented by the at least one processor and configured to identify a first particular number of display instances of a previously selected advertisement and to identify a final display instance of the previously selected advertisement resulted in a purchase request from the user profile and further configured to customize, based on the first particular number of display instances of the previously selected advertisement and the purchase request resulting from the final display, a second particular number of display instances the customized content of the selected advertisement will be displayed to the user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the user characteristics include at least one of a color preference of the user, a game personality of the user, a purchasing habit of the user, a user frequency of play of the online game, and a social behavior of the user.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising an experiment module configured to:

generate an experiment to interact with the user within the online game; and

cause the experiment to be presented within the online game,

wherein the monitoring module is further configured to receive data indicative of a response from the user to the experiment, and

wherein the analysis module is further configured to determine a characteristic of the user based on the user response to the experiment.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a weighting module configured to:

generate a weight factor for each user characteristic, each weight factor having a value based on the monitored user interactions; and

applying each weight factor to the corresponding user characteristic,

wherein the ad customization module is configured to select the advertisement and customize the content of the selected advertisement using the weighted user characteristics.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the user characteristics include a personality of the user, the personality of the user determined based on a frequency of user interactions with the online game and types of user interactions with the online game, wherein the types of user interactions with the online game include user interactions with gameplay elements of the online game, user interactions with other users of the online game, and user interactions with aesthetic elements of the online game.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the user characteristics include a purchasing profile of the user, the purchasing profile based on a monitored purchasing history of the user, and wherein the advertisement selected is for an item having a price within a price range of items contained in the monitored purchasing history of the user.

22. The system of claim 16, further comprising a user profile generator module configured to generate the user profile for the user based on the user characteristics.