Pricing for online listings

• US 9,305,098 B1
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thryv, Inc. (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Original Assignee: Supermedia LLC (Mudrick Capital Management LP)
• Inventors: Willingham, Mitchell, Price, James D., Shulman, Alexander, Chinnasamy, Sivakumar, Ward, Jason, Petershiem, Nelson, Vander Kamp, Kendra Lee, Lewis, Andria, Raju, Venkatesh, Han, Xiao, Mortazavi, Ahmad, Navaneethan, Janarthanan, Liu, Yanlin, Randall, Mark C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Syling
• Application Number:
  US12/640,099
• Time in Patent Office: 2,301 Days
• Field of Search: 707/736
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds

Abstract

An advertiser budget is retrieved from a data store. A set of traffic sources associated with the advertiser budget are identified. An allocated budget for the set of traffic sources is generated by allocating at least part of the advertiser budget to the set of traffic sources. At least one advertisement is delivered via a traffic source of the set of traffic sources based at least in part on the allocated budget.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

retrieving an advertiser budget from a data store;

identifying a set of traffic sources associated with the advertiser budget, each traffic source being capable of providing a query, and displaying at least one advertisement in response to the query;

generating, in a computing device, an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources by allocating at least part of the advertiser budget to the set of traffic sources;

delivering at least one advertisement, via a traffic source from the set of traffic sources, based at least in part on the allocated budget.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of traffic sources includes one and only one traffic source.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a history of spend data for the set of traffic sources;

calculating an average spend value from the spend data;

multiplying the average spend value by a number of periods remaining in an accounting period to obtain a traffic source set accounting period budget and allocating the accounting period budget to the set of traffic sources; and

subtracting the accounting period budget from the advertiser budget.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

ranking a plurality of traffic sources;

assigning each ranked traffic source to a one of a plurality of sets of traffic sources; and

associating at least one of the sets of traffic sources with the advertiser budget.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a plurality of sets of traffic sources and generating a plurality of allocated budgets, each of the allocated budgets allocated to one of the sets of traffic sources.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising,

for each set of traffic sources:

generating an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources; and

subtracting the allocated budget from the advertiser budget.

7. A method, comprising:

retrieving, from a computer data store, a history of spend data for a set of traffic sources;

calculating, in a computing device, an average spend value using the spend data;

calculating a traffic source set accounting period budget based at least in part on the average spend value;

allocating the accounting period budget to the set of traffic sources;

subtracting the accounting period budget from an advertiser budget associated with the set of traffic sources; and

delivering at least one advertisement via a traffic source from the set of traffic sources based at least in part on the allocated accounting period budget.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

multiplying the average spend value by a number of periods remaining in an accounting period to obtain the traffic source set accounting period budget.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

ranking a plurality of traffic sources;

assigning each ranked traffic source to a one of a plurality of sets of traffic sources; and

associating at least one of the sets of traffic sources with the advertiser budget.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising identifying a plurality of sets of traffic sources and generating a plurality of allocated budgets, each of the allocated budgets allocated to one of the sets of traffic sources.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising,

for each set of traffic sources:

generating an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources; and

subtracting the allocated budget from the advertiser budget.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium, having instructions tangibly embodied thereon, the instructions executable by a processor, the instructions comprising instructions for:

retrieving an advertiser budget from a data store;

identifying a set of traffic sources associated with the advertiser budget, each traffic source being capable of providing a query and displaying at least one advertisement in response to the query;

generating an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources by allocating at least part of the advertiser budget to the set of traffic sources;

delivering at least one advertisement, via a traffic source from the set of traffic sources, based at least in part on the allocated budget.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions for:

retrieving a history of spend data for the set of traffic sources;

calculating an average spend value from the spend data;

multiplying the average spend value by a number of periods remaining in an accounting period to obtain a traffic source set accounting period budget;

allocating the accounting period budget to the set of traffic sources; and

subtracting the accounting period budget from the advertiser budget.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions for:

ranking a plurality of traffic sources;

assigning each ranked traffic source to a one of a plurality of sets of traffic sources; and

associating at least one of the sets of traffic sources with the advertiser budget.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 12, further comprising instructions for identifying a plurality of sets of traffic sources and generating a plurality of allocated budgets, each of the allocated budgets allocated to one of the sets of traffic sources.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising instructions for:

for each set of traffic sources;

generating an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources; and

subtracting the allocated budget from the advertiser budget.

17. A system comprising:

a server configured to;

retrieve an advertiser budget from a data store;

identify a set of traffic sources associated with the advertiser budget, each traffic source being capable of providing a query, and displaying at least one advertisement in response to the query;

generate an allocated budget for the set of traffic sources by allocating at least part of the advertiser budget to the set of traffic sources;

deliver at least one advertisement, via a traffic source from the set of traffic sources, based at least in part on the allocated budget.

18. The system of claim 17, the server further configured to:

retrieve a history of spend data for the set of traffic sources;

calculate an average spend value from the spend data;

multiply the average spend value by a number of periods remaining in an accounting period to obtain a traffic source set accounting period budget and allocating the accounting period budget to the set of traffic sources; and

subtract the accounting period budget from the advertiser budget.

19. The system of claim 18, the server further configured to:

rank a plurality of traffic sources;

assign each ranked traffic source to a one of a plurality of sets of traffic sources; and

associate at least one of the sets of traffic sources with the advertiser budget.

20. The system of claim 17, the server further configured to identify a plurality of sets of traffic sources and generate a plurality of allocated budgets, each of the allocated budgets allocated to one of the sets of traffic sources.