Selecting advertising for presentation with digital content

• US 9,530,152 B2
• Filed: 11/13/2015
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kramer, Joshua N., Janes, Cameron S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Jonathan V
• Application Number:
  US14/940,616
• Publication Number:
  US 20160071151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 410 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2408 Monitoring of the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. client requests monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for selecting advertising for presentation to users in association with digital content items. Characteristics of a user are determined based at least in part on historical data that associates the user with one or more items. An advertisement is selected from an inventory of advertisements for presentation in association with a digital content item requested by the user. The advertisement is selected based at least in part on a highest value placed on the characteristics of the user by an advertiser.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining, by at least one computing device, a browse history associated with a user based at least in part on a plurality of network pages of an electronic marketplace that have been requested by the user, at least some of the plurality of network pages featuring products offered for sale through the electronic marketplace;

maintaining, by the at least one computing device, an order history associated with the user based at least in part on a plurality of products purchased by the user through the electronic marketplace;

obtaining, by the at least one computing device, a request by the user for a presentation of a digital content item from a digital content library;

determining, by the at least one computing device, a plurality of characteristics of the user based at least in part on the browse history and the order history;

assigning, by the at least one computing device, values to a plurality of advertisements from an inventory of advertisements given the determined plurality of characteristics of the user;

selecting, by the at least one computing device, an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements that is assigned a value that matches a price an advertiser is willing to pay for a presentation of the advertisement to the user, the advertisement being selected irrespective of aggregate demographics associated with the digital content item; and

presenting, by the at least one computing device, the digital content item to the user in association with the advertisement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one advertisement in the inventory of advertisements is excluded from possible selection based at least in part on the digital content item.

3. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

an advertisement selection application executable in the at least one computing device, the advertisement selection application configured to at least;

determine a plurality of characteristics of a user based at least in part on historical data that associates the user with at least one item;

assign values to a plurality of advertisements from an inventory of advertisements given the determined plurality of characteristics of the user; and

select an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements for presentation in association with a digital content item requested by the user, the advertisement being selected based at least in part on a highest value placed on the plurality of characteristics of the user by an advertiser for a presentation of the advertisement to the user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the advertisement is selected irrespective of predicted aggregate demographics associated with the digital content item.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the user corresponds to a user of a network site, and the at least one item is offered on the network site.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the advertisement is selected based at least in part on a time elapsed since a last presentation of the advertisement to the user.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the advertisement selection application is further configured to disregard at least some of the historical data in determining the plurality of characteristics of the user in response to a request by the user.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the historical data includes data regarding a plurality of network pages visited by the user in an electronic marketplace, the plurality of network pages describing the at least one item which is offered by the electronic marketplace.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the historical data includes data regarding a plurality of items ordered by the user in an electronic marketplace or an amount spent by the user in the electronic marketplace.

10. The system of claim 3, wherein the historical data includes data regarding a location of the user.

11. The system of claim 3, wherein the historical data includes a user-created list of items that the user is interested in acquiring.

12. The system of claim 3, wherein the digital content item includes a video stream, and the advertisement selection application is further configured to at least embed the advertisement in the video stream.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the advertisement includes a video.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the advertisement includes an overlay for the video stream.

15. The system of claim 3, wherein the advertisement selection application is further configured to at least send an identification of the advertisement to another computing device configured to serve the digital content item to the user.

16. A method comprising:

maintaining, in at least one computing device, a history of interactions of a user with an online presence of at least one merchant, the history of interactions indicating a preference of the user for at least one product from a product catalog of the at least one merchant;

assigning, by the at least one computing device, values to a plurality of advertisements from an inventory of advertisements given the history of interactions of the user;

selecting, by the at least one computing device, an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements that is assigned a value that matches a price that an advertiser is willing to pay for a presentation of the advertisement to the user; and

presenting, by the at least one computing device, the advertisement in association with a digital content item requested by the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the history of interactions further includes a purchase history.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the history of interactions further includes a network page view history.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the advertisement is selected from the inventory of advertisements irrespective of demographic data associated with other consumers of the digital content item.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the advertisement is selected from the inventory of advertisements irrespective of the digital content item.