Electronic ad direction through a computer system controlling ad space on multiple media properties based on a viewer's previous website visit

• US 9,830,615 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2016
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AlmondNet, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AlmondNet, Inc.
• Inventors: Shkedi, Roy
• Primary Examiner(s): KATSIKIS, KOSTAS J
• Application Number:
  US15/360,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20170076326A1
• Time in Patent Office: 370 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• 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: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

An automatic system facilitates selection of media properties on which to display an advertisement, responsive to a profile collected on a first media property, where a behavioral-targeting company calculates expected profit for an ad correlated with the profile and arranges for the visitor to be tagged with a tag readable by the selected media property. The profit can be calculated by deducting, from the revenues that are expected to be generated from an ad delivered based on the collected profile, at least the price of ad space at a media property where the BT company might like to deliver ads to the profiled visitor. When the calculated profit is positive (i.e., not a loss), the BT company arranges for the visitor to be tagged with a tag readable by the selected media property through which the BT company expects to profit.

Claims

1. A method of directing electronic advertisements, performed by a computer system of a behavioral targeting company (BT company), which computer system (BT computer system) is comprised of one or more computers, the method comprising:

automatically with the BT computer system;

(a) at a first time, arranging for a third party computer system controlling advertising space on a plurality of third party media properties to electronically tag a first computer of a first visitor visiting a first website, without transferring to the third party computer system any profile information related to the first visitor, which tag is readable by computers operating under a domain of the third party computer system and identifies the visitor computer as associated with the BT company;

(b) recording, in a profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website;

(c) electronically transferring to the third party computer system a price cap that the BT company is willing to pay for allowing delivery of an advertisement within media property advertising space controlled by the third party computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of third party media properties; and

(d) at a second time, later than the first time, upon receiving a redirection of the first computer while the first computer is visiting one of the plurality of third party media properties, causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer, which advertisement is based on the profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website, which profile information is in the profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, in exchange for a price less than the price cap.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement is automatically served to the first computer along with content of the one of the plurality of media properties visited by the first computer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one of the plurality of media properties visited by the first computer is a website.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the tag is a cookie stored on the first computer.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, automatically with the BT computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the act in part (d) of causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer comprises (i) selecting an advertisement based on profile information from a stored profile of the first visitor, and (ii) serving the selected advertisement to the first computer.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising, automatically with the BT computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the advertisement is automatically served to the first computer along with content of one of the media properties visited by the first computer.

9. A computer system controlled by a behavioral targeting company (BT company), which computer system (BT computer system) is comprised of one or more computers and is structured and programmed to perform a method of directing electronic advertisements, the method comprising:

automatically with the BT computer system;

(a) at a first time, arranging for a third party computer system controlling advertising space on a plurality of third party media properties to electronically tag a first computer of a first visitor visiting a first website, without transferring to the third party computer system any profile information related to the first visitor, which tag is readable by computers operating under a domain of the third party computer system and identifies the visitor computer as associated with the BT company;

(b) recording, in a profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website;

(c) electronically transferring to the computer system a price cap that the BT company is willing to pay for allowing delivery of an advertisement within media property advertising space controlled by the third party computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of third party media properties; and

(d) at a second time, later than the first time, upon receiving a redirection of the first computer while the first computer is visiting one of the plurality of third party media properties, causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer, which advertisement is based on the profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website, which profile information is in the profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, in exchange for a price less than the price cap.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein, in the method performed by the system, the advertisement is automatically served to the first computer along with content of the one of the media properties visited by the first computer.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the method performed by the system further comprises, automatically with the BT computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.

12. The system of claim 9 further comprising a storage containing visitor profile information and wherein, in the method performed by the system, the act in part (d) of causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer comprises (i) selecting an advertisement based on the visitor profile information in the storage, and (ii) serving the selected advertisement to the first computer.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the method performed by the system further comprises, automatically with the BT computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.

14. An article comprising a tangible medium that is not a transitory propagating signal encoding computer-readable instructions that, when applied to a computer system of a behavioral targeting (BT) company (BT company), which BT computer system (BT computer system) is comprised of one or more computers, instruct the BT computer system to perform a method of directing electronic advertisements, the method comprising:

automatically with the BT computer system;

(a) at a first time, arranging for a third party computer system controlling advertising space on a plurality of third party media properties to electronically tag a first computer of a first visitor visiting a first website, without transferring to the third party computer system any profile information related to the first visitor, which tag is readable by computers operating under a domain of the third party computer system and identifies the visitor computer as associated with the BT company;

(b) recording, in a profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website;

(c) electronically transferring to the third party computer system a price cap that the BT company is willing to pay for allowing delivery of an advertisement within media property advertising space controlled by the third party computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of third party media properties; and

(d) at a second time, later than the first time, upon receiving a redirection of the first computer while the first computer is visiting one of the plurality of third party media properties, causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer, which advertisement is based on the profile information collected during the first computer'"'"'s visit to the first website, which profile information is in the profile of the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, in exchange for a price less than the price cap.

15. The article of claim 14 wherein the method that the instructions instruct the BT computer system to perform further comprises, automatically with the BT computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.

16. The article of claim 14 wherein, in the method that the instructions instruct the BT computer system to perform, the act in part (d) of causing a selected advertisement to be served to the first computer comprises (i) selecting an advertisement based on profile information from a stored profile of the visitor, and (ii) serving the selected advertisement to the first computer.

17. The article of claim 16 wherein the method that the instructions instruct the BT computer system to perform further comprises, automatically with the computer system, after part (d), recording data indicating that the BT company owes the price to a proprietor of the computer system controlling advertising space on the plurality of media properties.