Social advertisements and other informational messages on a social networking website, and advertising model for same

• US 9,984,391 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2010
• Issued: 05/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kendall, Timothy A., Cohler, Matthew R., Zuckerberg, Mark E., Juan, Yun-Fang, Jin, Robert Kang-Xing, Rosenstein, Justin M., Bosworth, Andrew G., Wong, Yishan, D'Angelo, Adam, Palihapitiya, Chamath M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sittner, Matthew T
• Application Number:
  US12/853,241
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,850 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• 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 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

A social networking website logs information about actions taken by members of the website. For a particular member of the website, the website generates socially relevant ads for the member based on the actions logged for other members on the website to whom the member is connected (i.e., the member'"'"'s online friends). The advertiser associated with the social ad may compensate the social networking website for publishing the ad on the website. When presenting a member with a social ad, the website may optimize advertising revenue by selecting an ad from the received ads that will maximize the expected value of the social ad. The expected value may be computed according to a function that includes the member'"'"'s affinity for the ad content and the bid amount. The technique is also applied for providing socially relevant information off the social networking website.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a social networking computer system, an advertisement request from an advertiser to sponsor stories for display to a plurality of viewing users in a social networking system;

identifying an indication in the advertisement request of;

a type of action by other users with whom the viewing users have connections, the type of action selectable by an advertiser from a plurality of types of actions provided to the advertiser by the social networking computer system, and

an instruction to provide messages to the viewing users that the other users connected to the viewing users in the social networking system have performed actions of the indicated type of action;

receiving, by the social networking computer system, a bid amount for the advertiser to sponsor stories that match the advertisement request to accelerate the sponsored stories such that the sponsored stories are published in a news feed though at least some of the stories would not have otherwise been selected for publication without sponsorship;

logging, by the social networking computer system, information related to actions taken by the other users of the social networking system who have connections to the viewing users;

for each of the viewing users;

generating, by the social networking computer system based on the logged information, a set of stories that is personalized for the viewing user such that each viewing user has a different set of stories, each story comprising information about at least one of the actions taken by a user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user;

computing, by the social networking computer system, an affinity score between the viewing user and at least some of the generated stories, the affinity score for each of the stories based on the viewing user'"'"'s affinity for the user who took the action described in the story;

using the logged information and the indicated type of action in the received advertisement request to match the advertisement request to one or more of the stories to identify stories for sponsorship based on the story comprising;

an action that corresponds to the type of action indicated in the advertisement request;

selecting, by the social networking computer system, stories for display in a user interface for the viewing user, the selected stories comprising;

(1) a set of stories identified based on the affinity scores indicating affinity for the story above a threshold level, and

(2) one or more of the stories identified for sponsorship, the stories identified for sponsorship having been accelerated relative to others of the stories generated based on the the bid amount;

generating a news feed customized for the viewing user that includes the one or more of the stories identified for sponsorship interspersed with the selected set of stories; and

providing for display in user interfaces for each of the viewing users the generated news feed that is customized for the viewing user such that different stories are included in the news feed for different viewing users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the bid amount for the advertiser to sponsor stories represents an amount of compensation to be received by the social networking system if the viewing user takes a further action with respect to at least one of the sponsored stories.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the further action comprises a selection by the viewing user of a link on the selected story.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the set of stories personalized for a viewing user communicates an action taken on a third-party website by a user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the set of stories personalized for a viewing user communicates an action performed by a user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user, and wherein the action is communicated to the social networking system and is not directly observed by the social networking system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

for each of the viewing users, transmitting a web page with the selected stories to a device associated with the viewing user for display in a user interface for the viewing user thereon.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the affinity score is further based on the viewing user'"'"'s affinity for the action associated with the user who took the action described in the story.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stories identified for sponsorship are presented such that the viewing user cannot determine whether the one or more stories identified for sponsorship are news stories or are advertisements.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more stories identified for sponsorship are provided to the viewing user as unsponsored newsfeed stories in other contexts.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein payment by an advertiser for one of the stories generated maximizes the chance that the story will be provided for display to the viewing user in a situation where the story might not otherwise be selected for display.

11. A system comprising:

a profile store containing a profile for each of a plurality of users of a social networking system, each profile identifying a connection to each of a plurality of other users of the social networking system, the plurality of users comprising a plurality of viewing users;

an action logger for logging information, by a social networking computer system, related to actions taken by the other users of the social networking system who have a connection to the viewing users;

an advertisement request database for storing, by the social networking computer system, a plurality of advertisement requests from advertisers to the social networking system to sponsor stories for display to the viewing users, each advertisement request indicating;

a type of action by other users with whom the viewing users have connections,, the type of action selectable by the advertiser from a plurality of types of actions provided to the advertiser by the social networking system, and

an instruction to provide messages to the viewing users that the other users connected to the viewing users in the social networking system have performed actions of the indicated type of action,

wherein a bid amount for the advertiser to sponsor stories that match the advertisement request to accelerate the sponsored stories such that the sponsored stories are published in a news feed though at least some of the stories would not have otherwise been selected for publication without sponsorship;

a newsfeed generator for generating, for each of the viewing users by the social networking computer system, based on the logged information, a set of stories that is personalized for the viewing user such that each viewing user has a different set of stories, each story comprising information about at least one of the actions taken by a user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user;

a social networking computer system advertising server capable of receiving advertisement requests to sponsor stories for display on the social networking system, the advertising server configured to, for each of the viewing users, using the logged information and the indicated type of action in an advertisement request to match the advertisement request to one or more of stories to identify stories for sponsorship based on the story comprising;

an action that corresponds to the type of action identified in the advertisement request, and

the action having been taken by another user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user,

the advertising server further configured for;

computing, by the social networking computer system, an affinity score between the viewing user and at least some of the generated stories, the affinity score for each of the stories based on the viewing user'"'"'s affinity for the user who took the action described in the story, and

selecting, by the social networking computer system, stories for display in a user interface for the viewing user, the selected stories comprising;

(1) a set of stories identified based on the affinity scores indicating affinity for the story above a threshold level, and

(2) one or more of the stories identified for sponsorship, the stories identified for sponsorship having been accelerated relative to others of the stories generated based on the bid amount, and

generating a news feed customized for the viewing user that includes the one or more of the stories identified for sponsorship interspersed with the selected set of stories; and

a social networking computer system web server configured to provide for display in user interfaces for each of the viewing users the generated news feed that is customized for the viewing user such that different stories are included in the news feed for different viewing users.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the bid amount for the advertiser to sponsor stories represents an amount of compensation to be received by the social networking system if the viewing user takes a further action with respect to at least one of the sponsored stories.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the further action comprises a selection by the viewing user of a link on the selected story.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the set of stories personalized for a viewing user communicates an action taken on a third-party website by another user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein each of the set of stories personalized for a viewing user communicates an action performed by another user of the social networking system who has a connection to the viewing user, wherein the action is communicated to the social networking system and is not directly observed by the social networking system.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the social networking system is a social networking website.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein computing the affinity score is further based on the viewing user'"'"'s affinity for the action associated with the user who took the action described in the story.