System and method for collection of advertising usage information

• US 20070027768A1
• Filed: 07/26/2006
• Published: 02/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Collins, Robert, Apodaca, Paul, Harvester, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,949,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.550
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0249 based upon budgets or funds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0263 based upon Internet or website rating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions

Abstract

A system comprises users disposed in various locations within a region, each user associated with an advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property; pods distributed within the region, each user being associated with at least one pod located more proximate to the user than another pod and that stores account information on the advertisement associated with the user; an advertisement channel for receiving a content request from a visitor, for obtaining an advertisement of a web property based on the content request, and for presenting the advertisement to the visitor in response to the content request; and a tag-based tracking mechanism for collecting visitor events if the visitor navigates to the web property and for forwarding visitor data based on the visitor events to the pod associated with the user that is associated with the advertisement.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

users coupled to a network and disposed in various geographic locations within a region, each user being associated with at least one advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement;

pods coupled to the network and geographically distributed within the region, each user being associated with at least one of the pods that is located more proximate to the user than another one of the pods and that stores account information on the advertisement associated with the user;

an advertisement channel coupled to the network and operative to receive a content request from a particular visitor, to obtain a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request, and to present the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request; and

a tag-based tracking mechanism operative to collect visitor event information if the particular visitor navigates to the particular web property from the particular advertisement and further operative to forward visitor data based on the visitor event information to the one of the pods associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the users include at least one of advertisers and agencies.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the account information includes advertisement tracking information.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the advertisement tracking information includes at least one of visitor session data, prominence information, rank information, click through rate information, funneling information and conversion information.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the advertisement tracking information is based on least one of the particular advertisement, an advertisement group to which the particular advertisement belongs, and an advertisement campaign to which the advertisement group belongs.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the content request includes a keyword-based search request.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising two advertisement servers coupled to the network, a given one of the two advertisement servers being located more proximate to the advertisement channel and operative to store the advertisements of the users.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the advertisement channel is operative to send an advertisement request to the given one of the advertisement servers in response to the content request of the particular visitor, and the given one of the advertisement servers is operative to forwarded one or more advertisements to the advertisement channel in response to the advertisement request.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the given one of the advertisement servers is operative to compare the advertisement request against criteria associated with the advertisements to determine which advertisements should be forwarded to the advertisement channel.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the given one of the advertisement servers is operative to compare bid amounts to prioritize the advertisements being forwarded to the advertisement channel.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes at least one of custom code, navigation code and program code on the web property.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes at least one HTML tag on the web property.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one HTML tag is operative to request an instrumentation script from a script server, the instrumentation script being operative to collect the visitor event information.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the instrumentation script is deactivated if the user account is inactive.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the instrumentation script is operative to collect at least one of impression events, lead events, browser events, shopper events, and conversion events.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising an image server coupled to the script server, the instrumentation script operative to send the collected information to the image server in response to a send event.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the send event includes one of a timed process, a count of visitor events, and particular visitor events.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the instrumentation script is operative to send the collected information using a 1×

1 .gif image request.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a pod collection server coupled to the image server, the image server operative to forward the collected information to a pod collection server coupled to the image server, the pod collection server operative to forward the visitor data based on the collected information to the one of the pods associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes an HTML tag on the advertisement.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the HTML tag on the advertisement is operative to direct the visitors to a redirect server, the redirect server being operative to collect event data and redirect the visitors to the associated web property.

22. A method comprising:

providing pods coupled to a network and geographically distributed within a region where users are located, each user being associated with at least one advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement, each user being associated with at least one of the pods that is located more proximate to the user than another one of the pods and that stores account information on the advertisement associated with the user;

receiving by an advertisement channel coupled to the network a content request from a particular visitor;

obtaining by the advertisement channel a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request;

presenting the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request;

collecting by a tag-based tracking mechanism visitor event information if the particular visitor navigates to the particular web property from the particular advertisement; and

forwarding visitor data based on the visitor event information to the one of the pods associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the users include at least one of advertisers and agencies.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the account information includes advertisement tracking information.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the advertisement tracking information includes at least one of visitor session data, prominence information, rank information, click through rate information, funneling information and conversion information.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the advertisement tracking information is based on least one of the particular advertisement, an advertisement group to which the particular advertisement belongs, and an advertisement campaign to which the advertisement group belongs.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the content request includes a keyword-based search request.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising storing the advertisements of the users on a given one of two advertisement servers coupled to the network, the given one of the two advertisement servers being located more proximate to the advertisement channel than the other advertisement server.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising

sending by the advertisement channel an advertisement request to the given one of the advertisement servers in response to the content request of the particular visitor;

and

forwarding by the given one of the advertisement servers one or more advertisements to the advertisement channel in response to the advertisement request.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising

comparing by the given one of the advertisement servers the advertisement request against criteria associated with the advertisements to determine which advertisements should be forwarded to the advertisement channel.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising comparing by the given one of the advertisement servers bid amounts to prioritize the advertisements being forwarded to the advertisement channel.

32. The method of claim 22, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes at least one of custom code, navigation code and program code on the web property.

33. The method of claim 22, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes at least one HTML tag on the web property.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising

requesting by the at least one HTML tag an instrumentation script from a script server;

and

collecting by the instrumentation script the visitor event information.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising deactivating the instrumentation script if the user account is inactive.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising

collecting by the instrumentation script at least one of impression events, lead events, browser events, shopper events, and conversion events.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising

sending by the instrumentation script the collected information to an image server coupled to the script server in response to a send event.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the send event includes one of a timed process, a count of visitor events, and particular visitor events.

39. The method of claim 37, further comprising

using a 1×

1 .gif image request to enable the instrumentation script to send the collected information to the image server.

40. The method of claim 37, further comprising

forwarding by the image server the collected information to a pod collection server coupled to the image server;

and

forwarding by the pod collection server the visitor data based on the collected information to the one of the pods associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.

41. The method of claim 33, wherein the tag-based tracking mechanism includes an HTML tag on the advertisement.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising

directing by the HTML tag on the advertisement the visitors to a redirect server;

collecting by the redirect server event data; and

redirecting by the redirect server the visitors to the associated web property.

43. A system comprising:

pods coupled to a network and geographically distributed within a region where users are located, each user being associated with at least one advertisement of an associated web property, each advertisement for enabling visitors to navigate to the associated web property via the advertisement, each user being associated with at least one of the pods that is located more proximate to the user than another one of the pods and that stores account information on the advertisement associated with the user;

means for receiving a content request from a particular visitor;

means for obtaining a particular advertisement of a particular web property based on the content request;

means for presenting the particular advertisement to the particular visitor in response to the content request;

means for collecting event information if the particular visitor navigates to the particular web property from the particular advertisement; and

means for forwarding visitor data based on the visitor event information to the one of the pods associated with the user that is associated with the particular advertisement.