WEB ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20080104031A1
• Filed: 12/28/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Feedops Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Dynamic Creative Pty Ltd.
• Inventors: Grasso, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 8,166,015 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

The invention relates to a method, system and computer program for management of paid advertisements displayed in response to a search query entered into a search engine. A vendor'"'"'s inventory is discovered by reading from an inventory database. Search terms are determined for item categories in the inventory database, reading from fields of the inventory database. A user can specify additional or replacement search terms to be associated with a particular item. Advertisement sets are then created for items which are currently available or “in stock,” each set containing an advertisement corresponding to an item, the associated search terms, and a landing page identifier. The landing page displays search results from the vendor'"'"'s inventory database, relating to the corresponding item category for that advertisement.

Claims

1. A method of producing advertisements for display in response to search queries entered into a search engine service comprising:

(a) selecting a plurality of item categories from an inventory database;

(b) associating one or more search terms with each of the selected item categories; and

(c) producing advertisement sets, each set comprising an advertisement for a corresponding selected item category, the one or more associated search terms, and a landing page identifier, the advertisement sets for submission to a search engine service for display of the advertisement when the associated one or more search terms are included in a search query entered into the search engine service.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein (b) further comprises:

(b1) identifying a field of the inventory database, wherein the field has a plurality of possible values, and the items in at least one selected item category have a common value for the field;

(b2) setting the common value to be a search term; and

(b4) associating the search term with the at least one selected item category.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein (b) further comprises:

(b1) identifying a field of the inventory database, wherein the field has a plurality of possible values, and the items in at least one selected item category have a common value for the field;

(b2) setting the common value to be a search term;

(b3) allowing a user to specify additional or replacement search terms for the common value; and

(b4) associating the search terms with the at least one selected item category.

4. A method according to claim 2, wherein (b1) comprises identifying a plurality of fields.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein (b1), (b2) and (b3) are performed for each possible value of the field.

6. A method according to claim 2, wherein (b) further comprises:

(b5) associating generic search terms with each item category.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein (a) further comprises:

(a1) identifying a plurality of item categories from the inventory database;

(a2) for each item category, determining from the inventory database whether it meets one or more selection criteria; and

(a3) selecting item categories which meet the one or more selection criteria.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the number of items currently available in an item category is a selection criterion, and only item categories which contain a predetermined number of available items are selected.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the landing page identifier for each advertisement set identifies a landing page that is targeted at the corresponding item category.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the landing page identifier specifies a database query to the inventory database for the corresponding item category, and the landing page is a page of search results for the database query.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one selected item category has a plurality of corresponding advertisement sets, with advertisements having different creative forms.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein the advertisements are produced to include the values of fields of the inventory database.

13. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

(d) submitting the advertisement sets to a search engine service.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement sets are produced for submission to multiple search engine services.

15. A method according to claim 14, further comprising:

(d) submitting the advertisement sets to multiple search engine services.

16. A method according to claim 7, wherein the landing page identifier for each advertisement set identifies a landing page that is targeted at the corresponding item category.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the landing page identifier specifies a database query to the inventory database for the corresponding item category, and the landing page is a page of search results for the database query.

18. A method according to claim 7, wherein at least one selected item category has a plurality of corresponding advertisement sets, with advertisements having different creative forms.

19. A method according to claims 7, wherein the advertisements are produced to include the values of fields of the inventory database.

20. A method according to claim 7, further comprising.

(d) submitting the advertisement sets to a search engine service.

21. A method according to claim 7, wherein the advertisement sets are produced for submission to multiple search engine services.

22. A method according to claim 21, further comprising:

(d) submitting the advertisement sets to multiple search engine services.

28. A computer readable medium, encoded with data representing a computer program, that can be used to direct a programmable device to perform the method of claim 1.

29. A computer program element comprising a computer program code means to make a programmable device execute the method of claim 1.

23. A computer system for producing advertisements for display in response to search queries entered into a search engine service comprising:

a selector for selecting a plurality of item categories from an inventory database;

an associator to associate one or more search terms with each of the selected item categories; and

an advertisement producer for producing advertisement sets, each set comprising an advertisement for a corresponding selected item category, the one or more associated search terms, and a landing page identifier, the advertisement sets for submission to a search engine service for display of the advertisement when the associated one or more search terms are included in a search query entered into the search engine service.

24. A computer system according to claim 23, wherein the associator further comprises means to allow a user to specify one or more search terms associated with an item category.

25. A computer system according to claim 23, further comprising means to allow a user to adjust one or more selection criteria, for selection of item categories to advertise, and wherein the selector selects item categories according to the one or more selection criteria.

26. A computer system according to claim 23, further comprising:

an advertisement submitter for submitting the advertisement sets to a search engine service.

27. A computer system according to claim 26, wherein the advertisement submitter is adapted to submit the advertisement sets to multiple search engine services.

30. An advertisement set for a corresponding item category comprising:

an advertisement for display in response to a search query entered into a search engine;

one or more search terms associated with the item category; and

a landing page identifier,

wherein the landing page identifier specifies a database query to an inventory database for the corresponding item category, and the landing page is a page of search results for the database query.

31. A method of advertising an item category from an inventory database by:

producing an advertisement set comprising an advertisement for the item category, one or more associated search terms, and a landing page identifier;

submitting the advertisement set to a search engine service for display of the advertisement when the associated one or more search terms are included in a search query entered into the search engine service, and whereby a searcher can follow a link associated with the advertisement to access a landing page; and

when a searcher follows the link, providing to the searcher a landing page comprising search results for a database query to the inventory database for the item category.