SYSTEMS AND METHODS RELATING TO A LEAD DISTRIBUTION ENGINE WITH QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF LEAD SOURCES

• US 20080201204A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AutoWeb, Inc. (California)
• Original Assignee: Autobytel Incorporated
• Inventors: Dohoney, John L., Sward, Jeffrey E., Dunkle, Glenn R., Rose, C. Michael, Mathews, Peter D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

Lead distribution systems and methods distribute consumer business leads received from lead sources for routing to one or more destinations that use the leads and/or forward the leads to another destination. A quality level is assessed for each lead source, based in part on a percentage of leads from the source that result in a desired business transaction with the ultimate user of the lead. The system identifies a set of most profitable destinations for each lead, while maintaining a desired overall quality level and flow rate of leads routed to each destination. Adjusting the quality ratings of the lead sources may advantageously be used to affect the placement of their leads with destinations.

Claims

1. A method of managing the distribution of business leads received from lead sources to lead destinations, comprising:

maintaining information about a target number of business leads to route to each of a set of lead destinations per a given time period;

tracking information about the number of business leads distributed to each lead destination;

assigning a quality ranking to at least one lead source, wherein the quality ranking is indicative, at least in part, of a perceived quality level of leads received from the lead source and wherein the quality ranking is associated with a numerical multiplier; and

in response to receiving an offer of a business lead from the at least one lead source, identifying a set of candidate destinations for the business lead, multiplying the quality level multiplier by the target number for each candidate destination to calculate a modified target number, and blocking the business lead from being offered to candidate destinations that have already been distributed a number of leads equal to or greater than their modified target number of business leads for the given time period.

2. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1,

wherein the multiplier for a lead source having a high quality level ranking is greater than 1.00, so that the modified target number of candidate destinations is temporarily raised with respect to leads from the lead source, allowing more leads to be routed to the lead destinations from the lead source;

and

wherein the multiplier for a lead source having a low quality level ranking is less than 1.00, so that the modified target number of candidate destinations is temporarily lowered with respect to leads from the lead source, blocking more leads from being routed to the lead destinations from the lead source.

3. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning one or more lead sources to be included in a target override group, based at least in part on an assessment of a very high level of quality associated with the one or more lead sources; and

in response to receiving a business lead from a lead source in the target override group, refraining from blocking the business lead from being offered to lead destinations based on the lead destination'"'"'s target number of business leads for the given time period.

4. The method of distributing business leads of claim 3, wherein refraining from blocking the business lead from being offered to a lead destination comprises associating a sufficiently large numerical multiplier such that the resulting modified target number is greater than the number of leads already distributed to the destination.

5. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting information about leads that have been distributed, including, but not limited to, a percentage of leads received from a given lead source that result in a desired business transaction; and

assigning the quality ranking to the given lead source based at least in part on the percentage of leads received from the given lead source that result in the desired business transaction.

6. The method of distributing business leads of claim 5, further comprising:

continuing to collect information about leads that have been distributed, including, but not limited to, an updated percentage of leads received from the given lead source that result in the desired business transaction; and

modifying the quality ranking associated with the lead source in accordance with the updated collected information.

7. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1, wherein the given time period is a day.

8. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1, wherein the given time period is a week.

9. The method of distributing business leads of claim 1, wherein the given time period is a month.

10. A lead distribution system, comprising:

a selection system that filters a set of candidate destinations for a lead, based, at least in part, on a set of exclusion rules, including one or more target-based exclusion rules that are implemented to regulate a flow of leads to destinations over the course of a given time period; and

a control system that assigns a quality grade to each lead source, wherein the quality grade is reflective of a level of quality of leads from the lead source, and wherein the selection system is configured to process leads from sources that have been assigned a desired quality grade as exceptions to at least a portion of the exclusion rules.

11. The lead distribution system of claim 10, wherein at least one exclusion rule is based on a comparison between an average target number of leads to distribute to a destination within a given time period and a value that is indicative of an actual number of leads distributed to the destination during the time period.

12. The lead distribution system of claim 11, wherein the selection system is further configured to filter the candidate destinations for a given lead, in part, using a multiplier routine on the target number, wherein the multiplier routine temporarily raises a destination'"'"'s target number, while the selection system is filtering, if the lead is from a higher quality source, temporarily lowers the destination'"'"'s target number if the lead is from a lower quality source, or leaves the target number unchanged.

13. The lead distribution system of claim 12, wherein temporarily raising the destination'"'"'s target number decreases a likelihood that the destination will be excluded from receiving the lead.

14. The lead distribution system of claim 12, wherein a high quality grade causes a multiplier of approximately 1.4-1.5 to be applied to the target number.

15. The lead distribution system of claim 12, wherein a low quality grade causes a multiplier of approximately 0.8-0.85 to be applied to the target number.

16. The lead distribution system of claim 11, wherein the control system is further configured to influence a flow of leads from the lead sources to the lead destinations by modifying one or more assigned quality grades.

17. The lead distribution system of claim 16, wherein the control system comprises an automated module that instructs the control system when to automatically modify one or more quality grades.

18. The lead distribution system of claim 17, wherein the automated module instructs the control system to modify one or more quality grades in order to increase a flow of leads during periods when sales are known to frequently be low.

19. A method for distributing leads, comprising:

receiving leads from sources of different qualities, wherein at least one of the sources is assigned a quality grade indicative of a level of quality of the leads received from the source;

selecting one or more candidate destinations to which to provide each lead, wherein candidate destinations that are provided a lead are selected, at least in part, in conformance with blocking rules that block some candidate destinations from being selected for some leads;

storing information about the leads provided to a destination, including information about a quality level of the sources from which the provided leads were received; and

maintaining a desired overall level of quality of leads provided to the destination by implementing quality-related blocking rule overrides that allow for an increased number of leads of a desired quality level to be provided to the destination.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

monitoring the quality level of leads provided to the destination; and

in response to a current quality level of leads that is higher than the desired overall level of quality of leads provided to the destination, adjusting the blocking rule overrides to allow for a greater number of lower quality leads to be routed to the destination, if such an adjustment will increase net monetary gain or other business advantage.

21. A set of instructions stored on a computer readable medium for use by a general purpose computer, wherein the instructions direct the general purpose computer to:

access a quality grade for a lead source that is offering a lead for distribution;

filter a set of candidate destinations for the lead, based in part on a desired consistency of flow rates of leads to the candidate destinations over a given time period, such that leads from high quality lead sources may cause the flow rate of leads to a destination to be temporarily increased to a limited extent above the desired flow rate, and such that leads from low quality lead sources may cause the flow rate to be temporarily decreased to a limited extent, thereby, on average, making more candidate destinations available to leads from high quality lead sources and fewer candidate destinations available to leads from low quality lead sources.

22. A system for distributing leads, comprising:

means for receiving leads from sources of different qualities, wherein at least one of the sources is assigned a quality grade indicative of a level of quality of the leads received from the source;

means for selecting one or more destinations to which to provide each lead, wherein destinations that are provided a lead are selected, at least in part, in conformance with blocking rules that block some destinations from being selected for some leads;

means for storing information about the leads provided to a destination, including information about a quality level of the sources from which the provided leads were received; and

means for maintaining a desired overall level of quality of leads provided to the destination by implementing quality-related blocking rule overrides that allow for an increased number of leads of a desired adjusted quality level to be provided to the destination.

23. The system of claim 22, further comprising:

means for monitoring the quality level of leads provided to the destination; and

means for adjusting the blocking rule overrides to allow for a greater number of lower quality leads to be routed to the destination, in response to a current quality level of leads that is higher than the desired overall level of quality of leads provided to the destination, if such an adjustment will increase net monetary gain or other business advantage.