Determining and/or using location information in an ad system

• US 7,680,796 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Sridhar, Yeh, Leslie, Qian, Zhe
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi; Diane
• Application Number:
  US10/654,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20050050097A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,386 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1- 10, 707100-1041, 707200-206, 705/14, 705/26, 705/7, 705/10, 705/30, 705/37, 455/3.04
• US Class Current: 707/724
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0244 Optimization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0257 User requested
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

The usefulness, and consequently the performance, of advertisements are improved by allowing businesses to better target their ads to a responsive audience. Location information, such as country, region, metro area, city or town, postal zip code, telephone area code, etc. is determined (or simply accepted) and used. For example, location information may be used in a relevancy determination of an ad. As another example, location information may be used in an attribute (e.g., position) arbitration. Such location information may be associated with price information, such as a maximum price bid. Such location information may be associated with ad performance information. Ad performance information may be tracked on the basis of location information. The content of an ad creative, and/or of a landing page may be selected and/or modified using location information. Finally, tools, such as user interfaces, may be provided to allow a business to enter and/or modify location information, such as location information used for targeting and location-dependent price information.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a score of an ad with respect to each of a plurality of ad requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:

a) accepting, with an online ad serving system including at least one computer, each of the at least one computer including at least one processor, at least one storage device, at least one input interface and at least one output interface, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request;

b) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein geolocation-specific price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion, and wherein the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first the geolocation information accepted;

c) determining, using the online ad serving system, a score for the ad with respect to the first ad request using at least the geolocation-specific price information, wherein the general price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion;

d) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device in response to the first ad request, using the determined score of the ad;

e) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request;

f) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted;

g) determining, using the online ad serving system, a second score for the ad with respect to the second ad request using at least the general price information; and

h) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.

3. A computer-implemented method for determining a score of an ad with respect to ad requests, the computer-implemented method comprising:

a) accepting, with an online ad serving system including at least one computer, each of the at least one computer including at least one processor, at least one storage device, at least one input interface and at least one output interface, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request;

b) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad has geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the geolocation-specific performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted and a conversion rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted;

c) determining, with the online ad serving system, a score of the ad using at least the geolocation-specific performance information;

d) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score of the ad;

e) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request;

f) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad does not have geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted;

g) determining, with the online ad serving system, a second score of the ad using at least general performance information associated with the ad, wherein the general performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad and a conversion rate of the ad; and

h) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.

5. A computer-implemented method for serving an ad for rendering on a client device in a network of computers, the computer-implemented method comprising:

a) accepting, with an online ad serving system including at least one computer, each of the at least one computer including at least one processor, at least one storage device, at least one input interface and at least one output interface, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request sourced from the client device;

b) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether an ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted;

c) serving, with the online ad serving system to the client device, the ad with the geolocation-specific creative information, wherein the ad being served with the geolocation-specific creative information is automatically created responsive to the request, using the geolocation information associated with the request;

d) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request;

e) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted; and

f) serving, with the online ad serving system, the ad with general creative information, wherein the ad being served with the general creative is automatically created, responsive to the second request, using the general creative information.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.

7. An online ad serving system comprising:

a) at least one processor; and

b) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method including

1) accepting, with the online ad serving system, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request,

2) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein geolocation-specific price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion, and wherein the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the first the geolocation information accepted,

3) determining, using the online ad serving system, a score for the ad with respect to the first ad request using at least the geolocation-specific price information, wherein the general price information includes at least one of (A) a cost per impression, (B) a cost per selection, (C) a cost per conversion, (D) a maximum cost per impression, (E) a maximum cost per selection, and (F) a maximum cost per conversion,

4) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device in response to the first ad request, using the determined score of the ad;

5) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request,

6) determining, using the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific price information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted,

7) determining, using the online ad serving system, a second score for the ad with respect to the second ad request using at least the general price information, and

8) controlling, using the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.

8. The online ad serving system of claim 7 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.

9. An online ad serving system comprising:

a) at least one processor; and

b) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method including

1) accepting, with the online ad serving system, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request,

2) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad has geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the geolocation-specific performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted and a conversion rate of the ad corresponding to the geolocation information accepted,

3) determining, with the online ad serving system, a score of the ad using at least the geolocation-specific performance information,

4) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined score of the ad,

5) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request,

6) determining, with the online ad serving system, that the ad does not have geolocation-specific performance information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted,

7) determining, with the online ad serving system, a second score of the ad using at least general performance information associated with the ad, wherein the general performance information of the ad includes at least one of a selection rate of the ad and a conversion rate of the ad, and

8) controlling, with the online ad serving system, the serving of the ad, for rendering on a client device, using the determined second score of the ad.

10. The online ad serving system of claim 9 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.

11. An online ad serving system comprising:

a) at least one processor;

b) at least one client device on a network in communication with the at least one processor; and

c) at least one storage device storing processor-executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method including

1) accepting, with the online ad serving system, first geolocation information associated with a first ad request sourced from the client device,

2) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether an ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the first geolocation information accepted,

3) serving, with the online ad serving system to the client device, the ad with the geolocation-specific creative information, wherein the ad being served with the geolocation-specific creative information is automatically created responsive to the request, using the geolocation information associated with the request,

4) accepting, with the online ad serving system, second geolocation information associated with a second ad request,

5) determining, with the online ad serving system, whether the ad has geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, wherein the ad does not have geolocation-specific ad creative information corresponding to the second geolocation information accepted, and

6) serving, with the online ad serving system, the ad with general creative information, wherein the ad being served with the general creative is automatically created, responsive to the second request, using the general creative information.

12. The online ad serving system of claim 11 wherein the geolocation information includes at least one of (a) at least one country, (b) at least one region, (c) at least one state, (d) at least one metro area, (e) at least one city, (f) at least one town, (g) at least one postal zip code, and (h) at least one telephone area code.