Dynamic categorizations for electronic advertising

• US 8,301,649 B1
• Filed: 09/04/2008
• Issued: 10/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hansen, Lucas P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pham, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/204,663
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• Field of Search: 707/758
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement

Abstract

An advertiser submitting a sponsored ad to a provider can determine aspects of the ad, such as creative elements and bid price, based on a dynamic categorization of an item and/or landing page associated with the ad. An algorithm can be used that utilizes a browse tree for each item to be displayed to a user following a sponsored link, for example, and attempts to find a node in the browse tree that appears at the lowest level in the tree and with a sufficient appearance frequency. When consensus is reached for a node in the browse tree that meets these criteria, a corresponding categorization is determined, which can be used to determine appropriate aspects to be used for the sponsored ad, at least until enough information is obtained such that aspects can be determined independent of the categorization.

Claims

1. A method of dynamically determining a categorization for an item, comprising:

receiving a request to categorize a display page including additional items;

determining a hierarchical category browse tree associated with each additional item; and

selecting a categorization for the display page according to the category associated with a category browse node for any of the items included in the display page that at least meets the specified frequency threshold at the current level;

wherein selecting the categorization further comprises;

determining a plurality of categories corresponding to an item, each category corresponding to a category browse node in a hierarchical category browse tree that is able to be located by traversing at least one browse path in the hierarchical category browse tree from at least one parent category browse node;

determining each browse path through the hierarchical category browse tree corresponding to one of the determined categories, each browse path configured to include a plurality of category browse nodes each at a different level in the hierarchical category browse tree; and

starting at a lowest level in the hierarchical category browse tree;

(a) determining an appearance frequency for each category browse node at a current level in the hierarchical category browse tree that is included in one of the browse paths;

(b) if the category browse node at the current level with the highest determined appearance frequency at least meets a specified frequency threshold, selecting a categorization for the item according to the category associated with that category browse node; and

(c) if no category browse node at the current level has a determined appearance frequency that at least meets the specified frequency threshold, moving to a next highest level and repeating steps (a)-(c);

(d) if no levels have a category browse node able to meet the specified frequency threshold, selecting a default category.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the item is a landing page to which to direct a user selecting a sponsored advertisement, and further comprising:

based on the selected categorization for the item, determining at least one of a creative element to be used in generating the sponsored advertisement and an amount to spend or the sponsored advertisement.

3. A method of dynamically determining a categorization for an item, comprising:

receiving a request to categorize a landing page including additional items;

determining a hierarchical category browse tree associated with each additional item; and

determining the selected category browse node from the hierarchical browse tree to use in categorizing the landing page, the selected category browse node corresponding to any item to be included in the landing page;

wherein determining the determining the selected category browse node from the hierarchical browse tree further comprises;

determining a hierarchical category browse tree associated with an item, the hierarchical category browse tree including a plurality of category browse nodes at a plurality of levels, each category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category and further being able to be located by traversing at least one browse path in the hierarchical category browse tree from at least one parent category browse node;

determining each browse path through the hierarchical category browse tree navigating from the at least one parent category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category related to the item; and

determining a selected category browse node from the hierarchical category browse tree to use in categorizing the item, the selected category browse node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold and further appearing at a lower level in the hierarchical category browse tree than any other category browse node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold, wherein a default category browse node is selected when no category browse node at least meets the specified appearance threshold, and wherein a category corresponding to the selected category browse node is used for categorization of the item.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein:

the item relates to a landing page to which to direct a user viewing a sponsored advertisement.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

based at least in part on the categorization of the item, determining at least one creative element to be used in generating the sponsored advertisement.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein:

the creative element includes at least one of a template, text, graphic, image, video, or audio component.

7. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

based at least in part on the categorization of the item, determining an amount to spend for the sponsored advertisement.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein:

determining an amount to spend includes determining a maximum bid amount to be used in associating the sponsored advertisement with an instance of content.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein:

the instance of content is a keyword submitted by a user via an electronic interface.

10. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

weighting appearance frequencies for category browse nodes corresponding to selected items included in the landing page based on at least one of a position and ranking of each selected item in the landing page.

11. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

enabling a user to adjust the specified appearance threshold.

12. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

setting default information associated with each category, the default information including at least one of a template, a creative element, and financial information.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:

enabling updated information to be applied to any first category; and

enabling the updated information to be applied to any second category, where a node for the second category is child category browse node of a category browse node for the first category.

14. The method according to claim 3, further comprising:

accumulating data for the item; and

adjusting information corresponding to the categorization based upon the accumulated data.

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

relying solely upon the accumulated information when a minimum amount of the information is accumulated.

16. A system for dynamically determining a categorization for an item, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a request to categorize a landing page including additional items;

determine a hierarchical category browse tree associated with each additional item; and

determine the selected category browse node from the hierarchical category browse tree to use in categorizing the landing page, the selected node corresponding to any item to be included in the landing page;

wherein to determine the selected category browse node from the hierarchical category browse tree further comprises;

determine a hierarchical category browse tree associated with an item, the hierarchical category browse tree including a plurality of category browse nodes at a plurality of levels, each category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category and further being able to be located by traversing at least one browse path in the hierarchical category browse tree from at least one parent category browse node;

determine each browse path through the hierarchical category browse tree navigating front the at least one parent category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category related to the item; and

determine a selected category browse node from the hierarchical category browse tree to use in categorizing the item, the selected node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold and further appearing at a lower level in the hierarchical category browse tree than any other node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold, wherein a default category browse node is the selected category browse node when no category browse node at least meets the specified appearance threshold, and

wherein a category corresponding to the selected category browse node is used for categorization of the item.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

where the item is a landing page to which to direct a user selecting a sponsored advertisement, and based at least in part on the categorization of the item, determine at least one of a creative element to be used in generating the sponsored advertisement and an amount to spend for the sponsored advertisement.

18. A system for dynamically determining a categorization for an item, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory memory device including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive a request to categorize a display page including additional items;

determine a hierarchical category browse tree associated with each additional item; and

select a categorization for the display page according to the category associated with a category browse node for any of the items included in the display page that at least meets the specified frequency threshold at the current level;

wherein to select a categorization further comprises the memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

determine a plurality of categories corresponding to an item, wherein each category corresponds to a hierarchical category browse node in a hierarchical category browse tree that is able to be located by traversing at least one browse path in the hierarchical category browse tree from at least one parent category browse node;

determine each browse path through the hierarchical category browse tree corresponding to one of the determined categories, each browse path configured to include a plurality of category browse nodes each at a different level in the hierarchical category browse tree; and

starting at a lowest level in the hierarchical category browse tree;

(a) determine an appearance frequency for each category browse node at a current level in the hierarchical category browse tree that is included in one of the browse paths;

(b) if the category browse node at the current level with the highest determined appearance frequency at least meets a specified frequency threshold, select a categorization for the item according to the category associated with that category browse node; and

(c) if no category browse node at the current level has a determined appearance frequency that at least meets the specified frequency threshold, move to a next highest level and repeating steps (a)-(c);

(d) if no levels have category browse nodes that are able to meet the specified frequency threshold, selecting a default category.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the memory further includes instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

where the item is a landing page to which to direct a user viewing a sponsored advertisement, and based at least in part on the selected categorization for the item, determine at least one of creative element to be used in generating the sponsored advertisement and an amount to spend for the sponsored advertisement.

20. A computer program product embedded in a computer readable non-transitory storage medium for dynamically determining a categorization for an item, comprising:

program code for receiving a request to categorize a landing page including additional items;

program code for determining a hierarchical category browse tree associated with each additional item;

program code for determining the selected node from the hierarchical category browse tree to use in categorizing the landing page, the selected node corresponding to any item to be included in the landing page;

wherein program code for determining the selected node from the hierarchical category browse tree further comprises;

program code for determining a hierarchical category browse tree associated with an item, the hierarchical category browse tree including a plurality of category browse nodes at a plurality of levels, each category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category and further being able to be located by traversing at least one browse path in the hierarchical category browse tree from at least one parent category browse node;

program code for determining each browse path through the hierarchical category browse tree navigating from the at least one parent category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to one of a category and a sub-category related to the item; and

program code for determining a selected category browse node from the hierarchical category browse tree to use in categorizing the item, the selected category browse node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold and further appearing at a lower level in the hierarchical category browse tree than any other category browse node appearing with an appearance frequency that at least meets a specified appearance threshold, wherein a default category browse node is the selected category browse node when no node at least meets the specified appearance threshold, and wherein a category corresponding to the selected category browse node is used for categorization of the item.

21. The computer program product according to claim 20, further comprising:

program code for determining, based at least in part on the categorization of the item, at least one creative element to be used in generating the sponsored advertisement and an amount to spend for a sponsored advertisement, where the item is a landing page to which to direct a user viewing the sponsored advertisement.