Rule-based bidding platform

• US 8,321,279 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Connexity, Inc.
• Original Assignee: PriceGrabbercom Incorporated (PriceGrabber.com, LLC)
• Inventors: Jones, Graham, Jean, Dominique, Ritter, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Vig, Naresh
• Application Number:
  US13/083,379
• Publication Number:
  US 20110184816A1
• Time in Patent Office: 599 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.71
• US Class Current: 705/14.71
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A computing system is configured to accept bid rules from merchants for the placement of ads for a plurality of products. The bid rules comprise a bid amount, a rule definition and a priority. The bid amount may be an absolute bid or it may be relative to base advertising rate. The rule definition comprises criteria for describing products to determine when the bid rule is applied to a product for sale. The priority indicates whether the bid rule applies to a particular product when the rule definition of more than one bid rule could be applied to a product. The computing system is also configured to generate a list of product offers based at least in part on the bids. The system may also generate reports for merchants.

Claims

1. A computing system configured to assign advertising rates to one or more products of a merchant, the computing system comprising:

one or more processors configured to execute software instructions;

one or more computer readable medium storing a first data structure comprising information regarding a plurality of products offered by a merchant and a second data structure comprising information regarding a plurality of bid rules that are defined by the merchant, the plurality of bid rules usable to assign advertising rates to the plurality of products offered by the merchant, each of the plurality of bid rules including;

a bid amount;

a bid type indicating whether the bid amount comprises an absolute bid value or a relative bid adjustment to be made to a rate card rate;

a rule definition comprising criteria for identifying matching products, the criteria comprising one or more price criteria, taxonomy criteria, or manufacturer criteria; and

a bidding priority indicating a respective priority of the bid rule in relation to other bid rules; and

a computer readable medium storing software instructions executable by the one or more processors in order to cause the computing system to perform operations to determine which bid rule defined by the merchant to apply to a product of the merchant, wherein at least some of the products have more than one bid rule having rule definitions matching attributes of the at least some products, the operations comprising;

periodically applying the plurality of bid rules to the plurality of products offered by the merchant in an order starting with a high priority bid rule having a highest bidding priority, and ending with a low priority bid rule having a lowest bidding priority, said applying the bid rules comprises, for each bid rule;

determining any products of the products offered by the merchant that have not yet been assigned an advertising rate;

identifying any of the determined products that have respective attributes matching the rule definition of the bid rule; and

assigning respective advertising rates to the identified products based on the bid type and bid amount of the bid rule.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a computer interface configured to allow the merchant to provide the plurality of bid rules; and

transmitting the computer interface to a merchant computing device, and receiving the plurality of bid rules from the merchant computing device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said assigning respective advertising rates comprises:

in response to determining, based on the bid type, that the bid amount is an absolute bid value, setting the advertising rate for the identified products as the bid amount; and

in response to determining, based on the bid type, that the bid rule is a relative bid adjustment, setting the advertising rate for the identified products as the bid amount plus a rate card rate applicable to the product.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some price criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products having prices that are less than, equal to, or greater than a threshold price match the respective price criteria.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some price criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products having prices that are within a range of prices match the respective price criteria.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some taxonomy criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products of a particular type offered by the merchant match the respective taxonomy criteria.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the particular type indicates one or more of a product channel, a product category or a product sub-category.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some product manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only products manufactured by one or more manufactures indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of products offered by the merchant further comprises one or more tangible vouchers or coupons.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein at least some of the manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only vouchers or coupons redeemable at one or more goods or services providers indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein at least some of the manufacturer criteria of respective rule definitions indicate that only vouchers or coupons redeemable for products manufactured by one or more manufactures indicated in the manufacturer criteria match the respective manufacturer criteria.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said periodically applying further comprises:

storing, by the computing system, the assigned respective advertising rates of the identified products.