Dynamic categorizations for electronic advertising

• US 9,430,785 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2014
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• 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:
  US14/480,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20140379498A1
• Time in Patent Office: 722 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 computer-implemented method, comprising:

obtaining a request to determine a category for a page from among a plurality of categories organized in a hierarchical category browse tree, each category of the plurality of categories corresponding to one of a plurality of category browse nodes in the hierarchical category browse tree, the page associated with one or more items, each of the one or more items associated with a respective-subset of the plurality of categories;

determining a browse path for each of the one or more items to identify a plurality of browse paths through the hierarchical category browse tree based at least in part by traversing the hierarchical category browse tree from an initial category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to a respective category of the respective-subset of the plurality of categories associated with a respective one of the one or more items;

determining ranking data associated with each of the plurality of category browse nodes;

determining a respective weight for the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part on the ranking data;

for each level of the hierarchical category browse tree, determining a frequency of appearance for each category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes that is included in one of the plurality of browse paths;

determining a respective value for each of the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part upon a respective frequency of appearance of a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes and the respective weight for each of the plurality of category browse nodes; and

selecting, for the page, the category associated with a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes whose respective value meets a specified threshold.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

weighting the respective value for the plurality of category browse nodes by the respective weight.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the ranking data including at least one of a predetermined rank of one or more categories corresponding to the plurality of category browse nodes, an order of the one or more items as they appear on the page, sales revenue, profit, visits, or a specified goal.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree is associated with an advertising template.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein each category browse node inherits the advertising template of a parent category browse node when no advertising template has been associated with the category browse node.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the advertising template associated with a specified category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree with an updated advertising template.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein each descendant category browse node of the specified category browse node inherits the updated advertising template of the specified category browse node.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising:

submitting to a provider a sponsored advertisement including the advertising template corresponding to the category browse node associated with the category selected for the page.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the sponsored advertisement further includes a navigational element that is directed to the page when the navigational element is selected.

10. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

obtain a request to determine a category for a page from among a plurality of categories organized in a hierarchical category browse tree, each category of the plurality of categories corresponding to one of a plurality of category browse nodes in the hierarchical category browse tree, the page associated with one or more items, each of the one or more items associated with a respective-subset of the plurality of categories;

determine a browse path for each of the one or more items to identify a plurality of browse paths through the hierarchical category browse tree based at least in part by traversing the hierarchical category browse tree from an initial category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to a respective category of the respective-subset of the plurality of categories associated with a respective one of the one or more items;

determine ranking data associated with each of the plurality of category browse nodes;

determine a respective weight for the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part on the ranking data;

for each level of the hierarchical category browse tree, determining a frequency of appearance for each category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes that is included in one of the plurality of browse paths;

determine a respective value for each of the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part upon a respective frequency of appearance of a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes and the respective weight for each of the plurality of category browse nodes; and

select, for the page, the category associated with a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes whose respective value meets a specified threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions, upon being executed, further cause the processor to:

weight the respective value for the plurality of category browse nodes by the respective weight.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the respective weight is based at least in part upon at least one of a predetermined rank of one or more categories corresponding to the plurality of category browse nodes, an order of the one or more items as they appear on the page, sales revenue, profit, visits, or a specified goal.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the hierarchical category browse tree is truncated to remove at least one category browse node and each child category browse node of the at least one category browse node.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the specified threshold is based at least in part upon at least one of a predetermined rank of one or more categories corresponding to the plurality of category browse nodes, an order of the one or more items as they appear on the page, sales revenue, profit, visits, or a specified goal.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions, upon being executed, further cause the processor to:

submit to a provider a sponsored advertisement associated with the category browse node corresponding to the category selected for the page.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, upon being executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

obtain a request to determine a category for a page from among a plurality of categories organized in a hierarchical category browse tree, each category of the plurality of categories corresponding to one of a plurality of category browse nodes in the hierarchical category browse tree, the page associated with one or more items, each of the one or more items associated with a respective-subset the plurality of categories;

determine a browse path for each of the one or more items to identify a plurality of browse paths through the hierarchical category browse tree based at least in part by traversing the hierarchical category browse tree from an initial category browse node to a category browse node corresponding to a respective category of the respective-subset of the plurality of categories associated with a respective one of the one or more items;

determine ranking data associated with each of the plurality of category browse nodes;

determine a respective weight for the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part on the ranking data;

for each level of the hierarchical category browse tree, determining a frequency of appearance for each category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes that is included in one of the plurality of browse paths;

determine a respective value for each of the plurality of category browse nodes based at least in part upon a respective frequency of appearance of a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes and the respective weight for each of the plurality of category browse nodes; and

select, for the page, the category associated with a category browse node of the plurality of category browse nodes whose respective value meets a specified threshold.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein each category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree is associated with an advertising template, and wherein each category browse node inherits an advertising template of a parent category browse node when no advertising template has been associated with the category browse node.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein each category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree is associated with an advertising template, and wherein the instructions, upon being executed, further cause the computing device to:

update an advertising template associated with a specified category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree with an updated advertising template.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein each category browse node of the hierarchical category browse tree is associated with an advertising template, and wherein each descendant category browse node of the specified category browse node inherits the updated advertising template of the specified category browse node.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed further cause the computing device to:

submit to a provider a sponsored advertisement including an advertising template corresponding to the category browse node associated with the category selected for the page.