Method and system for electronic advertising

• US 9,836,784 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2010
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Black CROW AI Incorporated, Hercules Capital, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intent Media Incorporated
• Inventors: Feuerstein, Joshua, Harris, Richard, Hartmann, Joshua, Pritchard, Adam, Rajan, Arun, Schrader, Kurt, Taqqu, Jonathan, Tassone, Damon
• Primary Examiner(s): Macasiano, Marilyn G
• Application Number:
  US12/793,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20110055008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,741 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1469, 705 1449, 725 46
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0243 Comparative campaigns
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0247 Calculate past, present or future revenues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A method of delivering advertising in an online environment includes determining a context of a user operating a client computer to interact with an e-commerce website, where the determined context representing an intent of the user to locate a product for purchase, defining a relation between one or more of a plurality of advertisements and the product based on at least one of a plurality of relevance types, and displaying, to the user, at least one of the advertisements having the relation to the product.

Claims

1. A distributed computer system comprising:

at least one database;

an interface; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one database and the interface, the at least one processor configured to perform functions associated with an e-commerce website including;

receiving, by the e-commerce website from at least one advertiser, a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement having an associated bid from the at least one advertiser to display the advertisement;

receiving, by the e-commerce website from the at least one advertiser, a relevance type assignment for at least one of the plurality of advertisements;

creating, within the at least one database, a mapping between each one of the plurality of advertisements and an intent target, the mapping based on the relevance type assignment received from the at least one advertiser;

transmitting, by the interface over a communications network, web page signals to a web browser operated by a client computer, the web page signals configured to operate the web browser to display a web page associated with the e-commerce website;

receiving, in real time from a publisher of the e-commerce website, a request to display an advertisement on the web page;

receiving, in real time, client activity signals from the client computer over the communications network, the client activity signals corresponding to real time activity of a user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website;

determining, in real time based on the received client activity signals, a context of the user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website, wherein the determined context represents an intent of the user to locate a product for purchase via the web browser;

defining a relation between one or more of the plurality of advertisements and the product based on the mapping;

determining, with a hurdle rate engine in the at least one processor, a hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website, the hurdle rate being determined based on the intent of the user to locate the product for purchase and identifying a threshold amount to be bid by an advertiser in order to display an advertisement to the user in a portion of the display shown to the user on the web page, the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine at a level configured to prevent a loss of expected transaction revenue if the advertisement is displayed to the user via the web page;

dynamically adjusting, with the hurdle rate engine, the hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website responsive to real time updates of the intent of the user;

comparing, with a decision engine in the at least one processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, the bid of at least one of the plurality of advertisements to the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website;

determining, with the decision engine, responsive to the function of comparing and the context of the user, whether to display, in the portion of the display shown the user, the at least one of the plurality of advertisements having the relation to the product, wherein the act of determining includes an act of dynamically changing the at least one of the plurality of advertisements based on the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate in the portion of the display shown to the user on the web page; and

transmitting, by the interface over the communications network, display signals associated with the at least one of the plurality of advertisements to the client computer in response to a determination that the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website has been exceeded by the bid from the at least one advertiser to display the at least one of the plurality of advertisements, the display signals configured to operate the web browser to display, in real time, the at least one of the plurality of advertisements in the portion of the display shown the user on the web page associated with the e-commerce website.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the interface is adapted to display the at least one of the plurality of advertisements in a manner responsive to a determined relevance type.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the at least one processor includes a segmentation engine operable to identify a relationship between the user and a publisher, and wherein a display component is adapted to display the at least one of the plurality of advertisements having the relation to the product based on the relationship between the user and the publisher.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine is set greater than or equal to a difference between expected transaction value where no ad is served and expected transaction value where at least one ad is served and then adjusted upward or downward based on information including:

status of a visitor and processed context of the visitor.

5. A method of delivering advertising in an online environment comprising acts of:

receiving, by a processor configured to perform functions associated with an e-commerce website, signals through a communications network from at least one advertiser including a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement having an associated bid from the at least one advertiser to display the advertisement;

transmitting, by an interface coupled to the processor, web page signals over the communications network to a web browser operated by a client computer, the web page signals configured to operate the web browser to display a web page associated with the e-commerce website;

receiving, from the at least one advertiser, a relevance type assignment for at least one of the plurality of advertisements;

creating, within a database, a mapping between each one of the plurality of advertisements and an intent target, the mapping based on the relevance type assignment received from the advertiser;

receiving, in real time from a publisher of the e-commerce website, a request to display an advertisement on the web page;

receiving, in real time, client activity signals from the client computer over the communications network, the client activity signals corresponding to real time activity of a user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website;

determining, in real time based on the received client activity signals, a context of the user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website, the determined context representing an intent of the user to locate a product for purchase via the web browser;

defining a relation between one or more of the plurality of advertisements and the product based on the mapping;

determining, with a hurdle rate engine in the processor, a hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website, the hurdle rate being determined based on the intent of the user to locate the product for purchase and identifying a threshold amount to be bid by an advertiser in order to display an advertisement to the user in a portion of the display shown the user on the web page, the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine at a level configured to prevent a loss of expected transaction revenue if the advertisement is displayed to the user via the web page;

dynamically adjusting, with the hurdle rate engine, the hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website responsive to real time updates of the intent of the user;

comparing, with a decision engine in the processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, the bid of at least one of the plurality of advertisements to the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate;

determining, with the decision engine in the processor, responsive to the act of comparing and the context of the user, whether to display, in the portion of the display shown the user, at least one of the plurality of advertisements having the relation to the product, wherein the act of determining includes an act of dynamically changing the at least one of the plurality of advertisements based on the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate; and

transmitting, by the interface over the communications network, display signals associated with the at least one of the plurality of advertisements to the client computer in response to a determination that the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website has been exceeded by the bid from the at least one advertiser to display the at least one of the plurality of advertisements, the display signals configured to operate the web browser to display, in real time, the at least one of the plurality of advertisements in the portion of the display shown the user on the web page associated with the e-commerce website.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising categorizing one or more of the plurality of advertisements according to the relevance type assignment.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the request includes one or more keywords, and wherein determining the intent of the user is based at least on one or more of the one or more keywords.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising translating the request into one or more intent targets, wherein translating the request includes selecting each of the one or more intent targets from a plurality of normalized intent targets based on information included in the request.

9. A method of delivering advertising in an online environment comprising acts of:

receiving, by a processor configured to perform functions associated with an e-commerce website, signals from at least one advertiser including an advertising campaign including one or more advertisements for at least one advertised product;

associating the one or more advertisements with one or more keywords, each of the one or more keywords representing the at least one advertised product;

transmitting, by an interface coupled to the processor, web page signals over a communications network to a web browser operated by a client computer, the web page signals configured to operate the web browser to display a web page associated with the e-commerce website;

receiving, in real time from a publisher of the e-commerce website, a request to display an advertisement on the web page;

receiving, in real time, client activity signals from the client computer over the communications network, the client activity signals corresponding to real time activity of a user operating the web browser to interact with the e-commerce website;

determining, in real time based on the client activity signals, an intent of the user interacting with the web page of the e-commerce website via the web browser to purchase the at least one product based on one or more user supplied keywords received as client activity signals;

determining, with a hurdle rate engine in the processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, a hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website, the hurdle rate being based on the intent of the user and identifying a threshold amount to be bid by an advertiser in order to display an advertisement in a portion of the display shown the user on the web page, the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine at a level configured to prevent a loss of expected transaction revenue if the advertisement is displayed to the user via the web page;

dynamically adjusting, with the hurdle rate engine, the hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website responsive to real time updates of the intent of the user;

determining whether to display, in the portion of the display shown the user, at least one of the one or more advertisements, wherein the act of determining includes an act of changing the at least one of the one or more advertisements based on the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate; and

transmitting, by the interface over the communications network, display signals associated with the at least one of the one or more advertisements to the client computer in response to the at least one of the one or more advertisements being associated with the one or more user supplied keywords and having a bid that exceeds the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate, the display signals configured to operate the web browser to display, in real time, the at least one of the one or more advertisements in the portion of the display shown the user on the web page associated with the e-commerce website.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the request includes information related to the intent of the user.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions including instructions that will cause a processor to perform a method of delivering advertising by an e-commerce website, the method comprising acts of:

receiving, by the processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, signals from at least one advertiser including a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement having an associated bid from the at least one advertiser to display the advertisement;

receiving, from the at least one advertiser, a relevance type assignment for at least one of the plurality of advertisements;

creating, within a database, a mapping between each one of the plurality of advertisements and an intent target, the mapping based on the relevance type assignment received from the at least one advertiser;

transmitting, by an interface coupled to the processor, web page signals over a communications network to a web browser operated by a client computer, the web page signals configured to operate the web browser to display a web page associated with the e-commerce website;

receiving, in real time from a publisher of the e-commerce website, a request to display an advertisement on the web page;

receiving, in real time, client activity signals from the client computer over the communications network, the client activity signals corresponding to real time activity of a user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website;

determining, in real time based on the received client activity signals, a context of the user operating the web browser to interact with the web page of the e-commerce website, the determined context representing an intent of the user to locate a product for purchase via the web browser;

defining a relation between one or more of the plurality of advertisements and the product based on the mapping;

determining, with a hurdle rate engine in the processor, a hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website, the hurdle rate being determined based on the intent of the user to locate the product for purchase and identifying a threshold amount to be bid by an advertiser in order to display an advertisement to the user in a portion of the display shown the user on the web page, the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine at a level configured to prevent a loss of expected transaction revenue if the advertisement is displayed to the user via the web page;

dynamically adjusting, with the hurdle rate engine, the hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website responsive to real time updates of the intent of the user;

comparing, with a decision engine in the processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, the bid of at least one of the plurality of advertisements to the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate;

determining, with the decision engine in the processor, based on the act of comparing and the context of the user, whether to display, in the portion of the display shown the user, at least one of the plurality of advertisements having the relation to the product, wherein the act of determining includes an act of dynamically changing the at least one of the plurality of advertisements based on the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate; and

transmitting, by the interface coupled to the processor, display signals associated with the at least one of the plurality of advertisements in response to a determination that the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate has been exceeded by the bid from the advertiser to display the at least one of the plurality of advertisements, the display signals configured to operate the web browser to display, in real time, the at least one of the plurality of advertisements in the portion of the display shown the user on the web page associated with the e-commerce website.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the method further comprises categorizing one or more of the plurality of advertisements according to the relevance type assignment.

13. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the request includes one or more keywords, and wherein determining the intent of the user is based at least on one or more of the one or more keywords.

14. The computer readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the method further comprises translating the request into one or more intent targets, wherein translating the request includes selecting each of the one or more intent targets from a plurality of normalized intent targets based on information included in the request.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions including instructions that will cause a processor to perform a method of delivering advertising comprising acts of:

receiving, by the processor configured to perform functions associated with an e-commerce website, signals from at least one advertiser including an advertising campaign including one or more advertisements for one or more advertised products;

associating the one or more advertisements with one or more keywords, each of the one or more keywords representing the one or more advertised products;

transmitting, by an interface coupled to the processor, web page signals over a communications network, to a web browser operated by a client computer, the web page signals configured to operate the web browser to display a web page associated with the e-commerce website;

receiving, in real time from a publisher of the e-commerce website, a request to display an advertisement on the web page;

receiving, in real time, client activity signals from the client computer over the communications network, the client activity signals corresponding to real time activity of a user interacting with the web page of the e-commerce website via the web browser;

determining, in real time, an intent of the user interacting with the web page of the e-commerce website via the web browser to purchase a product based on one or more user supplied keywords represented by the client activity signals;

identifying, with a hurdle rate engine in the processor configured to perform functions associated with the e-commerce website, a hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website, the hurdle rate being based on the intent of the user to locate the product for purchase and identifying a threshold amount to be bid by an advertiser in order to display an advertisement in a portion of the display shown the user on the web page via the web browser, the threshold amount of the hurdle rate being set by the hurdle rate engine at a level configured to prevent a loss of expected transaction revenue if the advertisement is displayed to the user via the web page;

dynamically adjusting, with the hurdle rate engine, the hurdle rate set by the publisher of the e-commerce website responsive to real time updates of the intent of the user;

determining whether to display, in the portion of the display shown the user, at least one of the one or more advertisements, wherein the act of determining includes an act of changing the at least one of the one or more advertisements based on the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate; and

transmitting, by the interface over the communications network, display signals associated with the at least one of the one or more advertisements to the client computer in response to the at least one of the one or more advertisements being associated with the one or more user supplied keywords and having a bid that exceeds the dynamically adjusted hurdle rate, the display signals configured to operate the web browser to display, in real time, the at least one of the one or more advertisements in the portion of the display shown the user on the web page associated with the e-commerce website.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the request includes information related to the intent of the user.