Abstract: Ads eligible to be served with a document (for example, because they are relevant to the document) may each be scored using a price parameter associated with the ad and an indication of relevancy of the ad to the document. The indication of relevancy of the ad to the document may be based on an ordinal ranking of a relevancy criteria of the document used to select the ad, and/or a value of a relevancy criteria of the document used to select the ad. The eligible ads may be determined by obtaining relevancy criteria for the document and selecting ads using at least some of the obtained relevancy criteria. The ads may be selected, and perhaps filtered, in a distributed manner.

Abstract: Advertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on page on the web (or some other document of any media type). The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining content that includes available spots for ads, (ii) determining ads relevant to content, and/or (iii) combining content with ads determined to be relevant to the content.

Abstract: Documents or document sets may be scored to reflect a value of an action, such as a selection for example, when an ad is served with the document (or a document belonging to a document set). A number of ads to be served with a document, and/or a type or level of branding to be provided to such ads, may then be controlled using the score. Document scores used in this way may help the ad serving system maintain and manage the quality of its brand. Further, a number of ads to be served, and/or a type or level of branding to be provided to such ads may be controlled using other factors that may affect end user perceptions of the quality of ads.

Abstract: Content-targeted ads are served with e-mail messages, such as HTML e-mail messages by (i) having the document publisher include a unique content identifier in the content, (ii) having a client device pass the unique content identifier to a content-relevant ad server in a content-relevant ad request, and (iii) having the content-relevant ad server use the unique contend identifier to identify previously registered content for purposes of determining content-relevant ads. In the content-relevant ad server, multiple ads may compete for desired ad attributes (e.g., relative position on a page) or features. An arbitration process may be used to chose and/or order the ads. By having the client device pass the unique content identifier to the content-relevant ad server when it needs the ads, ads can be chosen and generated all at the time the user reads (or more generally “opens”) the e-mail document. This permits up-to-date ad information to be used when serving ads.

Abstract: A content-targeting ad system is provided with a user behavior (e.g., selection (e.g., click), conversion, etc.) feedback mechanism. The performance of individual ads, or groups of ads, may be tracked on a per document (e.g. per URL) and/or on a per host (e.g. per Website) basis. The performance of ad targeting functions may also be tracked on a per document, and/or per host basis. Such user behavior feedback data may be processed (e.g., aggregated) into useful data structures. Such user behavior feedback data (raw or processed) may then be used in a content-targeting ad system to improve ad quality, improve user experience, and/or maximize revenue.