SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CATEGORY-BASED CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISEMENT GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT
A computer-implemented system and method for category-based contextual advertisement generation and management are disclosed. The system in an example embodiment includes an advertisement processor to allocate a first display region for displaying a combination of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads, the variable revenue ads and the fixed price ads being category-based, sort the variable revenue ads based in part on a user entered variable revenue value, and sort the fixed price ads based on a rotation.
This patent application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/806,558, filed Jul. 5, 2006, and entitled, “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CATEGORY-BASED CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISEMENT GENERATION AND BIDDING”.
BACKGROUND1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to methods and systems supporting online advertising and online transactions by a user. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to category-based contextual advertisement generation and management.
2. Related Art
An increasingly popular way of delivering Internet advertisements is to tie the presentation of advertisements to particular user behaviors and/or user profiles, and/or user demographics. Such user behaviors include user access to a particular web page, user selection (also called mouse-clicking or clicking) of a particular location on a web page, user entry of a particular search string or keyword, and the like. In order to target advertising accurately, advertisers or vendors pay to have their advertisements presented in response to certain kinds of events—that is, their advertisements are presented when particular user behaviors warrant such presentation. If a particular advertisement (ad) leads to some user action, an advertiser may receive remuneration for the ad.
Using other systems and processes on the Web, users can search for goods and services via the Internet and shop or make purchases of goods or services over the Internet. Unfortunately, conventional systems have not been able to create an effective way of using on-line product/service category definitions to create and enable bidding on contextual advertisements that may lead to a user purchase transaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,061 discloses methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of advertisements over a network such as the Internet. Statistics are compiled on individual users and networks and the use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting of the advertisements of individual users. In response to requests from affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to people accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the advertisements based upon profiling of users and networks. However, the '061 patent does not describe or suggest using on-line product/service category definitions to create and enable bidding on contextual advertisements.
Thus, a system and method for category-based contextual advertisement generation and management is needed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSEmbodiments illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:
A computer-implemented system and method for category-based contextual advertisement generation and management are disclosed. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known processes, structures and techniques have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the clarity of this description.
As described further below, according to various example embodiments of the disclosed subject matter described and claimed herein, there is provided a computer-implemented system and method for category-based contextual advertisement generation and management. The system includes an advertisement processor to allocate a first display region for displaying a combination of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads, the variable revenue ads and the fixed price ads being category-based, sort the variable revenue ads based in part on a user entered variable revenue value, and sort the fixed price ads based on a rotation. Various embodiments are described below in connection with the figures provided herein.
DEFINITIONSFunctionality for various embodiments is described below. Some definitions follow.
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- An advertisement (ad) can be a product or service listing item, a purchase/lease/bid solicitation, or a display object related to a product or service.
- A view is a serving of the View item page (VIP), the page that shows the advertisement (ad), and is the same as a click (from the result set to the VIP)
- An impression is when an ad is shown in the result set (e.g. in browse or in a search function)
The following acronyms are defined as follows.
- SYI—Sell your item, the flow where users build their ad.
- RYI—Revise your item, the flow where users edit their existing ad.
- VIP—View item page, the page that shows the ad.
- CSV—comma separated value, filetype (industry standard), used to export the performance data of the ad.
- LTS—Live to site means content that is live (i.e. available) on the site for the users.
- CPC—Cost per click, the amount the advertisers pay for a click. A click is counted when the VIP is served to a visitor of a host site.
- CTR—Click through rate, the ratio of the user being exposed to the ad and actually clicking to see the ad.
- RPM—RPM stands for ‘Revenue per Thousand’ (‘M’ being the Roman numeral for 1,000). RPM is how much revenue is generated per thousand impressions. RPM can be calculated as a function of CPC and CTR.
- RMC—RMC represents a 3rd party billing service to which billing processes of various embodiments can be outsourced. The 3rd party billing service can be sent a file with all the (cumulative) amounts and 3rd party billing service forwards an invoice.
Category-based advertisement functionality of various embodiments enables users to buy a premium position on web pages with ad listings. As described in more detail below, various embodiments provide category-based CPC & relevance-based product rankings and associated listings of product advertisements. In various embodiments, the ad listings are arranged on each web page according to a combination of different types of ad listings. In a particular embodiment, these types of ad listings include fixed price ads and variable revenue ads (also denoted herein as RPM ads). Other ads, such as standard classified ads, can also be shown on the web page. Fixed price ads can be advertisements or product listings that are displayed on a host site for a fixed price paid by the merchant/advertiser or product/service provider to the host site. Variable revenue ads (e.g. RPM ads) are advertisements or product/service listings for which a merchant/advertiser pays to the host site a value corresponding in part to a CPC associated with the advertisement or product/service listing. Based on the RPM derived from the CPC (RPM=function(CPC, CTR), the ads are arranged on each web page by the host site according to a sorting of the RPM corresponding to the ad (e.g. the ad with the highest RPM displayed in the most valuable position to the ad with lowest RPM displayed in the least valuable position). In this manner, an advertiser can essentially bid on a position for a variable revenue ad by paying a value for the ad that will correspond to a CPC, which will correspond to the desired level of RPM and thus the desired display position on the host site. Alternatively, the advertiser can opt to use a simpler process and pay a fixed price for the ad and obtain a fixed price ad that is displayed in combination with variable revenue ads and other fixed price ads in a display region separate from other ads on a host site web page.
As will be described in more detail below for an example embodiment, two types of ads are displayed concurrently in a first region of the host site web page and arranged/sorted using two different processes. Other ads are displayed in a second region of the host site web page and arranged/sorted using a conventional process. In the particular embodiment described, each listing page (i.e. search/browse results within a specific product category) shows at least two display regions; a first display region on top (e.g. in the most valuable position) shows a mix of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads. The second display region at the bottom (e.g. in a less valuable position) is used to display other standard classified ads. Within the first display region, the top two positions (e.g. the top two most valuable positions) are used for displaying variable revenue ads, assuming there is a sufficient inventory of variable revenue ads. Also within the first display region, the third position is used to display fixed price ads, assuming there is a sufficient inventory of fixed price ads. In general, if there is an insufficient inventory of one type of ad, different types of ads can be moved into the display positions that would otherwise have been allocated to ads of the type for which the inventory was insufficient.
In a particular embodiment, merchants/advertisers/others can purchase two different types of ad listings:
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- 1. Fixed Price Ad product
- Ads are sold at a fixed price,
- Ads can be purchased for a particular product/service category,
- Displayed for a fixed time period (e.g. a number of days),
- Sorted and displayed in the third position of the first display region of each listing page based on a fixed rotation schedule and a fixed limited amount of display time at each position.
- 2. Variable Revenue (e.g. RPM) Ad product
- Fair pricing through bidding (e.g. on price per click),
- Ads can be purchased for a particular product/service category,
- Sorted and displayed in the top two positions of the first display region of each listing page based on cost per click and user activity (e.g. RPM). The variable revenue ads are sorted according to:
- Prior to any click-throughs of the ad, a testing phase defines the RPM for the ad as a function of CPC and CTR (of the category associated with the ad).
- Upon receiving click-throughs for the ad, the RPM for the ad is a function of CPC and CTR (for the last 24 hours the ad was displayed).
- 1. Fixed Price Ad product
In a particular embodiment, the host site that displays purchased ads displays the ads depending on the different types of ad listings. In a first display region, the variable revenue ads are displayed in the top two positions (in one embodiment) of every page showing variable revenue ads in a browse or search mode. Also in the first display region, the fixed price ads are displayed in the third position (in one embodiment) of every page showing fixed price ads in a browse or search mode. In a second display region, other conventional classified ads are shown on each page showing other ads in a browse or search mode. An example of a host site web page displaying the first and second display regions is illustrated in
Referring to
As shown in the example of
As also shown in the example of
Both types of ads (i.e. variable revenue ads and fixed price ads) may or may not include links within the ad with which a user can click the ad leave the host site and obtain more detail on the ad listing or initiate a purchase/lease/bid transaction. However, unlike conventional ad listings, the visitor/user who clicks on an ad is not redirected to an advertiser or merchant website associated with the ad. In the various embodiments described herein, the visitor/user who clicks on an ad is directed to another host site web page. In one embodiment, the visitor/user who clicks on an ad is directed to a host site view item web page that shows additional detail on the selected item. In one embodiment, the view item web page is not hosted by the merchant/advertiser. The view item web page is hosted by the host site. However, the view item web page may contain a link to the merchant/advertiser site, the merchant/advertiser site being associated with the product/service represented in the ad clicked by the visitor/user. The visitor/user can use this link in the view item web page to click through to the merchant/advertiser site from the view item web page. This is described in more detail below in connection with
Similarly, as shown in
As shown in the gallery view example of
As also shown in the example of
As shown in the example of
As shown in
When a new fixed price ad is added to the inventory, the new fixed price ad can be immediately included in the rotation of the top few fixed price ads at the third position of the first display region 2605 of page 1. The new fixed price ad then continues in the rotation described above. When a new variable revenue ad is added to the inventory, the new variable revenue ad is allocated to a position in the first display region according to the RPM value of the ad. That is, the highest value variable revenue ad is allocated to the first (i.e. top) position of the first display region 2605 of the first page. The next highest value variable revenue ad is allocated to the second position of the first display region 2605 of the first page and so on.
The top few fixed price ads can be rotated through portions of the first display region 2605 of each page as described above. In the particular example shown in
In a particular embodiment, if the CTR on an add falls below a certain pre-defined limit, the ad is removed from the ranking (and appropriate messaging occurs). If an ad does not meet the pre-defined CTR threshold, the ad can be removed from the host site list and search index.
Category-based advertisements can have a regular ad (e.g. other standard classified ad) as a related sibling ad. These sibling ads can behave similarly to conventional ads. Click-throughs of a sibling ad can be included in the count of click-throughs for a related variable revenue ad or fixed price ad.
Referring now to
Using one of a variety of network connection means, server computer 100 can communicate with client computers 150 using conventional means. In a particular implementation of this network configuration, a server computer 100 may operate as a web server if the Internet's World-Wide Web (WWW) is used for wide area network 110. Using the HTTP protocol and the HTML coding language across wide-area network 110, web server 100 may communicate across the World-Wide Web with clients 150. In this configuration, clients 150 use a client application program known as a web browser such as the Internet Explorer™ published by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., the user interface of America On-Line™, or the web browser or HTML renderer of any other supplier. Using such conventional browsers and the World-Wide Web, clients 150 may access image, graphical, and textual data provided by web server 100 or they may run Web application software. Conventional means exist by which clients 150 may supply information to web server 100 through the World Wide Web 110 and the web server 100 may return processed data to clients 150.
Having briefly described one embodiment of the network environment in which an example embodiment may operate,
An optional data storage device 228 such as a magnetic disk or optical disk and its corresponding drive may also be coupled to computer system 200 for storing information and instructions. Computer system 200 can also be coupled via bus 216 to a display device 204, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT) or a liquid crystal display (LCD), for displaying information to a computer user. For example, image, textual, video, or graphical depictions of information may be presented to the user on display device 204. Typically, an alphanumeric input device 208, including alphanumeric and other keys is coupled to bus 216 for communicating information and/or command selections to processor 220. Another type of user input device is cursor control device 206, such as a conventional mouse, trackball, or other type of cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selection to processor 220 and for controlling cursor movement on display 204.
Alternatively, the client 150 can be implemented as a network computer or thin client device. Client 150 may also be a laptop or palm-top computing device, such as the Palm Pilot™. Client 150 could also be implemented in a robust cellular telephone, where such devices are currently being used with Internet micro-browsers. Such a network computer or thin client device does not necessarily include all of the devices and features of the above-described exemplary computer system; however, the functionality of an example embodiment or a subset thereof may nevertheless be implemented with such devices.
A communication device 226 is also coupled to bus 216 for accessing remote computers or servers, such as web server 100, or other servers via the Internet, for example. The communication device 226 may include a modem, a network interface card, or other well-known interface devices, such as those used for interfacing with Ethernet, Token-ring, or other types of networks. In any event, in this manner, the computer system 200 may be coupled to a number of servers 100 via a conventional network infrastructure such as the infrastructure illustrated in
The system of an example embodiment includes software, information processing hardware, and various processing steps, which will be described below. The features and process steps of example embodiments may be embodied in articles of manufacture as machine or computer executable instructions. The instructions can be used to cause a general purpose or special purpose processor, which is programmed with the instructions to perform the steps of an example embodiment. Alternatively, the features or steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hard-wired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components. While embodiments are described with reference to the Internet, the method and apparatus described herein is equally applicable to other network infrastructures or other data communications systems.
Various embodiments are described herein. In particular, the use of embodiments with various types and formats of user interface presentations and/or application programming interfaces may be described. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that alternative embodiments of the implementations described herein can be employed and still fall within the scope of the claimed invention. In the detail herein, various embodiments are described as implemented in computer-implemented processing logic denoted sometimes herein as the “Software”. As described above, however, the claimed invention is not limited to a purely software implementation.
Thus, a computer-implemented system and method for category-based contextual advertisement generation and management are disclosed. While the present invention has been described in terms of several example embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description herein is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting.
Claims
1. A method comprising:
- allocating a first display region for displaying a combination of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads, the variable revenue ads and the fixed price ads being category-based;
- allocating a second display region for displaying other ads;
- sorting the variable revenue ads based in part on a user entered variable revenue value; and
- sorting the fixed price ads based on a rotation.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the variable revenue ads are displayed more prominently than the fixed price ads in the first display region.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 including sorting the variable revenue ads based (but not solely based on) on a current revenue value generated by each variable revenue ad.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 including sorting the variable revenue ads based in part on user activity.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the user activity includes clicking on an ad.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1 including displaying a view item page associated with an ad when a user clicks on the ad.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the rotation includes rotating a plurality of fixed price ads through a portion of the first display region.
8. An article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium having machine executable instructions embedded thereon, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
- allocate a first display region for displaying a combination of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads, the variable revenue ads and the fixed price ads being category-based;
- allocate a second display region for displaying other ads;
- sort the variable revenue ads based in part on a user entered variable revenue value; and
- sort the fixed price ads based on a rotation.
9. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 8 being further configured to display the variable revenue ads more prominently than the fixed price ads in the first display region.
10. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 8 being further configured to sort the variable revenue ads based on current revenue generated by each variable revenue ad.
11. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 8 being further configured to sort the variable revenue ads based in part on user activity.
12. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 11 wherein the user activity includes clicking on an ad.
13. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 8 being further configured to display a view item page associated with an ad when a user clicks on the ad.
14. The article of manufacture as claimed in claim 8 wherein the rotation includes rotating a plurality of fixed price ads through a portion of the first display region.
15. A system comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor to store information related to an advertisement; and
- an advertisement processor to allocate a first display region for displaying a combination of variable revenue ads and fixed price ads, the variable revenue ads and the fixed price ads being category-based, sort the variable revenue ads based in part on a user entered variable revenue value, and sort the fixed price ads based on a rotation.
16. The system as claimed in claim 15 being further configured to display the variable revenue ads more prominently than the fixed price ads in the first display region.
17. The system as claimed in claim 15 being further configured to sort the variable revenue ads based on current revenue generated by each variable revenue ad.
18. The system as claimed in claim 15 being further configured to sort the variable revenue ads based in part on user activity.
19. The system as claimed in claim 18 wherein the user activity includes clicking on an ad.
20. The system as claimed in claim 15 being further configured to display a view item page associated with an ad when a user clicks on the ad.
21. The system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the rotation includes rotating a plurality of fixed price ads through a portion of the first display region.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 5, 2007
Publication Date: Feb 14, 2008
Inventors: Bob van Dijk (Amsterdam), Wouter Haak (Amsterdam), Roelof Lettinga (Amsterdam)
Application Number: 11/773,673
International Classification: G06Q 30/00 (20060101);