Patent Application
20140278923
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to the serving of online advertising, and in particular to the tracking of interactions with ads on mobile devices that lead to purchases.
There is a constant need for advertisers to obtain ever increasing accuracy when measuring the success of an ad (i.e. an advert or advertising campaign). There is also a continuing need for advertisers to target their ads more efficiently. In conjunction with this is an increasing objection that consumers have to invasion of their privacy.
One of the problems associated with mobile advertising, particularly on smart phones, is that many clicks are made by accident due to the relatively small screen area on smart phones as compared to tablets, notebooks and laptops with touch sensitive screens. Another problem with advertising on mobile devices is that it is difficult to track whether the ads lead to purchases or not, which is not so much of a problem with advertising on desktops since many purchases are completed via the landing site for the ad.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,845 to Vengroff discloses a system that bills an advertiser when a user visits a location specified by the ad. The system bills the advertiser under the assumption that, but for the ad, the user would not have visited the location.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,073,460 to Scofield et al. discloses a system in which a user's movement pattern is analyzed and ads for specific retail locations are charged for based on the user's predicted probability of visiting the location.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0239491 to Kruglick discloses a system that monitors users' purchases made with their mobile devices and statistically correlates them with previously served ads.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,301,125 to Ramer et al. discloses a system for targeted delivery of advertising on mobile devices based on navigation requests.
The prior art generally takes personal information, such as ads clicked, locations visited and purchases made, and uses it to benefit commercial entities. Little control or consideration is given to a user's privacy.
The subject matter described herein provides a system, server, device and method for linking purchases to previously-viewed online ads. Purchases may be made with the mobile device that the ads were served on. Consumers viewing the served ads and making purchases are able to control whether or not their information is released to the advertisers. In return for releasing their private information, consumers may receive cash back or other consideration of value. When consumers release the information, which at a minimum includes the fact that they previously viewed or otherwise positively interacted with (e.g. by clicking on) a particular ad prior to making a particular purchase, the information is passed to the ad server, which can then bill the advertiser. The advertiser therefore pays the ad server for displaying an ad that is assumed to have resulted in a sale. The amount of payment may be determined using a bidding process, a commission basis, or other manner, and may be in addition to an amount paid based on other parameters such as the number of impressions or the number of clicks.
This summary is not an extensive overview intended to delineate the scope of the subject matter that is described and claimed herein. The summary presents aspects of the subject matter in a simplified form to provide a basic understanding thereof, as a prelude to the detailed description that is presented below.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of the disclosed subject matter, as well as the preferred mode of use thereof, reference should be made to the following detailed description, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following drawings, like reference numerals designate like or similar parts or steps.
The following detailed description is presented largely in terms of methods or processes, symbolic representations of operations, functionalities and features of the invention. These method descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A software implemented method or process is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. These steps involve physical manipulations of physical quantities. Often, but not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It will be further appreciated that the line between hardware, software and firmware is not always sharp, it being understood by those skilled in the art that software implemented processes may be embodied in hardware, firmware, or software, in the form of coded instructions such as in microcode and/or in stored programming instructions.
In general, unless otherwise indicated, singular elements may be in the plural and vice versa with no loss of generality. The use of the masculine can refer to masculine, feminine or both. Drawings are not necessarily to scale.
Also shown in
It is also to be understood that the electronic devices and servers described herein include one or more processors connected to one or more memories, in which are stored computer executable instructions and computer readable data. The functions of the system are achieved by the processor(s) executing the instructions and reading and storing the data. Furthermore, the various electronic devices and servers include the necessary interfaces to enable them to connect to the network 26 and communicate with the other devices and servers connected to the network.
The key steps of the process carried by the system 10 in one embodiment are shown in
In another embodiment,
As is common practice with e-payment methods, a PIN may be required to be entered into the mobile device, or it may be conditionally required depending on the amount of the transaction.
An exemplary process undertaken by the system 10 in one embodiment is shown in greater detail in
Upon the user clicking (and/or viewing or interacting with) the ad, or afterwards, the AHA sends, in step 126, an identification of the ad to the monitoring server, which may be in the form of a hash, for example. The monitoring server 30 then stores the hash in database 32 in step 130. The user's ad-click history, whether in the form of hashes, click codes or direct identification of the ads themselves, is therefore stored in a reliable, remote location that can be trusted to provide accurate records whenever called upon and when permission is granted to do so.
In step 134, the user of the mobile device visits a store and makes a purchase in step 136. The mobile device is used to make the purchase in step 140. The AHA stores the details of the purchase in a purchase history database 146, which may include details such as item or service bought, cost, location, date, time, store ID, etc. When the purchase is complete, a transaction code is received by the mobile device 20, from either the merchant or the payment processor the merchant is using, in step 144. In the illustrated embodiment, the AHA checks the location of the mobile device in step 150, and then determines whether a related ad was previously clicked in step 154. If no related ad was clicked, the process ends in step 155. If a related ad was previously clicked, the AHA retrieves or calculates, in step 156, the amount that is associated with revealing the related ad and purchase details. This amount is then displayed on the device in step 160. As a result, the user may be presented with options as shown at display step 164. The amount that may be earned is shown as $y.yy and the user has the option to redeem it, to use it to tip the assistant helping the purchaser, to donate it to a charity, or to cancel the redemption of it. With any of the first three options, the ad or an identification of it is retrieved, in step 166, and then the ad data and purchase data are sent, in step 170, to the ad server. The purchase data may include a transaction code, the location of the purchase, the store ID, the purchased item(s), the date and time, etc. When the ad server receives, in step 174, the purchase and ad data, it checks the transaction code in step 176, and if the transaction code and/or other purchase data corresponds to a previously stored ad or hash representing an ad, then the ad server credits the user's account, in step 180. Following this, the advertiser is billed for the ad in step 184. As a result, the advertiser is charged for ads that are both served and result in a purchase. A confirmation message may then be sent from the ad server to the mobile device, in step 186, which displays, for example, “OK”, which the user would see in response to his clicking on one of the top three soft buttons on the screen 164 of the mobile device. The purchase data may then be deleted, in step 194, from the purchase history database. Similarly, if the user had selected the cancel option from screen 164, then the purchase would be directly deleted from the purchase history database in step 194. In either case, the process then ends at 196. It may of course be repeated as more ads are clicked or otherwise positively interacted with and more purchases are made. In alternate embodiments, the purchase data may be retained and reused for various promotional or other purposes.
If the user does not use the mobile device to make the purchase, then the system can still work if the user sends the transaction code to the server in another way. For example, the user may email the code, enter it in a form on the ad server's mobile or regular website, or take a photograph of the receipt and send it, or information within it, to the ad server. The receipt may contain the transaction code, a bar code, a QR code or other two dimensional bar code which can automatically be recognized by the AHA app, or by software running on the ad server.
Screen display 164 may be set up to appear immediately after a purchase is made, or it may be recalled as and when the user chooses. For example, it may be more convenient for the user to review his purchases for the past week all in one go. However, in some embodiments, the amount redeemable for each purchase may be set up to decrease with time, since recent information may be more valuable to the merchants than older information, and payments to users may be better managed over a shorter timescale than a long one.
Instead of, or as well as, ad interactions being recorded and stored in monitoring center 30, sites with promotional offers that a user browses to may be recorded. This eliminates the need for the user to print out a coupon from the site, keep it in a safe place and then remember to take it to the store to be redeemed. Such sites may include a button that may be clicked by the user to store such a coupon, so that the user positively identifies which sites are stored in the history. These sites may be displayed on mobile or desk top computers. Where the sites are displayed on other than the user's mobile device, the click history stored by the monitoring server is persisted to the user's mobile device by the persistent agent. The sites with these buttons may be arrived at via an ad, via the direct entry of a URL or by clicking another link.
Referring to
Examples of personal mobile electronic devices 20 include an Android™ device, a Windows™ phone, an iPad™ tablet, an iPod Touch™ media device and an iPhone™ smart phone. Still further types of personal mobile electronic device can be envisaged for use in the system 10.
Where the various components of the system are connected, they may be connected directly or indirectly, via wired, wireless or both types of connection.
Ads that are clicked to remove them from the display on the user's device may also be recorded. These may be ads that pop up or pop under the window that is being viewed, ads that are overlaid on a video, played before, during or after a video, or any other form of ad. It may be valuable for an ad serving company and advertisers to know which ads are deleted and/or ignored, and this may be especially useful in relation to ads for similar goods that are clicked, or otherwise positively interacted with, particularly if they eventually lead to a purchase.
The ad server may provide the user with an account from which purchases are made, in which case the ad server and the financial server would belong to the same entity. Alternately, the entity operating the monitoring server may be combined with either or both of the entities managing the ad server and the financial server.
In other embodiments, the application on the remote device may be supported by an agent. Such an agent, as used herein, is a software, hardware or firmware (or any combination thereof) agent that is ideally persistent and stealthy, and that resides in a host computer or other electronic device. The agent facilitates servicing functions which require communication with a remote server, such as a monitoring server 30. In some embodiments, the agent is tamper resistant and is enabled for supporting and/or providing various services such as data delete, firewall protection, data encryption, location tracking, message notification, and software deployment and updates. An illustrative embodiment of a suitable agent is found in the commercially available product Computrace Agent™. The technology underlying the Computrace Agent™ has been disclosed and patented in the U.S. and other countries, the patents having been commonly assigned to Absolute Software Corporation. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,715,174; 5,764,892; 5,802,280; 6,244,758; 6,269,392; 6,300,863; and 6,507,914; and related foreign patents. Details of the persistent function of the agent are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. US2005/0216757 and US2006/0272020. The technical disclosures of all of these documents are fully incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. Ideally, the agent is able to self-repair if it includes software. It may in part or in whole be located in the BIOS, EFI or equivalent location in a mobile electronic device. Communications may be initiated by the agent, by the remote server or by both. The agent may be divided into multiple parts in different locations within an electronic device. The agent may ensure the presence of the application and its integrity, and if it is found to be compromised or out of date, it can initiate the download of a new or replacement application from the server.
Processors described herein, whether in the server or the remote devices, may include one or more constituent processors, or one or more processing cores. Components of the system may be embodied on more than one server, and other architectures are also possible. Where a single server is shown, it is to be understood that it may represent one or more servers, which may be co-located or geographically separated. Memories may be divided into separate components and different types. Components may be incorporated wholly or partially in other components described herein.
Steps in the flowcharts may be carried out in a different order to those shown, they may be interchanged and/or combined with each other or from different flowcharts, other steps may be added and one or more may be omitted. Databases may be organized in different ways. Buttons and options displayed on the screens may be altered or omitted, or additional buttons may be included.
Users are given more control over what happens to their private information in relation to purchases and ad interaction.
Given that people are generally becoming more and more sensitive to privacy issues, and since it is possible to visit the site an ad points to without the ad server knowing, either by hiding one's identity or by bypassing the ‘click’ stage, it may become more important for the ad servers to receive information from users who knowingly and actively provide it.
The present description is of the best presently contemplated mode of carrying out the subject matter disclosed and claimed herein. The description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the subject matter and is not be taken in a limiting sense; the claimed subject matter can find utility in a variety of implementations without departing from the scope of the invention made, as will be apparent to those of skill in the art from an understanding of the principles that underlie the invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Appl. No. 61/793,954, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61793954 | Mar 2013 | US |
