Patent Application
20100042464
The present invention relates to delivery of web ads. More particularly, the present invention relates to guaranteed delivery of web ads on an exchange.
Electronic exchanges, including online auctions and guaranteed deliveries, have proliferated along with the Internet. These electronic exchanges aim to provide a high degree of trading efficiency by bringing together a large number of buyers and sellers. Such exchanges are focused on directly matching the bids and offers of buyers and sellers. Conventional transactions on the exchange are between (i) buyers and sellers, (ii) intermediaries (e.g., brokers, which may be a buyer or seller), or (iii) buyers or sellers and intermediaries.
The proliferation of Internet activity has also generated tremendous growth for advertising on the Internet. Typically, advertisers (i.e., buyers of ad space) and online publishers (sellers of ad space) have agreements with one or more advertising networks (ad networks), which provide for serving an advertiser's banner or ad across multiple publishers, and concomitantly provide for each publisher having access to a large number of advertisers. Ad networks (which may also manage payment and reporting) may also attempt to target certain Internet users with particular advertisements to increase the likelihood that the user will take an action with respect to the ad. From an advertiser's perspective, effective targeting is important for achieving a high return on investment (ROI).
Online advertising markets exhibit undesirable inefficiencies when buyers and sellers are unable to transact. For instance, although a publisher may be subscribed to many ad networks, and one or more of those ad networks may transact inventory with other ad networks, only one of the ad networks to which the publisher is subscribed will be involved in selling (e.g., auctioning or guaranteeing delivery) a given ad space for the publisher. The publisher, or a gatekeeper used by the publisher, selects or prioritizes which ad network (or advertiser having a direct agreement with the publisher) will serve the impression for a given ad request.
Within this document, one of ordinary skill recognizes certain abbreviations such as, for example, cost per impression (CPI), Cost Per Mil, or cost per 1000 impressions (CPM), cost per click (CPC), cost per acquisition (CPA), effective CPM (eCPM).
What is needed is an improved method having features for addressing the problems mentioned above and new features not yet discussed. Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providing a method and apparatus for guaranteed delivery of ads on an exchange. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, a process, an apparatus, a system or a device. Inventive embodiments of the present invention are summarized below.
In one embodiment, a method of guaranteed delivery of ads on an exchange is provided. The method comprises determining all valid paths originating from a buyer and ending at one or more sellers, applying one or more controls to the valid paths in order to trim the valid paths according to criteria of the one or more controls, determining available inventory including available spots on web pages of sellers, and making ad reservations for the buyer based on the available inventory and the valid paths.
In another embodiment, a business platform apparatus for guaranteed delivery of ads on an exchange is provided. The business platform apparatus is configured for determining all valid paths originating from a buyer and ending at one or more sellers, applying one or more controls to the valid paths in order to trim the valid paths according to criteria of the one or more controls, determining available inventory including available spots on web pages of sellers, and making ad reservations for the buyer based on the available inventory and the valid paths.
In still another embodiment, a computer readable medium carrying one or more instructions for guaranteed delivery of ads on an exchange is provided. The one or more instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of determining all valid paths originating from a buyer and ending at one or more sellers, applying one or more controls to the valid paths in order to trim the valid paths according to criteria of the one or more controls, determining available inventory including available spots on web pages of sellers, and making ad reservations for the buyer based on the available inventory and the valid paths.
The invention encompasses other embodiments configured as set forth above and with other features and alternatives.
The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements.
An invention for guaranteed delivery of ads on an exchange is disclosed. Numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be understood, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced with other specific details.
The publishers 111, 112, 113 preferably have content that is of interest to consumers of such content. For instance, the publisher 112 may have a web page such as Edmunds.com that is directed to car buyers. Users of the Internet may visit the web page to obtain the content provided. Some embodiments log the visits and/or activities of the users on the web page, and further generate segments of users who interact with the content. As shown in the figure, the publisher 111 may have content for travelers, while the publisher 112 has content for car buyers. Each segment preferably has a unique identifier that is unique to the segment, and is also unique to the entity. In this example, the segment “Car Buyers” for the publisher 112 is assigned the identifier “12345,” the segment “Travelers” for the publisher 111 is assigned the identifier “3456,” and the segment “Men” is assigned the identifier “45678” for the ad network 101.
As users and/or segments of users interact with the content provided by the publishers 111, 112, 113, “ad calls” are generated for the publishers' advertising inventory. Generally, in non-guaranteed delivery, the advertisers 121, 122, 123, bid to supply advertising to the available inventory. In this example, the advertiser 121 bids $0.20 CPM, the advertiser 122 bids $2.00 CPC, and the advertiser 123 bids $20.00 CPA. Some systems normalize the bids and/or costs to CPM. Hence, the $2.00 CPC may be normalized to $0.19 CPM, and the $20.00 CPA to $0.35 CPM. Further, the advertisers 121, 122, 123 may have split fee arrangements with the ad networks 101, 102, 103.
The advertisers 121, 122, 123 typically have advertising campaigns that include one or more ad creatives that promote a particular brand or product. The advertisers 121, 122, 123 may wish to specify certain criteria for each campaign such as, for example, maximum spend per day on the delivery of advertising, and/or criteria for targeted advertising. Examples of “hard targeting” include directing an advertisement to a particular gender and/or during a particular time of day. The advertisers 121, 122, 123 may further target particular users and/or segments of users. Particular transactions and/or data have additional value for the exchange entities 100. For instance, one or more ads and/or campaigns for the advertiser 121 may have particular relevance to the Car buyers 12345.
In one implementation, an ad manager server maintains a history of attributes for several advertisements, and predicts the value per advertisement in relation to each publisher. The ad server may perform the foregoing alternatively, or in conjunction with, behavioral type targeting based on user data. In some of these embodiments, each user has a cookie space that is used by various entities to store information. For instance, one or more entities of the exchange entities 100 advantageously write into a user's cookie space an integer identifier that corresponds to a particular user segment.
The purpose of the present invention is to guarantee delivery such that advertisers do not bid as in
The exchange for guaranteed deliver is represented as a directed graph of nodes, similar to that of
The connection between the buyer and seller may be referred to as a path on the exchange. This path could go through zero or more other entities on the exchange, each of which is considered to be an intermediary in the transaction. This path comprises one or more edges. Each edge has a buyer endpoint (an entity) and a seller end-point (another entity). The buyer endpoint of the first such edge is the original buyer (advertiser) in the ad delivery transaction. The seller end-point of the last such edge is the original seller (publisher) in the ad-delivery transaction. An example of an edge is the connection between the ad network 101 and the ad network 102, or the connection between the advertiser 121 and the ad network 101.
The network 205 couples together a consumer computer 210, a web server 220 and an exchange system 222. The network 205 may be any combination of networks, including without limitation the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, a wireless network and a cellular network. The consumer computer 210 is configured to be operated by a consumer. The exchange system includes without limitation an ad server 225 (or ad server system), the exchange entities 100 of
The business platform 235 includes without limitation a data processing device 230, a contract services device 235 and ordering services device 240. The data processing device 230 is in communication with the ad server 225. The contract services device 235 is in communication with ordering services device 240. The ad server 225 and the business platform have access to the exchange entities 100. The business platform 235 is in communication the user interface 240, which allows a user to manipulate operations of the business platform 235.
The user interface 240 includes without limitation a display capability for reports 245, a network user interface 250 and a demand user interface 255. The network user interface 250 allows a user to handle transactions with the contract services device 235. The demand user interface 255 allows a user to handle transactions with the ordering services device 240.
Contracts and/or Deals of Guaranteed Delivery
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Guaranteed delivery includes certain special criteria, partially described here. The number of impressions must be available and reserved beforehand. Price is determined at ad reservation time. There is a stipulated time period within which all the promised impressions must be delivered. Also, it is possible to reserve guaranteed delivery on a “run-of” basis, meaning the ad serving system decides where to show the ad among multiple publishers.
Guaranteed delivery on the exchange fulfills the above criteria in the following manner. A path on the exchange is viable for guaranteed delivery only if there are valid GDE contracts on each edge of the path. A GDE contract is established along an edge by two entities agreeing on a contract for ad delivery or for some other related performance. At booking time, the business platform 235 determines all valid paths for guaranteed delivery. The valid paths originate from the buyer. The business platform 235 further trims the valid paths by matching the targeting controls defined on the GDE contract on the path with the targeting criteria defined on the campaign by the buyer. The business platform 235 then uses the valid paths to determine available inventory and make ad reservations.
The business platform 235 carries out several operations during the ad reservation process. During the ad reservation process, the business platform 235 determines the list of paths for which inventory is available. The business platform 235 handles “run-of” cases by determining paths to all publishers involved in the “run-of”. For each path, the business platform 235 pre-calculates price/revenue-share on each edge and records the information. Importantly, all the pre-computed information is tied together by the concept of a “booking”.
A booking represents a specific ad reservation for guaranteed delivery. A booking may encapsulate without limitation the advertiser on whose behalf the ad reservation is made, the campaign/order associated with the booking, the number of impressions reserved, the start/end date of the campaign/order, a pre-computed set of one or more paths on the exchange that are covered by the booking. Further, “run-of” ad reservations that cover several publishers will have more than one path. Each path represents the path to the publisher on the exchange. Regular ad reservations will have one path (path to the publisher on the exchange). Also, there is pre-computed price/revenue-share information for each edge of each path.
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The types of controls include without limitation targeting controls, delivery controls, booking limits and pricing controls. Targeting Controls allow a seller to control the types of targeting a buyer may do on their inventory. One targeting control may be “not allowed”, meaning the buyer may not do any targeting on this attribute. For example, the buyer may not do any geo-targeting. Another targeting control may be “allowed values”, meaning the buyer may target on this attribute, but may only choose from a restricted list of values. For example, the buyer may do geo-targeting but may only choose from five specified values. Yet another control may be “exact values”, meaning the buyer must target on a designated attribute, with specified values. For example, the buyer must geo-target a specific value.
Booking Limits allow a seller to place restrictions on the amount of inventory a buyer may reserve. Restrictions can be configured per publisher and per site, and for specific types of inventory. For example, the seller may specify that the buyer can only reserve 50% of the “Sports” content category available for a specific publisher.
Pricing controls allow a seller to set prices for inventory specific to the buyer. For example, the seller may specify that the buyer must pay at least X amount for a specific inventory (spots on a page).
Delivery controls allow a seller to specify which inventory is available to the buyer. Inventory can be opted in or out per publisher and per site, and for specific types of inventory. For example, the seller might specify that the “Sports” content category is opted-out for a specific site to prevent the buyer from accessing that inventory.
The business platform 235 carries out the targeting controls, the booking controls and the pricing controls at booking time. The business platform 235 carries out the delivery controls when an ad is actually delivered.
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Downstream systems use this information to do at least one of the following: accrue the money owed by one entity to another entity; accrue the money to be paid by one entity to another entity; provide rollup “revenue share” and “billing forecast” reports; generate invoices for entities that owe money to an ad network; and send payments to entities that an ad network owes.
The method 400 moves to step 410 where the system applies controls to the valid paths in order to trim the valid paths according criteria of the controls. These controls are user-initiated controls per buyer. Trimming the valid paths involves removing from consideration the valid paths that do not comport with criteria of the controls. Next, in step 415, the system determines available inventory for the buyer, wherein the available inventory includes available spots on web pages of sellers. For example, the business platform 435 receives the available inventory from the ad server 225 (or ad server system), which has information on all the available spots on pages of the sellers. Then, in step 420, the system makes ad reservations for the buyer based on the available inventory and the valid paths. Next, in decision operation 425, the system determines if there are any more buyers that seek to establish guaranteed delivery with a seller. If there are more buyers, the method 400 returns to step 405 and continues. However, if there are no more buyers, the method 400 is at an end.
Portions of the present invention may be conveniently implemented using a conventional general purpose or a specialized digital computer or microprocessor programmed according to the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art.
Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will be apparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also be implemented by the preparation of application-specific integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.
The present invention includes a computer program product which is a storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to control, or cause, a computer to perform any of the processes of the present invention. The storage medium can include without limitation any type of disk including floppy disks, mini disks (MD's), optical disks, DVDs, CD-ROMs, micro-drives, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices (including flash cards), magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), RAID devices, remote data storage/archive/warehousing, or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data.
Stored on any one of the computer readable medium (media), the present invention includes software for controlling both the hardware of the general purpose/specialized computer or microprocessor, and for enabling the computer or microprocessor to interact with a human user or other mechanism utilizing the results of the present invention. Such software may include without limitation device drivers, operating systems, and user applications. Ultimately, such computer readable media further includes software for performing the present invention, as described above.
Included in the programming (software) of the general/specialized computer or microprocessor are software modules for implementing the teachings of the present invention, including without limitation determining all valid paths originating from a buyer and ending at one or more sellers, applying one or more controls to the valid paths in order to trim the valid paths according to criteria of the one or more controls, determining available inventory including available spots on web pages of sellers, and making ad reservations for the buyer based on the available inventory and the valid paths, according to processes of the present invention.
The methods and apparatuses of the system guarantee delivery of ad creatives across an exchange. The system ensures that entities honor revenue-share amounts in a guaranteed way. The system ensures uniform semantics for billing and payment.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
