Patent Application
20070271136
Internet advertising is well-known and the technical details associated with generating an advertisement or impression on a web page are well known to those skilled in the art. On a high level, a user uses an Internet browser to gain accesses to the Internet through a computer or any other electronic device that has the capability to connect to the Internet. The Internet browser can be Microsoft Explorer, Netscape Communicator, or any other browser known to those of skill in the art. These browsers allow a user to access a published web page and have the page displayed on the user's computer screen.
The invention involves a method for determining a price charged to an advertiser to place an advertisement on an Internet web page or other remote area computer network. The method is comprised of: (a) providing a first database containing pricing information; (b) providing a second database containing audience information; (c) providing a third database containing advertisement information; (d) requesting pricing information from the first database; (e) identifying a target audience using information in the second database; (f) defining advertisement characteristics using information in the third database; and (g) calculating a price for the advertisement based on the target audience and the characteristics of the advertisement.
Referring to
Also linked to the public network 10 are other computers, including an advertiser's computer 18 and a consumer's computer 20. The advertiser's computer 18 and the consumer's computer 20 will be referred to herein when describing examples of how the inventive method is carried out.
As shown in
The first database 14 also includes pricing information based on a geographical area targeted by the advertisement. This information includes, among other things, the number of visitors to a publisher's web page or web site within a specific geographical area. Obviously it costs more to advertise in an area of greater population density as opposed to a more sparsely populated area. Because the Internet has a global reach, the ability to target advertising based on a user's location allows a web page publisher to vary the costs associated with an advertisement in response to the population density of a given area. In one embodiment of the invention, the center point of a given geographical area is identified using a coordinate defined by a particular latitude and longitude while the size of the area is defined by a radius extending from the particular coordinate. As with population density, the pricing information will vary based on the size of the geographical area an advertisement reaches.
After obtaining pricing information, the advertiser queries the second database 16 to determine, for example, the potential audience size based on the current number of viewers within a given radius of a particular latitude and longitude. The second database 16 also includes information about the number of visitors to a publisher's web page or web site based on time of day, day of week, and geographic locale of the visitors.
Having obtained general pricing information and information on the size of the viewing audience the advertisement will reach, a price for the ad is calculated. This calculation is based on factors such as the total size of the potential audience and the historical usage levels of the publisher's web page or web site during specific. Additional pricing variables are obtained by querying a third database which includes information on a period of time an advertisement would appear on the Internet. This database also includes information on the various styles of advertisements that are available to be purchased. Furthermore, the database may include information on advertisements of competing products or services. In one embodiment of the invention, the information on competing advertisements may include information as to the number of different advertisements for competing products or services that are appearing on the Internet. Given all of these factors a price for displaying an advertisement can be calculated on either a cost per impression or cost per click basis.
The information in each of the databases can be updated and changed at which time the price of a particular advertisement will be recalculated. Furthermore, an advertiser can edit or change various parameters and see the impact such changes have on the price of the advertisement before submitting an advertisement insertion order.
The inventive method also provides for the collection of information from the advertiser. This information includes, for example, billing information and information on advertisement content. Such information is stored in the first database.
The invention also provides a method for allocating advertising space on a web page to a plurality of advertisers. The method is comprised of: (a) defining a geographic area in which the advertisement will appear; (b) selecting a day of a week in which the advertisement will appear; (c) choosing a block of time during a day in which an advertisement will appear; (d) identifying a maximum price per “click” or per impression that each one of the plurality of advertiser will pay; and (e) setting a maximum price value of an advertising campaign in which the advertisement will appear. Using this form of an auction to allocate time on a web page to advertisers allows a large number of advertisers to bid for the day(s) of the week and the time(s) of day that a particular advertisement is displayed.
For example, assume that the target market for a group of advertisers is consumers who use the Internet during daily business hours (i.e., 9:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M.) Depending on the goods or services an advertiser was trying to sell, they may be willing to pay more to have an impression shown during one time of day, (e.g., 10:00 A.M.) as opposed to another time (e.g., 12:00 A.M.). In order for a publisher to obtain the maximum price for an impression, advertisers would bid for the day of the week and time of day they most desire their advertisement to appear. In this example, a local restaurant that was looking to attract a lunch time crowd would be willing to pay a premium to target its advertisement to having it appear a web page to users within a particular geographical area between 11:30 A.M. and 12:30 P.M. so as to entice people to eat at the restaurant during their lunch hour. Because the Internet has a global reach, Greenwich Mean Time is used as the reference point to determine when ads will appear to different locations around the world. The geographical viewing area is defined by determining a radial distance extending from a geographical center point of the area to a point on an outer boundary of the area;
This method of allocating advertising space benefits both the web page publisher and the advertiser. Using this method, the web page publisher is not required to negotiate an advertising price based on a cost per impression basis, typically a flat fee for given number of impressions, and then attempt to adequately allocate the impressions at various times of the day and week so as to generate business for the advertiser. Instead, a web page publisher is able to obtain the maximum value for the allocation of advertising space at a particular time based on a price set by the marketplace.
Advertisers benefit too in that they no longer have to worry about having their ad displayed during premium time periods for their business. Depending on the amount of money available for an advertising campaign, and the importance of having an advertisement displayed at a particular time, the advertiser can bid to pay a premium to have a given number of impressions appear during a particular time slot. In this method too, an advertiser having a limited advertising budget yet desiring to generate name recognition can maximize its exposure by purchasing multiple impressions during off-peak or low demand time slots. For example, an advertiser desiring to have his ad shown during the 11:00 A.M. hour may bid to pay 0.05 cents for each “click” on his ad from the publisher's web page. If, however, a second advertiser offers to pay 0.10 cents per “click” for the same time period, the ad for the second advertiser would be prioritized to be displayed in advance of the advertiser offering 0.05 cents per click. In this manner, an advertiser could divide the number of clicks or impressions into his total advertising budget to determine the maximum price per click or impression he was willing to bid. If on the other hand, the goal of the advertiser was to have as many impressions as possible at any time of the day, a minimum price per click could be determined.
The inventive method also solves the problems created with performance-based pricing in that a web page publisher does not have to determine whether a consumer made a purchase from an advertiser's web site as a result of being drawn to the site through an ad appearing on the web page publisher's site or by revisiting the advertiser's site at another time. By establishing the value of the time and day an impression is shown through an auction, the advertiser has already factored in the performance of the advertisement in the price he is willing to bid.
As shown in
Once the relevancy quotient has been assigned, the advertising database is again queried for the subset of ads which are targeted for the current day and time. Ads that are specifically targeted for the current day and time have their relevancy quotient increased while the quotient for those having no time and date specification is decreased. Once this is completed, all relevant ads are placed into an array and each ad is assigned a frequency quotient ranging from the highest bid with the greatest frequency to the lowest bid with the lowest frequency. The ads are then displayed in a user's web browser at a pre-determined rotation interval with the ads being prioritized by relevancy quotient and then frequency quotient.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. Recitation of ranges of values herein are merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range, unless otherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.
Preferred embodiments of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. It should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are exemplary only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention.
