A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate generally to an advertising relevancy scoring system. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a system and method for generating user-assisted advertising relevancy scores.
2. Background Information
Online advertising is often an important source of revenue for enterprises engaged in electronic commerce. Online advertising may be used by advertisers to accomplish various business goals, ranging from building brand awareness among potential customers to facilitating online purchases of goods and services. Online advertising, however, differs from traditional forms of advertising because the target of the advertising effort is a user who is actively engaged in the interactive medium in which the advertising content is presented. The medium makes it difficult for advertisers to direct advertisements to individual users that fall, or may potentially fall, within the advertiser's target market. To compensate, advertisers often launch advertising campaigns intended to attract the greatest number of users by employing such methods as broadening their target market, generalizing advertisements to encompass as many users as possible, and expending money to increase the exposure of the advertisements. These efforts, however, are inefficient and can be expensive to implement.
A number of different kinds of page-based online advertisements are currently in use, along with various associated distribution requirements, advertising metrics, and pricing mechanisms. Processes associated with technologies such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) enable a page to be configured to contain a location for inclusion of an advertisement. The advertisement can be selected dynamically each time the page is requested for display by way of a browser or server application.
Several different types of fee agreements may be made between an advertiser and an online service provider. Often, the fee agreement will be based at least in part on the number of times an ad is displayed and/or viewed. Thus, in order for an advertiser to agree to pay for a particular advertisement, that advertiser would like to know with reasonable certainty the number of times an ad is displayed and viewed. Each display of an ad is referred to as an impression and the number of times an ad is displayed is referred to as the number of impressions for that ad.
Online advertisers also want to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements. Online advertisers want to know which consumers are viewing their online advertisements and which consumers are not. Online advertisers are interested in whether or not consumers find the specific advertisement relevant to the current content the consumer is viewing on the web.
Some methods currently exist that track the number of impressions. For example, many websites may utilize web server logs to measure the number of impressions for an ad. The web server logs include the number of times that a particular website is accessed. However, online advertisements are susceptible to action by robots, spiders, or other monitoring mechanisms which may artificially inflate the number of impressions. A robot or spider may be used to index a particular website, but no advertisement is viewed by a person in this indexing. The advertiser should not have to pay for this automatic access as an impression. Accordingly, advertisers on the Internet want an accurate count of the number of people who view the ad excluding robots, spiders and other non-human activity. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/478,331, filed Jun. 29, 2006 and commonly assigned with the present application, a system and method for measuring online advertising and verification of the accuracy of advertisement impressions are disclosed.
Traditional media, such as television, utilize a ratings system such as that provided by Nielsen Media Research to estimate the number of viewers for a particular show and the advertisements for that show. The Nielsen system gathers viewing data of those who have appropriate equipment installed. Such a system does not currently exist for the Internet.
Additionally, current Internet based tools do not measure the effect an ad has on a user. Nor do they measure the relevance the advertisement has to the web content displayed for that user. Furthermore, current systems do not track the demographics of those who do and do not view their advertisements. A system with the ability to capture a user feedback on the relevance of the advertisement along with demographic data of the user would add significant value for advertisers.
Furthermore, future advertisements sent to all users will change dynamically based on the relevancy data collected. Thus, a method for automatically updating the advertisements displayed on web pages based on collected relevancy data will provide a more targeted forum for advertisers.
By way of introduction, the embodiments described below include methods and systems for collecting user feedback on the relevancy of advertisements displayed on the way page being viewed.
In a first aspect, a method for incorporating user feedback on advertising relevancy is disclosed. Generally, a user requests a web page from an online service provider. The online service provider checks to determine if the user requesting the page is a member of the user assisted advertising relevancy user population. If the user is not a member, the online service provider sends the web page the user requested without a method to rate the advertisement. If the user is a member of the user assisted advertising relevancy population user base, the online service provider sends the requested web page with the ability to rate the advertisements sent on the page.
In a second aspect, a method for advertisers to opt-into the user assisted relevancy program is disclosed. The online service provider will collect the data transmitted by the user and perform various calculations on the data and aggregate the data. The online service provider will report the relevant aggregated data to advertisers who have opted into the program.
In a third aspect, future advertisements on a web page will be based on feedback data collected from users who have assisted in the advertising relevancy program. All users, even users who are not members of the program, will receive advertisements based on the collected data for the web page they are viewing.
In a fourth aspect, a system for incorporating user feedback on advertising relevancy is disclosed Generally, a user requests a web page from an online service provider. The online service provider checks to determine if the user requesting the page is a member of the user assisted advertising relevancy user population. If the user is not a member, the online service provider sends the web page the user requested without a method to rate the advertisement. If the user is a member of the user assisted advertising relevancy user base, the online service provider sends the requested web page with the ability to rate the advertisements sent on the page.
Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims.
Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments. The principles described herein may, however, be embodied in many different forms, and this specification should not be construed to limit the claims. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete to those skilled in the art.
Advertisers and advertising providers would like an accurate measure of the relevancy their advertisement has on the web page being viewed. Furthermore, online service providers and advertisers are interested in the demographics of the users who view or don't view their advertisements, purchase or don't purchase their products, what web sites users go to and a number of other details individual to users. Having access to this information allows advertisers to tailor their online offerings to better attract user interest. Further, being able to provide this information to advertisers allows online service providers to better serve their customers.
The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for allowing users to provide feedback on which advertisements are most relevant to the content they are viewing. The systems and methods disclosed further allow online service providers to generate various reports based on the collected data to their advertisement partners.
In
Portal server 110, third-party server 116, ad server 108, web/content server 122, user base server 118, user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 and user devices 104 and 106 each represent computing devices of various kinds. Such computing devices may generally include any device that is configured to perform computations and that is capable of sending and receiving data communications by way of one or more wired and/or wireless communication interfaces. Such devices may be configured to communicate in accordance with any of a variety of network protocols, including but not limited to protocols within the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. For example, user device 104 may be configured to execute a browser application that employs HTTP to request information, such as a web page, from a web server. The illustrated computing devices communicate using a network 112. The network 112 may include any suitable communication network including wire line and wireless networks and may include sub-networks such as local area networks or wide are networks.
A user base server 118 can represent several servers or other devices. The user base server 118 can keep track of all of the user accounts in the host environment's network. In this case, the user base server 118 keeps track of the online service provider user base. The user base server 118 may include a user database that stores data relating to users who are participating or have participated in the user assisted advertising relevancy program. These users will be referred to as members of user assisted advertising relevancy population. Logs of user interactions and transactions relating to the user assisted advertising relevancy program are kept in the user log database 130. Data in the user database 120 and the user log database 130 may be configured on a single database.
A user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 includes software designed and configured to record transactions and perform calculations on the data collected. The user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 may include several databases and application programs to perform such calculations. One such database is the relevancy log database 114. The relevancy log database 114 logs or records each activity related to the relevancy program. Such logging may include the user's id, which web page the user viewed, which advertisement the user rated, what the rating is, and any additional feedback relating to the advertisement and/or the web page the user was viewing at the time the rating took place.
Some or all of ad server 108, portal server 110, and third-party server 112 may be in communication with each other by way of network 112. The ad server 108 and portal server 110 may each represent multiple linked computing devices, and multiple third-party servers. For example, third-party server 116, may be included in environment 100. Network 112 may be regarded as a public or private network connection and may include, for example, a DMZ (demilitarized zone), a virtual private network or an encryption or other security mechanism employed over the public Internet.
User devices 104 and 106 are represented by user-interactive devices that typically run browser applications, and the like, to display requested pages received over a network that include advertisements. The user has agreed and been verified to participate in the user assisted advertising relevancy program.
The components of
The user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 may also include reporting software (not shown) that can automatically create reports based on the data captured by the user assisted advertising relevancy server 102. Since the user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 is in communication with many other types of servers, such as ad server 108, user base server 118, etc., it can provide various types of reports based on aggregated data collected by other components in network 112. Such reports will be useful to both online service providers and companies who provide online advertisements. Online advertisers may modify future advertisements based on the user relevancy data collected to better target their user base. Online advertisers may enjoy a more cost effective advertisement approach based on this new system.
Not all of the depicted components in
For example, display portion 522 shows an advertisement in the manner displayed in prior art. The advertisement is displayed and a user has an option to view it or perhaps enter the website of the advertisement. There is no option to rate the advertisement nor is there an option to provide feedback regarding the advertisement. Although an advertiser may be able to determine if their advertisement was clicked, there is no ability for the advertiser to know detailed demographic data about the user clicking their advertisement nor is the advertiser able to ascertain whether the user found the advertisement relevant to the web page being viewed.
Display portion 532 shows the same advertisement with user assisted advertisement relevancy ability. In the display portion 532, a user rating indicator 540 has been added. The user who sees the display portion 532 may use a pointing device such as a mouse to actuate the user rating indicator 540. Upon actuation of the user rating indicator 540, an application will send information representative of the user's selected rating to a server for collection and processing. Users who are members of the user assisted advertisement relevancy population will have the ability to rate advertisements they are viewing. Unlike display portion 522, the user has an option to give a ‘star’ rating to the advertisement in display portion 532. The user can click the number of stars in the user rating indicator 540 to rate the advertisement based on the relevancy the advertisement has on the webpage the user is currently viewing. Users who are not members of the advertising user relevancy population will see the advertisements without the ability to rate the advertisement or provide feedback. These users will view advertisements exactly how they are being viewed in prior art systems such as in display portion 522.
Similarly, the advertisement represented by display portion 524 does not include any means to rate the advertisement or to provide feedback regarding the advertisement. The same advertisement displayed with the new features in display portion 534 includes a method to give thumbs up or thumbs down rating regarding the advertisement.
Once a user rates the advertisement, additional feedback from the user may be captured (not shown). For example, a user may give reasons why this advertisement was not meaningful to the web content the user was displaying. This additional feedback may be captured in numerous ways including multiple choice questions, an area for comments, true/false questions, etc.
At block 620, it is determined whether the user is a member of the ad relevancy population. The ad relevancy population consists of those users who have been authenticated by the online service provider to provide ratings and additional feedback on displayed advertisements. If the user is not a member of the ad relevancy population, the web page the user requested is loaded without any advertisement relevancy windows/sections. Advertisements will be displayed in the same manner the prior art in
For example, suppose that W is the web site being requested. In block 730, a database or equivalent storage system in the user assisted advertising relevancy server 102 will be checked to see if any relevancy data for web site W exists. If no relevancy data exists, the web page will be displayed with advertisements and the rating means such as is described above in conjunction with block 630,
If it is determined that meaningful relevancy data exists, advertisements will be displayed based on the meaningful relevancy data at block 740. Users who are members of the advertising relevancy program will have an opportunity to rate these advertisements. Ideally, the advertisements displayed for a specific web page will ultimately have high relevancy scores.
An alternate embodiment of
The information about the program presented to the user may include details about how users will be rewarded for their feedback. For example, a point system may be in place. A user may receive a certain number of points for each advertisement he/she provides a rating for. Once a certain pre-set number of points are reached, the user may redeem exchange accumulated points for gift certificates, movie tickets, online purchases, free samples from advertisers, or anything else of value to the user. Users may be compensated not only on the quantity of their ratings but also the quality of the ratings they provide. For example, an area for additional feedback may be presented to a user. The additional feedback may include specific questions or the option to select advertisements this user would find more useful/relevant to the page he or she is viewing. Users may also be rewarded based on the improvement in advertising relevancy. If the data submitted by a user helps create more improved advertising relevancy, the user may be rewarded.
Once the user response is received by the online service provider, at block 920 a secured form is sent to the user. The user will be required to fill out the form and provide data that can be verified at block 930. For example, the form may include the user's name, address, email, etc. Additionally, demographic data about the user may be collected. Such data can include the user's age, primary industry of employment, percentage of online purchases over the past year, items purchased online over the past year, the amount spent on online purchases over the past year, etc.
The demographic data collected in addition to the advertisement relevancy data gathered will be an invaluable tool for both online service providers and advertisers. Advertisers can base future advertisement campaigns based on data received by past advertisements. Advertisers will also have increased knowledge on their current customers and those customers they would like to target. For example, if the data collected shows that people between the ages of 20 and 30 purchase an alternative product, the advertiser may target some future advertisements to that particular age group. Alternatively, the data collected may show an advertiser why people in that age group do not buy their products and advertisers can make adjustments to their products and campaigns based on that data. Furthermore, online service providers may gain additional revenue by providing detailed reports on the data collected to advertisers.
Additional verification data may also be collected to avoid fraud. In block 940, the user's data is checked for accuracy and fraud prevention. If it is determined that the user is a valid user, the user is added to the user assisted advertisement relevancy population of users, block 960. If it cannot be determined at block 950 that the user has been verified, the verification step fails and the program ends. To further prevent fraud, the system may automatically check for fraudulent activity periodically or with certain ‘triggered’ activity. For example, a trigger may be set in place if a user continuously rates the same advertisement either positively or negatively.
Once the online service provider has collected relevant date, they may choose to include advertisers in the user assisted relevancy program. The online service provider may provide the feedback received on advertisements in return for some fee agreement negotiated with advertising companies. The data collected by the online service provider measures the effect specific advertisements have. The data will also show whether users perceive the advertisement as relevant to the web content they are viewing. Advertising companies will be interested in the data accumulated by the online service provider for their advertisements as well as data collected for competitor advertisements. As previously described, the demographic and detailed data collected can assist advertisers in future advertising campaigns and future products.
The online service provider would ensure that any data given to advertisers will be stripped of any sensitive user data such as name, address, email, etc. The online service provider may provide advertisers with a report that captures the data for that advertiser based on the agreement between the online service provider and the advertiser.
From the foregoing it can be seen that the present invention provides a system that captures user feedback on the relevance an advertisement has to the web page the user is viewing. Furthermore, demographic data about the user will show advertisers who is viewing their advertisements and who finds their advertisements relevant/not relevant to specific web pages. Additionally, future advertisements on a web page will be based in part on relevancy data collected by users. This will improve the ability for advertisers to advertise to their target markets.
It is intended that the foregoing detailed description be understood as an illustration of selected forms that the invention can take and not as a definition of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents.