The present invention is generally directed to advertising, and more particularly, to enabling the management of an advertising campaign on a network.
Click through advertising is an important source of revenue for many companies that provide products and services to consumers over the Internet. Also, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has gained favor with many advertisers because they only pay on the basis of performance, i.e., the cost per click (CPC) that actually results in a user browsing an advertiser's web site. Typically, an advertiser bids for ranking in the results for a keyword provided to a sponsored search application. For example, an advertiser with the highest bid for a particular keyword would get the top most position in a ranked list and the next highest bidder would be assigned the second highest position in the list.
Additionally, advertisers often prefer CPC based mechanisms because they give advertisers the flexibility to set their own price for how much they are willing to pay for each click that originates from a particular keyword. Since advertisers bid against each other for a position on the ranked list generated by a sponsored search application, the actual price each advertiser is willing to pay determines the cost per click not the service provider that supports the sponsored search application.
Unfortunately, managing a PPC advertising campaign with several hundred keywords and separate bids for each keyword has been cumbersome and time-consuming. Also, since each keyword and corresponding bid had to be manually provided, it has been difficult to effectively manage a budget for a PPC advertising campaign over a significant period of time, such as a month.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the following drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various figures unless otherwise specified.
For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will be made to the following Detailed Description of the Invention, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter “with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practiced. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Among other things, the present invention may be embodied as methods or devices. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
Throughout the specification, the term “connected” means a direct connection between the things that are connected, without any intermediary devices or components. The term “coupled,” means a direct connection between the things that are connected, or an indirect connection through one or more either passive or active intermediary devices or components. The meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references. The meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.”
Briefly stated, the invention is direct to a system and method for automating the management of an advertising campaign for results in a sponsored search application. An advertiser can easily manage the number of acquisitions (clicks) that are received over time with an advertising campaign based on a budget and other information that they are most familiar with, e.g., the length of time for the campaign, desired number of total clicks during the campaign, the time zone of the campaign, keywords to be bid upon for the sponsored search application, the advertisement (copy and heading), and the URL associated with the location of the advertisement copy. With this relatively basic information provided, the invention can automatically manage the bidding on both small and relatively large numbers of keywords for an advertising campaign that is implemented with a sponsored search application.
At least one predetermined or customized method can be selected for delivering bids on keywords. In one method, the maximum number of acquisitions, such as clicks, are provided for the minimum cost over a provided period of time. In another method, a maximum number of acquisitions are provided in the shortest period of time. In yet another method, a budget is divided into several sub-budgets for corresponding time intervals. In these time intervals, the maximum number of acquisitions are made based upon the funds available in the sub-budget.
In one embodiment, an advertiser can provide multiple versions of advertising copy that can be alternatively employed with a sponsored search application. After a period of time, a determination is made as to which version(s) of the advertising copy is generating the most clicks for the sponsored search application. Once the particular version(s) of the advertising copy with the most clicks is identified, only this version(s) is subsequently primarily employed with the sponsored search application.
In yet another embodiment, a profile can be generated for each client that automatically provides substantially the same budget, desired number of clicks, and keywords used in a previous advertising campaign for the client. A profile can also be provided for a new client that includes a suggested budget and/or desired number of clicks over a period of time, e.g., day, week, month, quarter, year, and the like. Moreover, profiles can be generated for a repeat client that provides a budget and/or desired number of clicks that are substantially greater than those employed with a previous advertising campaign.
Illustrative Operating Environment
In
Although not shown, the LANs and WANs of network 102 are typically interconnected by routers and/or switches. Also, communication links within the LANs and WANS can include twisted pair, fiber optics, or coaxial cable, while communication links between networks may utilize analog telephone lines, full or fractional dedicated digital lines including T1, T2, T3, and T4, Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs), Digital Subscriber Lines (DSLs), wireless links, and the like. Furthermore, the number of WANs, and LANs in
The media used to transmit information in communication links as described above illustrates one type of computer-readable media, namely communication media. Generally, computer-readable media includes any media that can be accessed by a computing device. Computer-readable media may include computer storage media, communication media, or any combination thereof.
Additionally, communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The terms “modulated data signal,” and “carrier-wave signal” includes a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information, instructions, data, and the like, in the signal. By way of example, communication media includes wired media such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optics, wave guides, and other wired media and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, and other wireless media.
Sponsored search server 110 includes, among other components, a central processing unit (processor), a memory for storing instructions, and a network interface unit connected via a bus. The network interface unit includes the necessary circuitry for connecting sponsored search server 110 to network 102, and is constructed for use with various communication protocols including the TCP/IP and UDP/IP protocols. The network interface unit may include or interface with circuitry and components for communicating information, such as graphical displays, advertiser data, and the like over a wired and/or wireless communications medium. Network interface unit is sometimes referred to as a transceiver.
Advertising Campaign Methods
The process moves next to block 206 where best bids are placed for each keyword based on the CPA selected for bidding in block 204. Upon completion of block 206, the process returns to performing other actions.
At block 306, the time interval for bidding on keywords for acquisitions is provided. The time zone for the advertising campaign can be optionally provided. For example, an advertiser wanting to target an advertising campaign to the west coast of the United States could select a time interval suited to the Pacific time zone. Although not shown, the particular hours during the day that the advertising campaign will be enabled can also be selected. For example, an advertising campaign directed to young families on the west coast of the USA might be enabled from the hours of 8:00 AM to 9:30 PM Pacific Standard time.
Stepping to block 308, the positions for bidding on keywords in the results of a sponsored search application are provided. Typically, just the first three positions are bid upon, however, it is understood that the invention supports bidding on lower positions.
Proceeding to block 310, at least one average cost per acquisition is provided. Next, the process advances to block 312 where a list of keywords is provided for bidding purposes.
At block 312, at least one keyword is provided. Stepping to decision block 314, the process determines if related words are to be generated. If so, the process advances to block 316 were at least one generated keyword is added to a list of at least one provided keyword. Next, the process moves to block 318 where content such as advertisement text, headlines, pictures, graphics, and the like, are provided. Also, if the determination at decision block 314 had been false, the process would have moved directly to block 318.
From block 318, the process steps to block 320 where a URL is provided. Next, the process flows to block 322 where the optimal bids for keywords are placed with a selected CPA method. The process in block 322 is described in greater detail in the discussion of
Alternatively, if the determination at decision block 504 was false, the process moves to decision block 506 where a determination is made as to whether the selected CPA method enables the maximum number of acquisitions to be occur in a sponsored search application in the shortest period of time. If true, the process moves to block 514 where this CPA method is performed. Next the process moves to a return bock and returns to performing other actions.
However, if the determination at decision block 506 was false, the process advances to block 508 where a determination is made as to whether the selected CPA method enables a budget for acquisitions such as a monthly budget for causing the maximum number of acquisitions to be divided up into separate budgets, e.g., daily budgets, that are used to place the maximum number of successful bids for keywords with a sponsored search application. If true, the process advances to block 516 where the time interval budget CPA method is performed. Next, the process flows to an end block and returns to performing other actions.
Alternatively, if the determination at decision block 508 is false, the process steps to block 510 where a custom method for optimizing bids for keywords in the results from a sponsored search application is implemented. One type of custom method might incorporate certain aspects of other predetermined CPA methods or enable modifications to these predetermined CPA methods. For example, the invention could enable a time interval CPA method to be customized to maximize the number of successful bids for keywords in the shortest period of time within the time interval. In any event, the process steps from block 510 and returns to performing other actions.
Additionally, there may not be enough successful bids for keywords in a particular time interval, such as a day, to spend the entire budget for a time interval. In this case, the invention can enable the left over budget to be added to the next time interval or spread out over the remaining time intervals. Furthermore, the invention enables a user to dynamically modify any of the provided information and selected CPA method(s) at any time.
To further understand the pseudo code presented in
However, if the determination at decision block 804 is affirmative, the process moves to block 808 where a determination is made as to which version(s) of the advertising copy causes the most clicks to occur. The process flows to block 810 where just the version of the advertising copy that generates the most clicks is provided for the keyword search results in a sponsored search application. In another embodiment, the different versions of the advertising copy can be weighted so that each version that causes the most clicks are provided more often for the keyword search than other versions that cause less clicks to be generated. Next, the process returns to performing other actions.
Additionally, although not shown, in another embodiment, the budget and cost per click (CPC) for at least one particular keyword can be manually selected. Furthermore, the manual optimization process discussed above may be performed once or repeatedly over the course of the advertising campaign, e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, and the like.
The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended.