These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring now to drawings,
An illustrative implementation of adaptive content management system 11 is as follows. User 12 points a browser (or similar system) to the web portal 10 (or other network site), and a user interface 14, such as a web page, is provided to the user 12. A content database 24 is provided that includes a set of possible content items that can be presented to the user 12. A web application server is provided that can dynamically select and display different content items and select the placement of content items. Content items may include any type of content suitable for presentation via the user interface 14, e.g., an entire web page, an advertisement, a search result, a link, a marketing campaign, etc. A content selection system 22 makes a content selection 20 to determine which particular content item (or items) to present to user 12 based on: (1) a user profile 18; and (2) a set of business value scores 38 assigned to the different content items in the content database 22. Profile system 16 determines the user profile 18 of the user 12 based on any now known or later developed technique (e.g., a login, cookies, heuristics, etc.). Business value scores 38 are determined by a business value generator 30 (described in further detail below).
Accordingly, for a given user profile 18, there may exist n different possible content items that could be displayed. Each of the n content items are assigned a business value score 38 that measures the relative performance of each content item. Then, anytime a user having the given user profile 18 visits the web portal 10, content selection system 22 selects one of the n content items based on the business value scores 38. In particular, content selection system 22 will select each given content item with a relative frequency derived from the business value scores 38 assigned to the content items. For instance, assume there are three content item choices having business value scores as follows for a user of profile type x: item A=0.30; item B=0.65; and item C=0.05. In this case, each time a user 12 having a user profile of type x visits the web portal 10, item A is presented 30% of the time, item B is presented 65% of the time, and item C is presented 5% of the time. Thus, although item B has the highest business value score, it is not selected and displayed each time a user profile of type x is encountered. Instead, content items get displayed with different frequencies. This allows the adaptive content management system 11 to adapt to changing user preferences over time.
Business value scores 38 are determined by business value generator 30 based on collected performance metrics 28, which are collected by data collection system 26. In particular, when users are presented with a content item, data collection system 26 tracks performance metrics 28, which may include a click through rate (i.e., number of times clicked) and more importantly, a conversion rate. The conversion rate tracks the number of conversions that resulted from the user 12 clicking on a presented content item. For instance, if the user 12 was presented with a particular marketing campaign for some goods or services, and the user 12 purchased the goods or services, then a conversion occurred. In such cases, the performance metrics 28 could also store the sale amount or projected sale generated by each conversion.
In other cases, a conversion may indicate a cost savings, e.g., the content item may provide guidance to allow a user 12 to solve an information technology (IT) problem without a call to the help desk. In this case, a time or cost savings may be stored with the performance metrics for each conversion. Still in other cases, the conversion may indicate that the user filled out a form to be contacted by a salesperson. For the purpose of this disclosure, a conversion simply refers to some action taken by the user beyond simply clicking on a content item.
Initially, before any performance metrics 28 are collected, the business value scores 38 associated with each content item in the content database 24 are arrived at using an initialization system 32. Initialization system 32 allows a system administrator or the like (e.g., a marketing team) to make some initial guesses regarding what the business values scores 38 should be. For instance, the system administrator may make an educated guess that 10,000 visitors will come to the site each week, and if content Items A, B and C are presented equally, content item A will result in 200 click throughs and 10 sales. Educated guesses are then also made that content items B and C will result in 100 and 500 click throughs and 5 and 25 sales, respectively. Business value calculation system 34 would then associate a business value (or dollarized conversion value) to each content item, e.g., based on a projected number of impressions for each content item, content item A will generate $20,000 in revenue, content item B will generate $25,000 in revenue, and content item C will result in $5,000 in revenue. Such dollarized conversion values could thus also be calculated/presented based on business value per impression.
Scoring system 36 would then assign a business value score 38 to each content item based on the calculated business values, e.g., content item A=0.4, content item B=0.5, and content item C=0.1. In this case, the scores are calculated in terms of ratios, such that the sum of each equals “1”. However, any presentation for the business value scores 38 that provide a relative value of each could be used. These “initial” scores are then stored in the content database 24 with the content items.
It should be noted that while educated guesses for the initial scores can shorten the amount of time before optimal scoring values are attained, the invention will derive optimal values even if no initial distinction is entered between the different segments' viewing rate and click-through rates. In other words, equal values for these measurements can be used to initialize the system, and, so long as reasonably accurate business values (i.e., revenue and off-line conversion rates) are entered and maintained, the system will still self-optimize the scoring used in content selection over time.
As performance metrics 28 are collected over time, business value generator 30 can recalculate (i.e., adaptively modify) the business value scores 38, e.g., at regular time intervals or continuously. For example, business value calculation system 34 examines the conversion rates and generated (or projected) revenues to determine actual business values associated with each content item under the current model. For instance, at the end of the week, there may have been 12000 visitors, with 4800 being shown content item A, 6000 being shown content item B, and 1200 being shown content item C. Resulting click throughs, conversions and revenues may be 50 click throughs, 5 conversions, and $4000 in revenue for content item A; 200 click throughs, 40 conversions and $40,000 for content item B; and 50 click throughs, 5 conversions, and $6000 for content item C.
Based on the dollarized business values, scoring system 36 would rescore the business values scores 38 for content items A, B, C, as 0.08, 0.80, and 0.12, respectively. Over time, the web portal 10 would then collect new performance metrics 28 and rescore, and repeat again and again. In this manner, an adaptive model is provided to continuously identify and exploit the content items associated with the high business value.
Note that while in this example, dollarized business values based on revenue are utilized, other types of business values could likewise be calculated by the business value generator 30 to calculate business value scores 38. Examples of such business values include: cost savings, profit, total lifetime value, time, volume, customer type, etc.
In addition to those features and functions described above, an administrative interface/reporting system 40 is provided to allow a systems administrator or the like to enter initialization data and generate reports.
The first step is to associate some initial business value scores 38 to each campaign for each user profile in the content database 24. In one illustrative methodology, the marketing team may use existing data to accomplish this. For instance, the team may assume that of the typical 10,000 visitors they receive each day, 1.5% will click through, 10% of those click throughs will complete the form, and 4% of those will purchase something. Using the initialization system 32 to enter the fact that an average hardware sale is $100,000, an average software sale is $80,000 and an average service sale is $65,000, initial business value scores 38 may be generated, such as those shown in
As can be seen, the business value scores 38 adapt over time to identify the highest business values for each campaign/profile. The process updates the business value scores 38 based on visitor behavior, so little initial data is required, and the iterations continue automatically. The result is an increase in value for each visitor, an increase in the click through rates, and an increase in revenue.
Note that because the business value scores 38 may rely on some off-line activity, such as sales conversion rates, assumptions need be made, which can then later be captured and updated with actual data. For instance, in the example shown in
In general, adaptive content management system 11 may be implemented on any type of computer system, which may be implemented as part of a client and/or a server. Such a computer system generally includes a processor, input/output (I/O), memory, and bus. The processor may comprise a single processing unit, or be distributed across one or more processing units in one or more locations, e.g., on a client and server. Memory may comprise any known type of data storage and/or transmission media, including magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a data cache, a data object, etc. Moreover, memory may reside at a single physical location, comprising one or more types of data storage, or be distributed across a plurality of physical systems in various forms.
I/O may comprise any system for exchanging information to/from an external resource. External devices/resources may comprise any known type of external device, including a monitor/display, speakers, storage, another computer system, a hand-held device, keyboard, mouse, voice recognition system, speech output system, printer, facsimile, pager, etc. The bus provides a communication link between each of the components in the computer system and likewise may comprise any known type of transmission link, including electrical, optical, wireless, etc. Additional components, such as cache memory, communication systems, system software, etc., may be incorporated into the computer system.
Access to web portal 10 may be provided over a network such as the Internet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a virtual private network (VPN), etc. Communication could occur via a direct hardwired connection (e.g., serial port), or via an addressable connection that may utilize any combination of wireline and/or wireless transmission methods. Moreover, conventional network connectivity, such as Token Ring, Ethernet, WiFi or other conventional communications standards could be used. Still yet, connectivity could be provided by conventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol. In this instance, an Internet service provider could be used to establish interconnectivity. Further, as indicated above, communication could occur in a client-server or server-server environment.
It should be appreciated that the teachings of the present invention could be offered as a business method on a subscription or fee basis. For example, a computer system comprising an adaptive content management system 11 could be created, maintained and/or deployed by a service provider that offers the functions described herein for customers. That is, a service provider could offer to provide adaptive content management in which content items could be assigned a business value score based on conversion rates and as described above.
It is understood that the systems, functions, mechanisms, methods, engines and modules described herein can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. They may be implemented by any type of computer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods described herein. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general-purpose computer system with a computer program that, when loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein. Alternatively, a specific use computer, containing specialized hardware for carrying out one or more of the functional tasks of the invention could be utilized. In a further embodiment, part or all of the invention could be implemented in a distributed manner, e.g., over a network such as the Internet.
The present invention can also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods and functions described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods and functions. Terms such as computer program, software program, program, program product, software, etc., in the present context mean any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after either or both of the following: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or (b) reproduction in a different material form.
The foregoing description of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations are possible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined by the accompanying claims.