Patent Application
20150248712
Online advertising, also called Internet advertising, uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. Online advertising is a large business and is growing rapidly. Online advertising revenues in the United States surpassed those of cable television and nearly exceeded those of broadcast television in 2011.
Online advertising includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising, and mobile advertising. Online advertising usually involves both a publisher, who integrates advertisements into its online content, and an advertiser, who provides the advertisements to be displayed on the publisher's system. The publisher may be a
As mobile devices become more and more popular, more publishers and advertisers are interested to adopt mobile advertising in their businesses. Mobile advertising may be the fastest growing advertising in the world. While a few companies provide a mobile version or mobile application (“app”) when people visit their web sites through mobile devices, there are lots of small businesses who don't have a webpage or mobile application tailored for mobile access. As a result, mobile advertising may not have the desired conversion rate for those small businesses.
Thus, to take advantage of mobile advertising, small businesses need an advertising system that provides the desired conversion without the time and expense required for developing a mobile app or mobile webpage. It would be desirable to develop such new systems and methods for small businesses to increase the conversion rate without increasing the cost of the small businesses.
In the disclosed system and method, mobile templates are introduced to enhance mobile landing experience. When a mobile advertisement is tapped, clicked or otherwise selected or actuated, a native mobile view is presented by combining a mobile template and corresponding advertiser information. Thus, the advertising system may increase the conversion rate and track the cost per action (CPA) more accurately.
In a first aspect, a computer system is disclosed for providing mobile advertisements. The computer system includes a processor and a non-transitory storage medium accessible to the hardware processor. The system includes a plurality of templates to be selected by an advertiser. The system also includes a user interface configured to present the plurality of templates to the advertiser so that the advertiser selects a template. The user interface is further configured to obtain advertiser information corresponding to the selected template. The system is configured to provide data to a mobile device that defines a mobile advertisement so that the mobile device may display a mobile advertisement related to the advertiser on the mobile device. The system is configured to render a mobile view on the mobile device based on the selected template and the obtained advertiser information when the mobile advertisement is selected.
In a second aspect, a method or program is disclosed for providing mobile advertisements implemented in a computer system. In the computer implemented method, the system provides a plurality of templates to be selected by an advertiser. The system obtains a selection of one of the plurality of templates. The system obtains advertiser information corresponding to the selected template. The system provides to a mobile device, data that defines a mobile advertisement related to the advertiser so that the mobile device renders a mobile view on a display of the mobile device when the mobile advertisement is selected. The mobile view on the mobile device is rendered based on the selected template and the obtained advertiser information.
In a third aspect, a non-transitory storage medium is configured to store a set of instructions. The set of instructions directs a computer system to perform the acts of the method in the second aspect.
Throughout the specification and claims, terms may have nuanced meanings suggested or implied in context beyond an explicitly stated meaning. Likewise, the phrase “in one embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and the phrase “in another embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment. It is intended, for example, that claimed subject matter include combinations of example embodiments in whole or in part.
In general, terminology may be understood at least in part from usage in context. For example, terms, such as “and”, “or”, or “and/or,” as used herein may include a variety of meanings that may depend at least in part upon the context in which such terms are used. Typically, “or” if used to associate a list, such as A, B or C, is intended to mean A, B, and C, here used in the inclusive sense, as well as A, B or C, here used in the exclusive sense. In addition, the term “one or more” as used herein, depending at least in part upon context, may be used to describe any feature, structure, or characteristic in a singular sense or may be used to describe combinations of features, structures or characteristics in a plural sense. Similarly, terms, such as “a,” “an,” or “the,” again, may be understood to convey a singular usage or to convey a plural usage, depending at least in part upon context. In addition, the term “based on” may be understood as not necessarily intended to convey an exclusive set of factors and may, instead, allow for existence of additional factors not necessarily expressly described, again, depending at least in part on context.
The term “social network” refers generally to a network of individuals, such as acquaintances, friends, family, colleagues, or co-workers, coupled via a communications network or via a variety of sub-networks. Potentially, additional relationships may subsequently be formed as a result of social interaction via the communications network or sub-networks. A social network may be employed, for example, to identify additional connections for a variety of activities, including, but not limited to, dating, job networking, receiving or providing service referrals, content sharing, creating new associations, maintaining existing associations, identifying potential activity partners, performing or supporting commercial transactions, or the like.
A social network may include individuals with similar experiences, opinions, education levels or backgrounds. Subgroups may exist or be created according to user profiles of individuals, for example, in which a subgroup member may belong to multiple subgroups. An individual may also have multiple “1:few” associations within a social network, such as for family, college classmates, or co-workers.
An individual's social network may refer to a set of direct personal relationships or a set of indirect personal relationships. A direct personal relationship refers to a relationship for an individual in which communications may be individual to individual, such as with family members, friends, colleagues, co-workers, or the like. An indirect personal relationship refers to a relationship that may be available to an individual with another individual although no form of individual to individual communication may have taken place, such as a friend of a friend, or the like. Different privileges or permissions may be associated with relationships in a social network. A social network also may generate relationships or connections with entities other than a person, such as companies, brands, or so-called ‘virtual persons.’ An individual's social network may be represented in a variety of forms, such as visually, electronically or functionally. For example, a “social graph” or “socio-gram” may represent an entity in a social network as a node and a relationship as an edge or a link.
For web portals like Yahoo!, the advertising system may include a plurality of websites and a plurality of mobile applications. Both the websites and the mobile applications may display online advertisements on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, phablets, or other mobile computing devices. The mobile device may have a relatively smaller display screen size compared to regular personal computers or laptops. For example, most smartphones have a display screen size that is 5 inches or less while most personal computers have a display screen size that is 14 inches or larger.
Generally, when the advertiser does not have a mobile application or a mobile webpage, the same advertiser webpage will be loaded and displayed on the regular personal computer and the mobile device when a user clicks or taps an advertisement. In that case, the advertiser webpage may be difficult to navigate because the buttons and texts are tiny when shown on the display screen on the mobile devices. The mobile device user may have to zoom in several times to find the desired information. The poor mobile landing experience may result a poor conversion rate because it takes too much time and effort to access such webpages on a mobile device.
One of the current solutions to this problem is to develop a mobile application or a mobile webpage tailored for mobile display on the small display screens. However, most small businesses do not have the financial resources or technical expertise to develop a mobile application or a mobile webpage for their businesses. At the meantime, the small business owners would like to enjoy the additional income from mobile advertisements.
To solve the above problem, an advertising system is provided to improve the mobile landing experience by providing advertisers with templates associated with desired actions to be performed by users. The advertisers only need to select the appropriate templates with the desired action to be performed when they buy or bid mobile advertisements. The advertising system then presents the selected template and the advertiser information in a mobile view when a mobile advertisement is selected by a mobile device user. The mobile view displays the selected template according to the screen size and settings on the mobile device and thus provides a native in-app experience to mobile device users without opening a webpage in a web browser. The mobile view also provides large action buttons or menus that allow users to select or click with a single hand. Thus, the mobile device user can easily access the desired information in the mobile view about the advertiser without zooming or pinching.
The environment 100 may include a computing device 110 and a connected server system 120 including a content server 122, a search engine 124, and an advertisement server 126. The server system 120 may include additional servers for additional computing or service purposes. For example, the server system 120 may include servers for social networks, online shopping sites, and any other online services.
The content server 122 may be a computer, a server, or any other computing device known in the art, or the content server 122 may be a computer program, instructions, and/or software code stored on a computer-readable storage medium that runs on a processor of a single server, a plurality of servers, or any other type of computing device known in the art. The content server 122 delivers content, such as a web page, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and/or other protocols. The content server 122 may also be a virtual machine running a program that delivers content.
The search engine 124 may be a computer system, one or more servers, or any other computing device known in the art, or the search engine 124 may be a computer program, instructions, and/or software code stored on a computer-readable storage medium that runs on a processor of a single server, a plurality of servers, or any other type of computing device known in the art. The search engine 124 is designed to help users find information located on the Internet or an intranet.
The advertisement server 126 may be a computer system, one or more servers, or any other computing device known in the art, or the advertisement server 126 may be a computer program, instructions and/or software code stored on a computer-readable storage medium that runs on a processor of a single server, a plurality of servers, or any other type of computing device known in the art. The advertisement server 126 is designed to provide digital ads to a web user based on display conditions requested by the advertiser.
The computing device 110 and the connected server system 120 may have access to a database system. The database system may include one or more databases. For example, one database may include advertiser information such as advertiser address, phone number, et al. A second database may include user information related to a social network and past search histories. The computing device 110 may be a computer, a laptop, a tablet, or any other device that an advertiser may use to access the Internet and buy online advertisements.
The environment 100 may further include a plurality of mobile devices 132, 134, and 136. The mobile devices 132, 143, 136 may be embodied as a smartphone, a personal digital aid, a digital reader, a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, or any other device that mobile users may use to access the Internet to find desired information. The mobile devices 132, 143, 136 may have a relatively smaller screen size compared with the computing device used by advertisers.
The device 200 may implement one or more application programs or applications or apps. The applications may include program and code stored in the non-transitory storage medium 220 for operation on the hardware processor 210. The applications may operate in conjunction with sensors such as the sensor 240 and a user interface of the device 200 including the input device 250 and display device 260. The applications may further operate in conjunction with programs and data on remote processing systems such as servers operated by an online service provider or an advertiser to provide information to a user of the device 200 or collect inputs and operational information from the device 200.
The computing device 410 may be a computer, a laptop, a tablet, or any other computing device accessible to an advertiser. The computing device 410 communicates with the server 450 to obtain a plurality of templates to be selected by the advertiser. For example, the computing device 410 may include a user interface 412 that presents the plurality of templates to the advertiser so that the advertiser selects a template. The user interface 412 may include any suitable data display devices, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and any suitable data entry devices such as a keypad, microphone or touch-sensitive display screen. The user interface 412 may be based on a webpage rendered by a browser or an application installed on the computing device 410. The user interface 412 is further configured to obtain advertiser information corresponding to the selected template. The advertiser may input the advertiser information using an input device 414 such as a keyboard, a microphone, a mouse, or any other known input device.
The mobile device 430 may be a smartphone, a tablet, or any other mobile computing device accessible to a mobile user. The mobile device 430 includes a non-transitory storage 432 and a display 434. The non-transitory storage 432 is configured to store different mobile applications. For example, the non-transitory storage 432 stores a mobile application from a publisher or an advertising service provider that manages the system 400. The mobile device 430 communicates with the server 450 to obtain mobile advertisements candidates from the server 450. The mobile device may also obtain other metadata from the server 450 so that the mobile device can display the mobile advertisement with the corresponding advertiser information the mobile application is running. If the mobile user clicks or taps or otherwise selects the displayed mobile advertisement, the mobile application renders a mobile view on the mobile device based on the selected template and the obtained advertiser information.
When the user performs the desired action shown in the mobile view, the mobile application may track the performed actions and send the tracking information back to the server 450. The server 450 records those tracking information and updates the CPA. Further, the server 450 may provide the recorded tracking information to the advertiser.
The server 450 may be a server computer, a cluster, or any computing devices that include a non-transitory storage 452. The server 450 generally includes a data processing system with a processor and memory to store data and instructions. The non-transitory storage 452 stores the plurality of templates 454, the advertiser information 456, and metadata 458. The metadata 458 includes necessary information to render the mobile view on a particular mobile device.
The server 450 obtains the advertiser information from the device 410 and stores the advertiser information for each advertiser. When the mobile device requests advertisement candidates, the server may then provide template indexes to the selected templates and the corresponding advertiser information and the necessary metadata to the mobile device 430 so that the mobile device can present a mobile view with such information.
In step 310, the system provides a plurality of templates to be selected by an advertiser. A template may be a master advertising page used to produce a mobile view optimized for viewing on mobile devices. The template may include information from advertisers such as advertiser graphical images, advertiser selectable text, advertiser selectable shapes or designs. The template may further include information that may be customized by mobile users to specify a font size, a background color, etc.
For example, the system may provide a plurality of templates to an advertiser on a computing device such as computing device 410 shown in
For example, a coffee shop owner may desire mobile users to visit his coffee shop and thus would welcome mobile users to navigate to a web site or other online information about his coffee shop with a single click or tap. Further, the coffee shop owner may give coupons to promote his coffee or breakfasts. Thus, the coffee shop owner may also like any potential customer to download a coupon of the brand. Furthermore, after the mobile users visit the coffee shop and enjoyed the service and food in the coffee shop, the shop owner would be more than happy if the mobile users share their good experience with the brand on a social network.
In another example, a restaurant owner or car repair shop would welcome any mobile users to call their business telephone number to set up reservations or appointments. Once a reservation is made, the mobile user may tap a button displayed on the display of a smart phone to set a calendar event for the future visit on a calendar application of the mobile device or a remotely located calendar application.
For advertisers that accept online reservations, the advertisers may welcome the mobile user to set a calendar event related to the advertiser by a single tap or click of an actuator of a smart phone or other device, such as a soft button displayed on the screen of a smartphone.
In step 320, the system obtains a selection of one of the plurality of templates. The advertiser may use a computing device to select one or more templates through a user interface tailored for the computing device. For example, the user interface may be different on a personal computer and a tablet. Each template may be identified by a template index. Thus, the template index of the selected templates may be stored in an advertisement server so that the advertisement server may provide the template index to a mobile device when a related mobile advertisement is provided as an advertisement candidate to the mobile device.
In step 330, the system obtains advertiser information corresponding to the selected template. Each template may correspond to a specific action and thus may requires additional information from the advertiser. The additional information may include at least one of the following: an image related to the advertiser, a title related to the advertiser, an address related to the advertiser; a promotion text related to the advertiser, and a phone number related to the advertiser.
In step 340, the system provides data to a mobile device, where the data define a mobile advertisement related to the advertiser. The server 450 in
In an example embodiment, a mobile device may include a processor and a non-transitory storage medium that stores a mobile application from the publisher that manages the advertising system. The non-transitory storage medium may also store the plurality of templates specifically tailored for the screen size of the mobile device. This may be implemented when the mobile application is built and installed in the mobile device.
The mobile application may provide an email service, a news service, a weather service, or a social network service to mobile users. When the mobile application is activated, the mobile application may communicate with an advertisement server or other servers illustrated in
In step 350, the system renders a mobile view on the mobile device based on the selected template and the obtained advertiser information when the mobile advertisement is selected. For example, the mobile application may render a mobile view of the template that fully fit the screen size of the mobile device with buttons or menus that can be conveniently selected by the mobile users. The mobile application does not need to open a webpage from the advertiser in this case. Rather, the mobile application only presents the selected template with the corresponding metadata including advertiser information. At least some of the texts are displayed in a font size specified by a setting of the mobile device. There is no need for mobile users to zooming in to find the desired information. Thus, the advertising system increases the conversion rate by providing the native in-app experiences to the mobile users.
In step 360, the system specifies a phrase associated with the selected template that defines an action to a brand related to the advertiser. For example, the advertiser may select a particular action to be performed that is related to his store. Alternatively or additionally, the advertising service provider may specify predetermined actions to a template so that the advertiser can just make one selection of both the template and the action to be performed. Further, the mobile device may have settings that can change or modify the options in the actions to be performed. For example, if a social network application is installed and set as the preferred social network on the mobile device, the action to share the advertiser information on a different social network may be replaced with the preferred social network. In other words, the defined action may be customized by one or more devices in the system.
In step 370, the system tracks cost per action (CPA) when a mobile user engages the action to the brand. An advertiser may compensate an advertising service provider based on the cost per action, where an action may include actions defined by the advertiser and any agreed-upon action of a user such as a user of a mobile device. The agreed-upon action may include providing an email address or a credit card number or any other action which may be tracked as a basis for exchanging value. The advertising system may provide the CPA data to advertisers so that the advertisers can select the most effective templates for their businesses. Further, the advertising system may put different prices on each different action or template based on their different conversion rates and CPA data.
For example, a pizza shop may find that the conversion rate is the highest corresponding to the “call to deliver a pizza” template. The pizza shop may be willing to pay more for such template in the future. The publisher may increase the starting bidding price for such templates as well.
The advertiser information 522 may include at least one of the following: a brand name of the advertiser, a coupon image of the advertiser, an address of the advertiser, a promotion text related to the advertiser, and a phone number related to the advertiser. The button 524 may display text defining the action to be performed in a relatively large font. Thus, the mobile user only need to tap or click the button 524 to perform the specified action shown in the advertiser information 522.
The templates of
The disclosed system and method provide many advantages. For example, when making use of the disclosed system and method, advertisers do not need to prepare a mobile web site or a mobile application suitable for mobile use. This reduces the cost and time investments of getting online advertisements prepared for display to users. The advertiser can select a template in the mobile application and specify an associated action to be performed by a potential customer. The advertiser only needs to enter a few data elements to provide a native mobile experience for potential customers. Further, the computer system can directly track cost per action (CPA) within the mobile application.
It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.
