Patent Application
20130238437
The standard practice for keyword advertising with a search engine is for an advertiser to bid on a particular keyword or set of keywords. The purpose of the bidding is to place an advertisement on a search results page that the search engine generates in response to a search request pertaining to the bid-upon keyword or keywords. Thus, when the search engine receives a search request that pertains to the keyword(s) upon which advertisers have bid, the search engine selects a bid from the various advertisers' bids. The search engine selects the winning bid according to what it believes will provide the greatest return (determined as a function of the bid price and expected performance of the corresponding advertisement.) In this scenario, bidding on keywords occurs before any search request has been received by the search engine.
Bidding on keywords can be very expensive for an advertiser. Accordingly, advertisers take advantage of all of the tools and information available to determine an appropriate strategy for bidding on keywords. One of the strategies that advertisers have used is to evaluate where their “links” will typically be placed in a search results page for a given search request. An advertiser that bids on a particular keyword will often have one or more search results referencing content on its own webpage for a search request on the particular keyword. For example, a search results page responsive to a search request for “hard drives” may include one or more search results referencing a hard drive manufacturer. Of course, given the subject matter, “hard drives,” that same hard drive manufacturer may wish to advertise its products on search results pages responsive to a search request for hard drives. Hence, that hard drive manufacturer will bid on the keyword phrase “hard drives” to advertise the manufacturer's products, with the result being that the hard drive manufacturer advertises on the same search results page that includes search results referencing the hard drive manufacturer's products. Accordingly, an advertiser will factor in the projected position of search results referencing the advertiser's own content in determining a bidding strategy for a given keyword.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that position among search results is extremely important. The first three search results displayed on the first page of search results are far more likely to be selected by a user than any other search results. Similarly, search results that are placed “above the fold” (the “fold” being that position in a search results page, as displayed in the user's browser, where search results are not visible when the page is initially displayed) are more likely to be selected by a user than results below the fold. In order to maximize their return on investment (ROI), advertisers will often bid different amounts depending on search results position. For example, an advertiser may bid lower for a keyword if the search results pointing to the advertiser's content are placed in prominent positions (first three results, above the fold, on the first search results page, etc.) in the search results set. Conversely, an advertiser may bid higher for the keyword if the search results pointing to the advertiser are placed in a less prominent position in the search results set.
Factoring in the position of search results pointing to the advertiser when determining a bid for keyword works well as a strategy so long as the search results position can be accurately determined. However, search engines are now beginning to customize and/or personalize search results to the users. With customization/personalization of search results, the position of a search result in a set of search results varies greatly between users for the same query. For example, if the query is “jaguar”, the search results for an avid football fan might be entirely different than the search results for a fan of British cars, or for a fan of large wild cats. With customization/personalization of search results, advertisers have lost the ability factor in the position of search results that reference the advertiser when bidding on keywords.
According to at least one embodiment of the disclosed subject matter, a method enabling advertisers to condition the value of a bid for a search request term according to the position of search results referencing themselves is presented. Responsive to a search query, a plurality of bids from a plurality of advertisers corresponding to the query term is identified. Identifying the plurality of bids from the plurality of advertisers includes dynamically determining a present bid amount for at least a first bid from a first advertiser as a function of the position of a search result referencing content associated with the first advertiser in the set of search results. After identifying the plurality of bids and dynamically determining the value of the at least first bid, a winning bid is selected. A search results page is generated from the initial set of search results, the search results page including the advertisement corresponding to the winning bid. Thereafter, the generated search results page is returned responsive to the search request.
A computer-implemented system for dynamically selecting an advertisement for inclusion in a search results page is also presented. The computer-implemented system comprises a search results retrieval component for retrieving a set of search results in response to a search request. In response to the search request, the system identifies a plurality of bids from a plurality of advertisers corresponding to a query term in the search request and dynamically determines a present bid amount for each of the plurality of bids. At least one bid of the plurality of bids is a variable bid whose present bid amount is determined according to the position of a search result in the set of search results. The system selects a winning bid of the plurality of bids according to the determined present bid amount of each bid and generates a search results page from the set of search results. The generated search results page includes an advertisement corresponding to the selected winning bid. This search results page generator component returns a first search results page to the user in response to the search request.
In an alternative embodiment of the disclosed subject matter, a computer-readable medium bearing computer-executable instructions is also presented. The instructions carry out the following, including obtaining a plurality of bids for a query term from a plurality of advertises. The plurality of bids includes at least one bid from an advertiser whose present bid amount is indeterminate without identifying a position of a search result in the set of search results. A set of search results is obtained corresponding to a search request for the query term. The order of the search results in the set of search results is rearranged according to at least one preference associated with a user and the bid amounts of the plurality of bids are dynamically determined. A winning bid from the plurality of bids is selected. A search result page that includes an advertisement corresponding to the selected bid is generated and returned to the user responsive to the search request.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of the disclosed subject matter will become more readily appreciated as they are better understood by reference to the following description when taken in conjunction with the following drawings, wherein:
For purposes of clarity, the use of the term “exemplary” in this document should be interpreted as serving as an illustration or example of something, and it should not be interpreted as an ideal and/or leading illustration of that thing. Additionally, the remainder of this document will use “query term” or “search query term” when referring to a keyword, keywords, concept, or entity upon which an advertiser may bid. For example, “hard drives,” as used in the example above, is a query term. Similarly, “jaguar” is a query term, as is “2012 presidential race.”
For purposes of clarity and as used throughout this document, a “variable bid” should be interpreted as a bid from an advertiser to place an advertisement on a search results page responsive to a search request associated with a query term. The “variable” part of the bid is that the bid amount cannot be determined (i.e., it is indeterminate) without knowing the position of a search result in a search results set. Frequently, but not exclusively, the search result references content associated with, or from, the advertiser submitting the variable bid. In other words, the bid is variable based on the position of a search result in a search results set responsive to a search request from a user. As has been discussed above, the position of the search result in a search results set cannot be predicted by an advertiser at the time of submitting a bid (including a variable bid) since the order of search results in a search results set vary widely according to the user submitting the search request. A “present bid amount” is the value of a bid, determined as a function of the position of a search result in a set of search results responsive to a search request from a user.
With regard to the phrases “referencing content from an advertiser” or “referencing content from a third party”, it should be understood that the referenced content may be a specific item, a specific set of items, or an entire domain. For example, a variable bid from Company A may be conditioned on the position of a search result that references any item within Company A's domain (or domains). Alternatively, a variable bid from Company B may be condition on the position of a search result that references a specific item available from Company B. Still further, a variable bid from Company C may be condition on the position of a search result that references any one of a set of items offered by Company D (a third party to Company C).
A set of search results obtained by a search engine in response to a search request are presented to the user in a series of search results pages. Each search results page includes a subset of the set of search results. While the number of search results on a search results page can be configured, typically the number of search results on a search results page is 10, and are often referred to as the “10 blue links” (since the hyperlinks to the referenced content are displayed in blue.) Irrespective of the number of search results on a search results page, a user's browser is generally unable to display all of the search results of a search results page to the user via at the same time. Instead, the user must use various user controls to scroll up and down on the search results page in order to see all of the search results on the page. Those search results in a search results page that are initially visible to the user in the user's browser are important as studies have shown that users highly favor (act upon) those first results. The search results of a search results page that are initially visible to the user are said to be displayed “above the fold,” whereas the search results of a search results page that are not initially visible are said to be displayed “below the fold.” The actual location of the “fold,” i.e., the place in the search results page where the search results are not initially visible to the user, is highly specific to the current configuration of the user's browser. Browser configuration information is available at the time that the search engine fields a search request from a user, but is not available (or is not reliable) at the time that an advertiser bids on a query term. Hence, even without customizing search results to a specific user, predicted position information is largely specious prior to receiving a search request.
Turning now to the figures,
Further connected to the network 108 are one or more advertiser computer systems 112-116. The advertiser computer systems correspond to the online presence of a plurality of advertisers, such as a news service 112, an online shopping service 114, and a home repair service 116. For the purposes of simplicity in the presentation of the disclosed subject matter, unless explicitly described otherwise, an advertiser, the advertiser's online presence, and the advertiser's computing device (or devices) will be treated as synonymous. Hence, the exemplary networking environment 100 includes a plurality of advertisers, including (but not limited to) the news service 112, the online shopping service 114, and the home repair service 116.
As those skilled in the art will appreciate, suitable user computers for operating in the illustrative environment 100 include any number of computing devices that can communicate with the search engine 110 over the network 108 in both submitting search requests and receiving a response of search results page from the search engine 110. User computers 102-106 may communicate with the network 108 via wired or wireless communication connections. These user computers 102-106 may include, but are not limited to, laptop computers such as user computer 102, desktop computers such as user computer 104, mobile phone devices such as user computer 106, tablet computers (not shown), on-board computing systems (not shown)such as those found in vehicles, mini- and/or main-frame computers (not shown), and the like. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, at their base, the user computers 102-106 are comprised of a processor and a memory, where the processor executes instructions retrieved from the memory to carry out various functions. The user computers 102-106 of the illustrative environment 100 also include a communications component (not shown) that enables the computers to send search requests to the search engine 110 and, in response, receive search results for presentation to the corresponding user.
Regarding the search engine 110, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a search engine corresponds to an online service hosted on one or more computers. In the case of multiple computers, the computers may be tightly or loosely coupled and/or distributed throughout the network 108. The illustrated search engine 110, as shown in
While
Turning now to
The search engine 110 includes a processor 202 and a memory 204. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the processor 202 executes instructions retrieved from memory 204 in carrying out various aspects of the search service as part of, or in conjunction with, various components described hereafter. The search engine 110 also includes a network communications component 206 through which the search engine sends and receives communications over the network 108. For example, it is through the network communication component 206 that the search engine 110 receives search requests from user computers, such as user computers 102-106, and returns results responsive to the search requests. Moreover, it is through the network communication component 206 that the search engine 110 communicates with advertisers in conducting an ad auction including enabling an advertiser to submit a variable bid based on the position of search results.
The search engine 110 further includes a search results retrieval component 208, a search results customization component 210, a search results page generator 212, and an ad auction component 214. The search results retrieval component 208 retrieves a set of search results from a content index (not shown) in response to a user's search request. The set of search results may then be customized and/or personalized for the user by the search results customization component 210. These customizations may be based on implicit and/or explicit preferences associated with the user submitting the search request, the user's browsing history, social network, purchase history, geographic context, and the like. As discussed earlier, due to the customization/personalization of search results to the user, the location of any one search result in a set of search results varies widely between users. After the set of search results has been customized/personalized, the search results page generator 212 generates one or more search results pages from the customized set of search results. In addition to including search results in each generated search results page, the search results page generator also includes an advertisement in the search results page. The advertisement included in the generated search results page is selected by the ad auction component 214.
The ad auction component 214 is shown in
The ad auction component 214 conducts the auction of query terms and the selection of winning bids for inclusion in search results pages. As illustrated in
According to novel aspects of the disclosed subject matter the search engine 110 (via the ad auction component 214) allows advertisers to submit variable bids based on the position of one or more search results in the set of search results, typically search results that reference content corresponding to the advertiser. Because the actual position of a search results is not determined until after the customization/personalization of the set of search results, the value of a variable bid cannot be determined until after customization and before generating the search results pages. The ad auction component 214 dynamically determines the bid value of the variable bid via the bid evaluation component 220. This is quite unlike typical search engine/add auction services where the value of the bid is determined at the time that the advertiser submits a bid regarding a query term.
While various components of a search engine 110 have been described above, including an ad auction component 214 and its subcomponents, it should be appreciated that these are logical components, not necessarily actual components. These components are presented for describing aspects of the disclosed subject matter. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, in an actual embodiment, the functionality of these logical components may be implemented as illustrated in
Turning now to an examination of variable bids,
Turning then to
One may notice that the bid value of the variable bid 308 increases as the position of a search result in a set of search results becomes less desirable. While this may seem counterintuitive, in fact this an anticipated practice of advertisers. It is anticipated that if a search result referencing content to an advertiser is placed in a prominent position in the set of search results, such as in one of the first three positions on the first search results page (as shown in bid element 402), the likelihood that the user will select or act upon that search results is quite high. Thus, given the likelihood that a user will select the search result, the advertiser will have less incentive to place an advertisement on the search results page. Conversely, if the advertisers search results is not placed in a position of prominence in the set of search results, as signified by bid element 408, then the advertiser has a greater incentive to place an advertisement on a first search results page. Hence, it is anticipated that as the position of a search result referencing content associated with an advertiser decreases in prominence, the price that an advertiser may be willing to pay to place an advertisement on a search results page increases.
While table 400 shows variable bid 308 as having multiple bid elements, including bid elements 402-408, where each bid element has a discrete bid amount corresponding to a search result position in a set of search results, it should be appreciated that this is a non-limiting example of a variable bid. While not shown, a variable bid may be expressed in regard to one or more continuous functions. For example, the bid amount for variable bid 306 may be determined as a function of the distance from the first search result in a set of search results, in terms of the search result position on a search results page, the search results page number, a combination of the two, a combination of the search result position with regard to a second search result, as an expression of the position of a search result of another party, and the like.
With regard to tables 300 and 400, it should be appreciated that these tables are set forth to illustrate basic features involved with variable bids. It should be appreciated that in an actual embodiment, organization of advertiser bids as well as the organization of variables bids are not constrained to the format shown. Moreover, additional information may be included with advertiser bids as well as variable bids. According, these tables should be view as illustrative and non-limiting embodiments of the disclosed subject matter.
Turning now to
At block 508, the bids from a plurality of advertisers corresponding to a query term associated with the search request are identified. At block 510, the present bid value of the identified bids from the plurality of advertisers is determined. Determining the present value of the identified bids is presented in greater detail with regard to
Turning to
If, at decision block 604, the bid is determined to be a variable bid, subroutine 600 proceeds to block 608. At block 608 the position of the search result is identified. In some instances this search result is one that references content corresponding to the advertiser (the advertiser that submitted the particular bid.) However, in an alternative embodiment an advertiser may wish to condition its variable bid according to the position of a search result referencing content to a third party, such as a competitor. Further still, an advertiser may wish to condition its variable bid according to the relative position of the search result referencing content of the advertiser with regard to a search result referencing content of another party (such as a competitor.) As can be seen, an advertiser's variable bid can be configured in any number of ways with regard to the position of a search result referencing content from the advertiser in a set of search results, the position of a search result referencing content from one or more third parties, or any combination of both. Accordingly, at block 610 the bid value of the variable bid is determined according to the position of a search result as would be defined in the variable bid. Determining the bid value comprises evaluating the position of the search result (or results) with regard to the criteria specified in the variable bid.
After determining the present bid value, subroutine 600 proceeds to block 606, as described above, where the looping construct iterates to the next bid (if there is another bid to evaluate). Subroutine 600 returns to control block 602 where the process repeats if there is at least another bid to evaluate. When, at control block 602, there are no more bids to be evaluated, subroutine 600 terminates.
Returning again to
In addition to returning the generated search results page to the user in response to the search request, at block 518 data regarding the selected winning bid, such as (but not limited to) the winning bid value, search result position and other information that may be useful or necessary in supporting the selection of the winning bid (such as the user context and the like), is stored by the search engine 110. Thus, after having responded to the user's search request with a search results page that includes an advertisement corresponding to the winning bid, and after having stored the relevant data regarding the context in which the winning bid was selected, the routine 500 terminates.
Regarding
While various novel aspects of the disclosed subject matter have been described, it should be appreciated that these aspects are exemplary and illustrative, and should not be construed as limiting upon the disclosed subject matter. Variations and alterations to the various aspects may be made without departing from the scope of the disclosed subject matter.
