U.S. patent application number 09/739064 was filed with the patent office on 2001-10-18 for system and method for tracking web campaign effectiveness.
Invention is credited to Dholakia, Neil, Faour, Carolyn C., Macartney-Filgate, Bruce C., Perez, Edelmiro JR..
Application Number | 20010032126 09/739064 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26867917 |
Filed Date | 2001-10-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010032126 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Macartney-Filgate, Bruce C. ;
et al. |
October 18, 2001 |
System and method for tracking web campaign effectiveness
Abstract
Events generated by customer interaction during an
internet-based session are made available for use by a system for
tracking the effectiveness of web advertising campaigns. Event
occurrences are collected for evaluation to determine whether
campaign goals are being met. Campaigns are defined by rules
indicating which ad content is to be displayed to which customers.
Event types to be reported are selected depending on the needs of
the particular campaign.
Inventors: |
Macartney-Filgate, Bruce C.;
(Austin, TX) ; Perez, Edelmiro JR.; (Round Rock,
TX) ; Faour, Carolyn C.; (Austin, TX) ;
Dholakia, Neil; (Austin, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Kenneth C. Hill
HILL & HUNN, LLP.
Suite 1440
201 Main Street
Fort Worth
TX
76102-3105
US
|
Family ID: |
26867917 |
Appl. No.: |
09/739064 |
Filed: |
December 18, 2000 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60172279 |
Dec 17, 1999 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.43 ;
705/301 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0254 20130101;
G06Q 30/0269 20130101; G06Q 10/103 20130101; G06Q 30/0242 20130101;
G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06Q 30/0258 20130101; G06Q 30/0244
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14 ;
705/10 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/60 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for tracking the effectiveness of an advertising
campaign, comprising the steps of: providing a set of rules
defining when advertisement content for the campaign will be
displayed on a web page; generating event messages when selected
events occur as a result of customer input; sending the generated
messages to a message handler associated with the campaign; storing
a selected subset of messages; and reporting statistics of campaign
effectiveness based upon analysis of the stored subset of
messages.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected subset includes
messages indicating that an ad has been displayed to a customer,
that a customer has selected the ad, and that a customer has
purchased a product associated with the ad.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated event messages are
routed through an event router to the message handler.
4. A system for managing a web-based advertising campaign,
comprising: an interface for providing content to a customer over a
computer network; a plurality of rules defining a campaign, wherein
the rules control when an advertisement corresponding to the
campaign will be displayed to a customer; means for generating
messages when an event of a selected type occurs, wherein the event
is based upon an action taken by the customer; a message handler
for receiving the messages and storing data relating to a selected
subset thereof; and a storage device for retaining the data
relating to the selected subset of messages, wherein analysis of
the effectiveness of the advertising campaign can be conducted on
the stored data.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the selected subset includes
messages indicating that an ad has been displayed to a customer,
that a customer has selected the ad, and that a customer has
purchased a product associated with the ad.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority based upon Provisional
Application Filing No. 60/172,279 filed Dec. 17, 1999 titled
PERSONALIZED WEB CAMPAIGN PROMOTION SYSTEM WITH CAMPAIGN
EFFECTIVENESS TRACKING.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates generally to computer systems
that communicate of the internet, and more specifically to a system
and method for tracking the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
over internet systems.
[0004] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0005] Advertising over the internet has become extremely common.
In many cases, paid advertising is the primary source of revenue
for internet content providers. For others, advertisements can
direct potential customers to additional products available, and
promote products that the content provider wants or needs to
sell.
[0006] An important goal of advertising, especially in a medium
such as the internet, is to direct the advertising to customers
most likely to buy the product. Various types of customer profiling
is becoming common, with choice of advertisements dynamically
selected based upon information collected about the person
accessing a web page, and upon purchasing or viewing patterns that
person is currently demonstrating. An example of such advertising
technique is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,887, issued to Chelliah
et al. Many other examples of advertising based upon purchaser
identification are known in the art.
[0007] One common advertising technique is to provide a selected
portion of a web page for displaying advertisements. This portion
is usually at the top of a displayed page, where a potential
purchaser will encounter it when the page is first loaded. If the
person viewing the page is interested in the product or service
depicted I the advertisement, usually clicking on the advertisement
will take that person to another web page where the product or
service can be purchased, or additional information found. This
approach is often generally referred to as banner advertising,
because the selected portion is a rectangular banner shape at the
top of the page.
[0008] Numerous approaches are in use for selecting the particular
ads to be displayed to a particular customer. A common problem with
many approaches is determining how effective they are, during and
after an advertising campaign. Although various purchaser profiles
can be selected in advance to determine which customers will be
shown which advertisements, it is often difficult to find out after
the fact whether the campaign was, in fact, effective.
[0009] It would be desirable to provide a system and method that
not only allowed advertising campaigns to be defined, but that
allowed the effectiveness of the campaign to be monitored. It would
further be desirable for such a system and method to be compatible
with current web-based internet systems, and be easy to use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] In accordance with the present invention, events generated
by customer interaction during an internet-based session are made
available for use by a system for tracking the effectiveness of web
advertising campaigns. Event occurrences are collected for
evaluation to determine whether campaign goals are being met.
Campaigns are defined by rules indicating which ad content is to be
displayed to which customers. Events types to be reported are
selected depending on the needs of the particular campaign.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The novel features believed characteristic of the invention
are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however,
as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects and advantages
thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following
detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system for use
over the internet;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of a display;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system for handling events
generated by numerous applications; and
[0015] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a preferred system for managing
advertising campaigns.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0016] The present invention is described in the context of the
following implementation. Those skilled in the art will recognize
that numerous alternative implementations can be used to accomplish
the following described results and goals.
[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates, at a high level, a typical system 10
used to implement the preferred embodiment. A browser 12, used by a
customer, connects to a server 14 through the internet 16, or other
suitable communications network. Server 14 is responsible for
responding to requests received from browser 12, and provides
content to be displayed on display 18.
[0018] As described below, server 14 also provides advertisements
to be displayed. The selection of advertisements to be displayed
depends upon several factors, including what ad campaigns are
currently in effect and who the customer is. In response to actions
taken by the customer, selected events are generated by
applications running on server 14, and are forwarded to event
handler 20. In the preferred embodiment, event handler 20 is an
application dedicated to supporting one or more advertising
campaigns, and deals with the various events in a manner that will
facilitate analysis of the effectiveness of the campaigns. Various
reports 22 are generated using the data processed by event handler
20.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows a typical web page layout that is suitable for
use in the preferred embodiment. Numerous alternative arrangements
are known to those skilled in the art, but layout 28 will serve to
demonstrate features of interest for all layouts. Typically, each
web page includes content 30, which may include text, graphics, and
additional items such as dialog boxes and various controls that may
be manipulated by the viewer. It is common for index and other
information 32 to be included in some portion of the page layout.
For purposes of the present invention, a portion of the page is
reserved for banner advertisements 34. As known in the art, such
advertisements are generally selected dynamically, potentially
being different for every different viewer of the same page.
[0020] Each time a page is selected for viewing, server 14 includes
a graphic that will be located in the banner ad region 34. The
graphic to be displayed is preferably selected according to
campaign rules provided by a campaign manager (not shown). Each ad
will have a type, and other information to enable effectiveness
tracking to be performed, as described below. As is known in the
art, a viewer can select (click on) the banner ad 34, and will be
connected with another web page.
[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred technique for handling events
such as those used to track the effectiveness of web advertising
campaigns. Several server applications 40 execute on server 14, or
associated hardware. During the course of that execution, various
events occur that need to be reported. These events include those
related to the advertising campaign, as well as others. In the
preferred embodiment, every event generates a message to a router
42, which distributes them to event handler applications 44, 46,
48.
[0022] Event messages received by router 42 all have a type, and
other identifying information. Handlers 44-46 register to receive
events of selected types, with tables in router 42 maintaining the
registration information. Several handlers can register to receive
the same events, and router 42 forwards the messages to every
register handler each time an event is received from an application
40. Thus, the system shown in FIG. 3 is a generic event routing
system that is also used for applications other than the web
advertising campaign described herein.
[0023] Each campaign can have one or more handlers 44-46, or
several campaigns can use the same handler. Correspondence of
handlers to campaigns is selected to meet the needs of each
installation. In a simple implementation, each separate campaign
uses a separate event handler to deal with all events related to
the campaign. When an advertising campaign is started, a new
handler is defined and instantiated to handle events for that
campaign. The handler registers with event router 42 to receive all
events that are of interest to the campaign, as described below.
Because different campaigns may be interested in different types of
events, the use of a generic router 42 can simplify the overall
implementation of the campaign management system. However, any
system that can generate message as described below can be utilized
to implement the effectiveness tracking system.
[0024] FIG. 4 illustrates the major parts of a preferred system to
implement and track advertising campaigns. Server application 52
receives customer inputs, and generates content to be returned to
the customer over the internet. The returned content includes
advertisements for selected pages, and does not for others. As
server application 52 generates events, messages are sent through
router 58 to an event handler 60 designated for use by this
campaign. Handler 60 verifies the events it receives, performs some
processing on them and updates data stored in a database 62. For
example, if handler 60 is registered to receive events generated
when a customer actually purchases an advertised product, it can
then update database 62 each time a purchase is made.
[0025] Server application 52 uses rules from rules tables 54 to
determine which ads to include with the content being sent to the
customer. These rules are defined by a campaign manager application
56, which works with one or more business users to define the
campaigns to be run. The manager 56 also receives feedback from
database 62; that feedback indicates how the campaign is doing. In
response to such feedback, campaigns can be modified, cancelled,
and so forth.
[0026] In addition, handler 60 can modify operation of content
display handled by application 52. For example, a product discount
can be given to those customers who purchase a product in response
to the ad campaign. For example, an event referred to as a
"click-through" occurs when a customer responds to a banner ad by
clicking on it, and is taken to a page from which the product can
be purchased. By watching for such click-through events, handler 60
can notify application 52 that a discount is to given to a customer
for a session that generated the click-through. Other modifications
can be made in response to campaign events, and can modify the
content sent to customers, and the terms of the product sales, in a
similar manner.
[0027] Each campaign therefore includes two major parts; a set of
rules defining what ads will be shown and under what circumstances,
and a selection of events to be retained to analyze the results of
the campaign. The business user managing the campaign has a number
of capabilities to manage it. These include defining ad content and
associating it with products. Also included is the ability to
associate discounts with a click-through as described above. Rules
can be defined to evaluate system and customer data, which then
allows ads to be displayed for selected customers meeting certain
criteria. Criteria can be based on customer information, including
individual information such as personal buying history. It may also
be based on broader profiles, such as age, sex, and income.
[0028] A campaign is made up of sets of rules used to define what
products are covered, what discounts, if any, will be offered and
to whom, to whom the ads will be displayed, and a time period in
which the campaign is active. Additional rules may be included if
desired. Default ad content must be defined in the system so that
all banners contain ad content. If none of the ad campaigns
currently in effect match a rule, the default content can be
displayed.
[0029] Campaigns are preferably defined for specified dates and
time periods. A campaign can also be defined until specified
events, internal or external, occur. For example, if a campaign is
run to sell products in an overstock condition, the campaign can be
defined to run until the overstock condition disappears. In a
similar manner, rules can preferably be defined that take into
consideration conditions in the supply chain. A sale can be
suspended if suppliers run into short supply on sale items or
components for them. A campaign can be suspended at any time in
response to input from a person working with the campaign manager
application 56.
[0030] Generally several campaigns will be running concurrently. It
is possible that several campaigns will contain rules that would
call for add banners to be displayed for more than one at a given
time. Such conflicts can be handled by additional rules that define
a preference for one over the other. Another approach is to define
a weighting factor, so that overlapping campaigns will share ad
time before the customer base. Such scheduling and preference
algorithms are generally known in the art, and will not be
described here in detail.
[0031] A campaign also specifies what will be tracked in order to
determine its effectiveness. This can involve simple data
collection, such as collecting only the number of times a banner
for the product is displayed and the number of purchases made of
the product. Somewhat more sophisticated information will generally
be desired, however. For example, a count of the number of
click-throughs that occur tends to indicate the actual
effectiveness of an ad banner. Also, subsequent purchases by the
same customer who viewed an ad banner is more useful than a simple
count of sales. Data tracking the number of inquiries for detailed
information in response to a click-through, and the time such
information is displayed before being replaced by another page, can
provide highly detailed information regarding the success of the
campaign in attracting customer attention.
[0032] Although click-throughs have been described in conjunction
with ad banners at the top of a web page, it will be recognized by
those skilled in the art that ad content can be displayed in other
circumstances. For example, when a customer is browsing through
products or services offered by a business, indications of special
offers can be displayed in any format. Selection (click-through)
for these indicators acts in a manner similar to that described
above for banner ads. In fact, in many campaigns, the rules for
display of special offers and sales will limit ad display to
customers who have already shown that they are serious about buying
from the company. IN a similar manner, one common rule that can be
used to define a campaign is to make special offers to customers
who have already purchased one or more products, or placed them in
a shopping cart for purchase.
[0033] As described above, numerous types of events are used to
control the campaign, and to track its effectiveness. Some events
are used primarily for campaign control, while others are used for
effectiveness tracking. Many events are used for both, depending on
the rules used to control the campaign, and the degree of tracking
desired. Some of the types of events preferably included are:
[0034] Session start and session end, when a session is established
or completed for a customer. A timestamp is preferably
included.
[0035] Authentication, when a user is successfully identified.
[0036] Begin shopping and end shopping, when a user enters or
leaves a shopping workflow.
[0037] Product details requested, when so requested by a user.
[0038] Events indicating that a product is added to, or removed
from, the customer's shopping cart.
[0039] Purchase of a product, or order of a product to be
shipped.
[0040] Beginning or ending a product configuration session.
[0041] An impression event when an ad is rendered for a
customer.
[0042] Profile match, when a profile match is found as a result of
a rules evaluation.
[0043] Click-through events for any click-throughs, including those
for up-sell ads and cross-sell ads.
[0044] Remote system events, including click-through to a remote
URL, and a referral from another domain to the local domain.
[0045] Effectiveness tracking may only apply to some of the above
events. The selected events can vary from campaign to campaign.
Occurrences of selected events are logged in tables provided for
the purpose in database 62, and statistical evaluations can be
created and studied at leisure through the campaign manager
application 56. If any events are not recognized by handler 60 when
they are received, they can be included in a table reserved for
unrecognized or otherwise untracked events.
[0046] Tracking events for a campaign can be turned on and off
independently from a campaign itself. This can be useful when
tracking data is not needed, or only a subset is needed. Once a
campaign has been shown to be satisfactorily effective, tracking
can be minimized, or even eliminated except for periodic reviews.
This simplifies reporting by avoiding the need to record every
event when doing so is not very useful.
[0047] To attain the above objectives requires only minimal
modification of existing code. Events, or a similar reporting
system, are already included in most sophisticated web hosting
system. They need merely be modified to ensure that an appropriate
handler receives them for effectiveness tracking to be implemented.
Defining the campaign is a little more complicated, but again can
be done without significantly altering existing code.
[0048] In addition, each web page must have an area set aside to
display the campaign content. In many cases, this is already
provided. In other systems, an area will need to be set aside for
campaign content to be inserted. In either case, a default content,
which could be blank, can be used whenever no campaigns are active,
or whenever no campaigns are triggered to include an ad by the
rules used to define the campaign.
[0049] The described system allows the effectiveness of the
campaign to be easily tracked by capturing events and storing them
to a database or other persistent storage. Once the appropriate raw
data has been collected, it is easily analyzed using widely
available techniques to indicate to a business whether or not the
campaign is actually effective, and how quickly its goals are being
reached.
[0050] While the invention has been particularly shown and
described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be
understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form
and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit
and scope of the invention.
* * * * *