U.S. patent application number 11/413465 was filed with the patent office on 2007-02-01 for application program interface for managing advertiser defined groups of advertisement campaign information.
Invention is credited to Paul Joseph Apodaca, Robert J. Collins, Claude III Jones, Adam J. Wand.
Application Number | 20070027759 11/413465 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39898991 |
Filed Date | 2007-02-01 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070027759 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Collins; Robert J. ; et
al. |
February 1, 2007 |
Application program interface for managing advertiser defined
groups of advertisement campaign information
Abstract
An application program interface ("API") for managing advertiser
defined groups of advertisement campaign information is disclosed.
Generally, advertisement campaign information is organized into one
more ad groups. An ad group typically includes advertisements and
parameters for advertisements that are to be handled by an
advertisement campaign management system in a similar manner.
Instructions are received via an API for modifying at least a
portion of the advertisement campaign information based on at least
one of the one or more ad groups and at least a portion of the
advertisement campaign information is modified based on the
received instructions.
Inventors: |
Collins; Robert J.;
(Carlsbad, CA) ; Apodaca; Paul Joseph; (Carlsbad,
CA) ; Wand; Adam J.; (Carlsbad, CA) ; Jones;
Claude III; (San Marcos, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BRINKS HOFER GILSON & LIONE / YAHOO! OVERTURE
P.O. BOX 10395
CHICAGO
IL
60610
US
|
Family ID: |
39898991 |
Appl. No.: |
11/413465 |
Filed: |
April 28, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60703904 |
Jul 29, 2005 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.55 ;
705/14.58; 705/14.66 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0244 20130101;
G06Q 30/0263 20130101; G06Q 30/0275 20130101; G06Q 30/0257
20130101; G06Q 30/0241 20130101; G06Q 30/0247 20130101; G06F 16/374
20190101; G06Q 30/0243 20130101; G06Q 30/0255 20130101; G06Q
30/0242 20130101; G06Q 30/0271 20130101; G06Q 30/0273 20130101;
G06Q 30/02 20130101; G06F 40/30 20200101; G06Q 30/0261 20130101;
G06Q 30/0256 20130101; G06Q 30/0269 20130101; G06Q 30/0251
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/014 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/00 20060101
G06Q030/00 |
Claims
1. A method for managing advertisement campaign information,
comprising: organizing advertisement campaign information into one
or more ad groups; receiving instructions via an application
program interface ("API") for modifying at least a portion of the
advertisement campaign information based at least in part on at
least one of the one or more ad groups; and modifying at least a
portion of the advertisement campaign information based on the
received instructions.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending at least a
portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user device
via the API.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more
ad groups comprises advertiser customized and defined groups of
advertisement campaign information.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein based at least in part on at
least one of the one or more ad groups comprises arranged at least
in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more
ad groups comprises advertisements and parameters for
advertisements that are handled by an advertisement campaign
management system in a similar manner.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more
ad groups comprises advertisements and parameters for
advertisements targeted to a demographic group.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the demographic group comprises a
sex of a user performing an internet search.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the demographic group comprises a
geographic location of a user performing an internet search.
9. The method of claim 6, wherein the demographic group comprises
an income level of a user performing an internet search.
10. The method of claim 6, wherein the demographic group comprises
an age of a user performing an internet search.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more
ad groups comprises advertisements and parameters for
advertisements targeted to a family of products.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more
ad groups comprises advertisements and parameters for
advertisements comprising the same search tactic.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the search tactic comprises
sponsored search.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the search tactic comprises
content match.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing advertisement
campaign information into one or more ad groups comprises:
receiving instructions via the API defining how to organize the
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: modifying a parameter of an ad group.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: modifying a business objective of an ad
group.
18. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: removing an advertisement from an ad
group.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: adding an advertisement to an ad group.
20. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: removing a keyword from an ad group.
21. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: adding a keyword to an ad group.
22. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying at least a portion of
the advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions comprises: modifying a search tactic associated with
an ad group.
23. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of
instruction for managing advertisement campaign information, the
set of instruction to direct a computer system to perform acts of:
organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more ad
groups; receiving instructions via an application program interface
("API") for modifying at least a portion of the advertisement
campaign information based at least in part on at least one of the
one or more ad groups; and modifying at least a portion of the
advertisement campaign information based on the received
instructions.
24. A system for managing advertisement campaign information,
comprising: means for organizing advertisement campaign information
into one or more ad groups; and means for receiving instructions
via an application program interface ("API") for modifying at least
a portion of the advertisement campaign information based at least
in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups; and means for
modifying the at least a portion of the advertisement campaign
information based on the received instructions.
25. A method for managing advertisement campaign information,
comprising: sending instructions to an advertisement campaign
management system via an application program interface ("API") of
the advertisement campaign management system, the instructions for
modifying at least a portion of advertisement campaign information
organized into one or more ad groups based at least in part on at
least one of the one or more ad groups.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the ad group comprises
advertiser customized defined groups of advertisement campaign
information.
27. The method of claim 26, further comprising: sending commands to
the advertisement campaign management system via the API of the
campaign management system, the commands defining how to organize
the advertisement campaign information into one or more ad
groups.
28. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of
instruction for managing advertisement campaign information, the
set of instruction to direct a computer system to perform acts of:
sending instructions to an advertisement campaign management system
via an application program interface ("API") of the advertisement
campaign management system, the instructions for modifying at least
a portion of advertisement campaign information organized into one
or more ad groups based at least in part on at least one of the one
or more ad groups.
29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the
ad group comprises advertiser customized defined groups of
advertisement campaign information and wherein the
computer-readable storage medium further comprises a set of
instructions to direct the computer system to perform acts of:
sending commands to the advertisement campaign management system
via the API of the campaign management system, the commands
defining how to organize the advertisement campaign information
into one or more ad groups.
30. An application program interface ("API") of an advertisement
campaign management system, the API operative to facilitate
communications over a network between the advertisement campaign
management system and an application running on a user device,
wherein the API receives instructions for the advertisement
campaign management system from the user device regarding modifying
at least a portion of advertisement campaign information organized
into one or more ad groups based at least in part on at least one
of the one or more ad groups.
31. The API of claim 30, wherein the API receives commands for the
advertisement campaign management system from the user device
defining how to organize the advertisement campaign information
into one or more ad groups.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present patent document claims the benefit of the filing
date under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) of Provisional U.S. Patent
Application Serial No. 60/703,904, filed Jul. 29, 2005, the
entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Users who advertise with an online advertisement service
provider such as Yahoo! Search Marketing typically manage various
types of online advertising through the use of a spreadsheet
upload/download facility, a user interface, or an application
program interface ("API") to an advertisement management system of
the advertisement service provider. Traditionally, users have been
able to perform operations with the user interface or API such as
adding, editing, or removing advertisements from their account, or
modifying various parameters associated with advertisements such as
budget parameters or performance parameters.
[0003] Current user interfaces and APIs to online advertisement
service providers typically allow users to modify parameters
associated with individual advertisements or to modify parameters
associated with advertisements as grouped by the advertisement
service provider. As online advertising has increased in
popularity, users may have thousands of advertisements that need to
be managed at any given time. The amount of information available
on the internet presents many technical problems to an online
advertiser seeking to manage data stored in a database when the
data defines online advertisements and data processing results.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a user interface and an API
to an advertisement campaign management system that allows users to
flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage large groups of
advertisements as defined by the advertiser rather than the
advertisement service provider.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0004] FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a pod of an
advertisement campaign management system;
[0005] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a model for
the maintenance of advertisement campaign information according to
the advertisement campaign management system of FIG. 1;
[0006] FIGS. 3-31 are examples of different embodiments of
graphical user interfaces ("GUIs") of the campaign management
system of FIG. 1, that provide a user the ability to display,
manage, optimize, or view and customize reports on, advertisement
campaign information;
[0007] FIG. 32 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
facilitating display of advertisement campaign information;
[0008] FIG. 33 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
facilitating display of advertisement campaign information;
[0009] FIG. 34 is block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
managing advertisement campaign information;
[0010] FIG. 35 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
managing advertisement campaign information;
[0011] FIG. 36 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for managing advertisement campaign information;
[0012] FIG. 37 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for managing advertisement campaign information;
[0013] FIG. 38 a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
optimizing advertisement campaign information;
[0014] FIG. 39 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
optimizing advertisement campaign information;
[0015] FIG. 40 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for optimizing advertisement campaign information;
[0016] FIG. 41 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for optimizing advertisement campaign information;
[0017] FIG. 42 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
reporting advertisement campaign information;
[0018] FIG. 43 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
reporting advertisement campaign information;
[0019] FIG. 44 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for reporting advertisement campaign information; and
[0020] FIG. 45 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
interacting with an application program interface ("API") of an
advertisement campaign management system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] The advertisement campaign management system as described
with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the graphical user interfaces as
described with reference to FIGS. 3-31, and the systems and methods
as described with reference to FIGS. 32-44 provide user interfaces
and application program interfaces ("APIs") to an advertisement
campaign management system that provides users and machines the
ability to flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage large
groups of advertisements. As opposed to interfaces to advertisement
campaign management systems that only provide the ability to manage
advertisement campaign information at a user account level or an
individual advertisement level, the disclosed advertisement
campaign management system provides the ability to manage
advertisement campaign information at a level defined by the user.
Users are given the ability to define their own groups of
advertisement campaign information (an ad group) for advertisements
that will be handled by the advertisement campaign management
system in a similar manner. For example, users may group
advertisements by a search tactic, performance parameter,
demographic of a user, family of products, or almost any other
parameter desired by the user. Allowing users to define their own
ad groups allows the advertisement campaign management system to
provide more useful information to the user thereby allowing the
user to display, manage, optimize, or view reports on,
advertisement campaign information in a manner most relevant to an
individual advertiser.
[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a pod of an
advertisement ("ad") campaign management system. Pod 100 comprises
a plurality of software components and data for facilitating the
planning, management, optimization, delivery, communication, and
implementation of advertisements and ad campaigns, as well as for
storing and managing user accounts. In one embodiment, a pod 100
comprises a campaign data store ("CDS") 105 that stores user
account information. Application Program Interfaces ("APIs") 110
and User Interfaces ("UI") 115 are used for reading data from and
writing data to the campaign data store 105. Internal APIs 130
provide shared code and functions between the API and UI, as well
as facilitate interface with the campaign data store 105. A keyword
suggestion component 120 may assist users in searching for
available search terms. An editorial processing system ("EPS") 125
may be provided to review content of all new ads. A pod collection
server ("PCS") 135 determines which pod the collected ad campaign
performance data should go to. A script server 140 provides scripts
for collection of data indicative of the customer browsing
sessions. An image server 145 receives and processes data
indicative of the customer browsing sessions from the customer web
browsers.
[0023] The pod may further comprise a channel server 150 operative
to receive data from one or more advertising channels. A business
information group ("BIG") 155 may provide analysis and filtering of
raw click data coming from the advertising channels through the
channel server 150. An account monitoring component 160 monitors
budgets allocated for each ad campaign. A financial component 165
may be provided for planning and budgeting ad campaign expenses. A
weight optimizer 170 operative to optimize individual ad
performance. A campaign optimizer 175 may be provided to optimize
performance of the ad campaign. A third-party analytical feed
component 180 is provided to handle the incoming ad performance
data from the third-party sources. A quality score component 185
provides yet another metric for measuring individual ad
performance. A forecast component 190 is an analytical tool for
predicting keywords trends. Finally, an online sign-up ("OLS")
component 195 provides heightened security services for online
transactions involving exchange of moneys.
[0024] The CDS 105 is the main data store of pod 100. In one
embodiment, CDS 105 stores ad campaign account data, including
account access and permission lists, user information,
advertisements, data collected from advertiser websites indicative
of customer browsing sessions, raw click data received from the
advertising channels, third party analytical feeds, ad campaign
performance data generated by the system, ad campaign optimization
data, including budgets and business rules, etc. In various
embodiments of the invention, CDS 105 stores one or more account
data structures as illustrated in FIG. 2 and described in greater
detail below.
[0025] Data in the CDS 105 may be stored and accessed according to
various formats, such as a relational format or flat-file format.
CDS 105 can be managed using various known database management
techniques, such as, for example, SQL-based and Object-based. At
the physical level, the CDS 105 is implemented using combinations
of one or more of magnetic, optical or tape drives. Furthermore, in
one embodiment of the invention, CDS 105 has one or more back up
databases that can be used to serve Pod 100 during downtime of CDS
105.
[0026] In one embodiment, a pod 100 exposes one or more APIs 110
and UIs 115 which are utilized by the system users, such as
advertisers and agencies, to access services of the ad campaign
management system, such as for reading data from and writing data
to the campaign data store 105. The APIs 110 and UIs 115 may be
also provided through a distro component described in detail in
U.S. Pat. App. No. 11/324,129, titled "System and Method for
Advertisement Management", filed Dec. 30, 2005, the entirety of
which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The advertisers
and their agencies may use the APIs 110, which in one embodiment
includes XML-based APIs, to allow access to the ad campaign
management system and data contained therein. In one embodiment,
the UI 115 comprises a website or web application(s) for enabling
user access to the ad campaign management system. The pod 100
utilizes internal APIs 130, which are shared code and functions
between the APIs 110 and UI 115, to facilitate interaction with
campaign data store 105.
[0027] According to some embodiments, the above-described user and
application program interfaces are used to facilitate management
and optimization of ad campaigns, which include, but are not
limited to, management of listings associated with an auction-based
search-term related sponsored search results listings marketplace.
For example, advertisers use these interfaces to access ad campaign
information and ad campaign performance information saved in the ad
campaign data store 105, search the information, analyze the
information, obtain reports, summaries, etc. Advertisers may also
change listings or bidding strategies using these interfaces, which
changes are updated in the campaign data store 105. Furthermore,
these interfaces may be used to perform comparisons of the
performance of components of ad campaigns, such as performance of
particular listings, search terms, creatives, channels, tactics,
etc.
[0028] While functionality and use of application program
interfaces of the pod is described with reference to an
auction-based search term-related sponsored listings context, it is
to be understood that, in some embodiments, these interfaces may be
used with regard to off-line or non-sponsored search ad campaigns
and ad campaign performance, or combinations of on-line and
off-line ad campaigns information, as well.
[0029] A keyword suggestion component 120 provides for keyword
suggestion through interfaces 110, 115 for assisting users with ad
campaign management based on seed terms or a universal resource
locator ("URL") provided by a user. In one embodiment of the
invention, the keyword suggestion component 120 assists users to
search for available search terms. As described above, in an
auction-based system or marketplace, advertisers bid for search
terms or groups of terms, which, when used in a search by
customers, will cause display advertisement listings or links among
the search results. The keyword suggestion component 120 provides
suggestions to advertisers regarding terms they should be bidding.
In one embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may look at
actual searches conducted in the last month and provide a
suggestion based upon previous searches. In another embodiment, the
keyword suggestion component 120 may look at the terms other
advertisers of similar products or services are bidding on and
suggest these terms to the advertiser. In yet another embodiment,
the keyword suggestion component 120 may determine terms that
customers who bought similar products or services use in their
searches and suggest these terms to the advertiser. In another
embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may maintain a
table of terms divided into several categories of products and
services and allow an advertiser to browse through and to pick the
available terms. In other embodiments, the keyword suggestion
component 120 may use other techniques for assisting advertisers in
the term selection process, such as suggesting a new term to the
advertiser if the advertised products and services are unique.
[0030] The editorial processing system (EPS) 125 ensures relevance
and mitigates risks of advertisers'listings before a listing can
participate in the auction. In general, the EPS 125 reviews new or
revised ads. In one embodiment, the EPS 125 applies a set of
business rules that determines accuracy and relevance of the
advertiser listings. These rules may be applied automatically by
the EPS 125 or through a human editorial review. The EPS 125 may,
for example, detect inappropriate content in the advertiser
listings or illegally used trademark terms. In one, EPS 125
responds with an annotation such as rejected, approved, rejected
but suggested changes, etc.
[0031] In one embodiment, EPS 125 may comprise a quick check
component. The quick check component performs a preliminary or a
"quick check" to determine whether to accept or reject an ad
automatically before it is submitted to a human editor and stored
in the campaign data store 105. In one embodiment, either API 110
or a UI 115 invokes the quick check component service so that
advertiser can receive instant feedback. For example, use of
prohibited words, such as "best" in the submitted advertisement,
may be quickly detected by the quick check component and, obviating
the need for human editorial review. In contrast, using words such
as gambling, adult services, etc., the quick check component might
determine that the ad requires a more thorough editorial review.
One of the benefits of the quick check component is the rapid
provision of feedback to the advertiser, which enables the
advertiser to revise the listing right away and thus to expedite
review by the human editor.
[0032] Again with reference to FIG. 1, according to one embodiment,
the pod 100 may further comprise a channel server 150, which is
operable to receive and process data received from an advertising
channel, such as Google.com and MSN.com. This data may include but
is not limited to the customer profiles, historical user behavior
information, raw impressions, cost, clicks, etc. Additional
description of user information and its uses can be found in U.S.
patent application Nos. 60/546,699 and 10/783,383, the entirety of
which are both hereby incorporated by reference. The channel server
150 may further be operable to re-format the received data into a
format supported by the ad campaign management system and to store
the reformatted data into the campaign data store 105.
[0033] In one embodiment, pod 100 may further comprise a business
information group (BIG) component 155. BIG 155 is operable to
receive cost, click, and impression data that is coming into the
pod 100 from various sources including the channel server 150, pod
collection server 135 and third-party analytics feeds component
180. BIG 155 assures that this data is received in a correct and
timely manner. In one embodiment, BIG 155 may also perform
aggregation and filtering on raw data impressions and clicks that
are coming into the pod 100. BIG 155 may be further operable to
store the collected and processed data into the Campaign Data Store
105. In other embodiments, BIG 155 may also perform internal
reporting, such as preparing business reports and financial
projections according to teaching known to those of skill in the
art. To that end, in one embodiment, BIG 155 is operable to
communicate with the Account Monitoring component 160, which will
be described in more detail next.
[0034] In one embodiment, the pod 100 may further comprise an
account monitoring component 160. This component 160 may be
operable to perform budgeting and campaign asset allocation. For
example, the account monitoring component 160 may determine how
much money is left in a given advertiser's account and how much can
be spent on a particular ad campaign. In one embodiment, the
account monitoring component 160 may employ a budgeting
functionality to provide efficient campaign asset allocation. For
example, an advertiser may set an ad campaign budget for a month to
$500. The account monitoring component 160 may implement an ad
bidding scheme that gets actual spending for that month as close to
$500 as possible. One example of a bidding scheme employed by the
account monitoring component 160 would be to lower the advertiser's
bids to reduce how often the advertiser's ads are displayed,
thereby decreasing how much the advertiser spends per month, which
may be performed dynamically. Another example of budgeting by the
account monitoring component 160 is to throttle the rate at which
advertisements are being served (e.g., a fraction of the time it is
served) without changing the advertiser's bid (whereas in the
previous example the bid was changed, not the rate at which
advertisements were served). Another example of throttling is to
not serve an ad as often as possible but put it out according to a
rotation.
[0035] In one embodiment, the pod 100 may further comprise a
financial component 165, which may be an accounting application for
planning and budgeting ad campaign expenses. Using the financial
component 165 advertisers may specify budgets and allocate campaign
assets. The financial component 165 provides an advertiser with the
ability to change distribution of campaign budget and to move money
between different campaigns. The financial component 165 may also
present advertisers with information on how much money is left in
the account and how much can be spent on a particular ad campaign.
In some embodiments, the financial component 165 may further be
operable to provide advertisers with information regarding
profitability, revenue, and expenses of their ad campaigns. The
financial component 165 may, for example, be implemented using one
or more financial suites from Oracle Corporation, SAP AG,
Peoplesoft Inc., or any other financial software developer.
[0036] In one embodiment, pod 100 may further comprise an online
sign-up (OLS) component 195. The OLS component 195 may be operable
to provide advertisers with a secure online sign-up environment, in
which secure information, such as credit card information, can be
exchanged. The secure connection between the advertiser computer
and the OLS component 195 may be established, for example, using
Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("SHTTP"), Secure Sockets Layer
("SSL") or any other public-key cryptographic techniques.
[0037] In one embodiment, the pod 100 may further comprise a
quality score component 185 that calculates one or more values such
as an ad clickability score and a quality score. An ad clickability
score is one of the ad performance parameters whose value
represents a quality of an ad at the time the advertisement service
provider serves the ad. The ad clickability score is internal to
the ad campaign management system and is typically not exposed
external to the ad campaign management system. A quality score is
one of the ad performance parameters that is exposed externally
from that ad campaign management system and may be used by the
search serving components, such as advertising channels and search
engines, to qualify the relative quality of the displayed ads. Thus
the quality score is calculated by the search serving components
and fed into the ad campaign management system through the quality
score component 185 in accordance with one embodiment of the
present invention. In some embodiments, the quality score is
displayed to the advertiser, so that the advertiser may revise the
ad to improve its quality score. For example, if an ad has a high
quality score, then the advertiser knows not to try to spend money
and time trying to perfect the ad. However, if an ad has a low
quality score, it may be revised to improve ad's quality score.
[0038] In one embodiment, the pod 100 further comprises a
forecasting component 190, which is an analytical tool for
assisting the advertiser with keyword selection. In some
embodiments, the forecasting component is operable to predict
keywords trends, forecast volume of visitor traffic based on the
ad's position, as well as estimating bid value for certain ad
positions.
[0039] In one embodiment, the forecasting component 190 is operable
to analyze past performance and to discover search term trends in
the historical data. For example, the term "iPod" did not even
exist several years ago, while now it is a very common term. In
another embodiment, the forecasting component 190 performs
macro-trending, which may include forecasting to determine terms
that are popular in a particular region, for example, California,
or with particular demographic, such as males. In yet another
embodiment, the forecasting component 190 provides event-related
macro- and micro-trending. Such events may include, for example,
Mother's Day, Christmas, etc. To perform event-related trending for
terms related to, for example, Mother's Day or Christmas, the
forecasting component 190 looks at search patterns on
flower-related terms or wrapping paper terms. In other embodiments,
the forecasting component 190 analyzes the historic data to predict
the number of impressions or clicks that may be expected for an ad
having a particular rank. In another embodiment, the forecasting
component 190 is operable to predict a bid value necessary to place
the ad in a particular position.
[0040] In one embodiment, the pod 100 further comprises a weight
optimizer 170, which may adjust the weights (relative display
frequency) for rotating elements as part of alternative ad ("A/B")
functionality that may be provided by the ad campaign management
system in some embodiments of the present invention. The A/B
testing feature allows an advertiser to specify multiple variants
of an attribute of an ad. These elements may include creative
(title, description and display URL), destination (landing URL) and
perhaps other elements such as promotions and display prices. More
specifically, when an end-user performs a search, the ad campaign
management system assembles one of the possible variants of the
relevant ad and provides it to the advertising channel for display
to the end-user. The ad campaign management system may also attach
tracking codes associated with the ad, indicating which variant of
each attribute of the ad was actually served. The behavior of the
end-user then may be observed and the tracking codes may be used to
provide feedback on the performance of each variant of each
attribute of the ad.
[0041] In determining the weight for a particular element, the
weight optimizer component 170 may look at actual performance of
ads to determine optimal ads for delivery. The weight optimizer
component 170 operates in multiple modes. For example, in Optimize
mode the weight (frequency of display) of each variant is changed
over time, based on the measured outcomes associated with each
variant. Thus, the weight optimizer component 170 is responsible
for changing the weights based on the measured outcomes. The weight
optimizer component may also operate according to Static mode, in
which the weights (frequency of display) of each variant are not
changed by the system. This mode may provide data pertaining to
measured outcomes to the advertiser. The advertiser may have the
option to manually change the weights.
[0042] The pod 100 may further comprise a campaign optimizer
component 175, which facilitates ad campaign optimization to meet
specific ad campaign strategies, such as increasing number of
conversions from displayed ads while minimizing the cost of the
campaign. To that end, in some embodiments, campaign optimizer
component 175 uses data received from the channel server 150,
forecasting component 190, third party analytics feed component
190, quality score component 185, and BIG 155 to determine how much
to bid on which ads, how to allocate the budget across different
ads, how to spend money over the entire period of the campaign,
etc. Furthermore, campaign optimization not only focuses on
executing ads efficiently, but also performing arbitrage between
ads across various channels and tactics to determine where the
limited ad campaign budget is most effective.
[0043] In one embodiment, the campaign optimizer component 175
analyzes the obtained analytics data, including ad campaign
information, ad campaign performance information, as well as
potentially other information, such as user information, to
facilitate determining, or to determine, an optimal ad campaign
strategy. Herein, an "optimal" ad campaign strategy includes any ad
campaign strategy that is determined to be optimal or superior to
other strategies, determined to be likely to be optimal, forecasted
or anticipated to be optimal or likely to be optimal, etc. In some
embodiments, optimizing is performed with respect to parameters, or
a combination of parameters, specified by an advertiser, supplied
automatically or partially automatically by the ad campaigns
facilitation program, or in other ways.
[0044] In addition to the foregoing, ad campaign strategy may
include any course of action (including, for example, changing or
not changing current settings or strategy) or conduct, or aspects
or components thereof, relating to an ad campaign. An ad campaign
strategy may include a recommendation regarding a course of action
regarding one or more aspects or parameters of an ad campaign, and
may include an immediate course of action or set of parameters, or
a course of action or set of parameters for a specified window of
time. For example, an optimal ad campaign strategy in the context
of an auction-based search result listings situation, may include
recommendations relating to bidding and bid hiding rates in
connection with an auction or marketplace relating to search term
or group of terms in connection with sponsored listings.
[0045] In some embodiments, the campaign optimizer component 175
may be operable to analyze ad campaign performance information to
determine an optimal ad campaign strategy. Ad campaign performance
information may include a variety of information pertaining to
historical performance of an ad campaign, channel, tactic, or ad or
group of ads. Ad campaign performance information can include many
types of information indicating or providing a suggestion of how
effectively ads, or ads presented though a particular channel,
etc., influence or are likely to influence user or consumer
behavior. For example, an advertising channel such as Yahoo! may
collect performance information with respect to a particular
sponsored search result listing. The information may include a
number or percentage of viewers who clicked on the link, or who
shopped at or purchased a product at the advertisers Web site as a
result of the listing, etc.
[0046] The campaign optimizer component 175 may be operable to
analyze ad campaign information to determine an optimal ad campaign
strategy. Ad campaign information may include campaign objectives
or budget-related conditions or constraints, or can include
information specifying, defining, or describing ads themselves,
channels, tactics, etc. With regard to auction-based sponsored
search result listings, ad campaign information can include bidding
parameters such as maximum or minimum bids or bidding positions
(rankings or prominence of listings) associated with a term or term
cluster, for instance, as further described below. Such ad campaign
information can also include campaign objectives, quotas or goals
expressed, for example in metrics such as ROAS (return on ad
spend), CPI (clicks per impression), or in other metrics, and with
respect to individual ads, terms or term groups, channels, tactics,
etc.
[0047] The campaign optimizer component 175 may further include bid
optimization functionality, which may be used by the system to
determine a desirable or optimal bid for a listing, such as a paid
search result. The bid optimization functionality of the campaign
optimizer component 175 may be used to constrain the set targets
and constraints on the bids set by an advertiser. The constraints
may include a maximum bid and a minimum bid. The targets may be
associated with the listing and can be specified in terms of one or
more metrics related to the performance of the listing. The
campaign optimizer component 175 may analyze recent past analytics
in connection with the metric and specify a bid recommendation
forecasted by the bid optimizer functionality to achieve the target
or get as close to the target as possible. In some embodiments, the
campaign optimizer component 175 can also provide a recommendation
for a listing, which may include a maximum bid and an update
period, which update period can be a time between maximum bid
hiding updates. In other embodiments, the campaign optimizer
component 175 can also provide a recommendation including a range
of values that should allow the listing to obtain a premium
position when served, such as a first page listing.
[0048] To facilitate ad campaign management and optimization, the
pod 100 is further operable to collect visitor state data from the
advertiser websites in accordance with a preferred embodiment of
the ad campaign management system. To that end, the pod 100
utilized pod collection server 135, script server 140, and image
server 145 to collect visitor state data and to store the same in
the campaign data store 105. The collected visitor state data may
then be used by various components of the pod 100 including, but
not limited to, campaign optimizer component 175, forecasting
component 190, and BIG 155 to generate ad campaign performance data
in accordance with various embodiments of the present
disclosure.
[0049] The various methods of data collection in accordance with
various embodiments of the present invention may include, but are
not limited to, full analytic, campaign only, conversion counter
and sampling. In one embodiment, full analytics collection provides
the most robust collection method. The full analytics collection
collects marketing-based and free search-based leads. As a result,
the advertiser may see a complete picture of how leads and
conversions are generated. Primarily, the full analytics collection
method provides a full funnel report that will provide a key view
into how visitors of the advertiser website go from being a lead
through to browser, prospect, and finally to a conversion event.
Visitor state storage on Campaign Data Store 105 may also allow for
repeat and return customer report data and for a full suite of
accreditation methods.
[0050] In another embodiment, a campaign only analytics collection
method is much like full analytic but only paid marketing events
are tracked and result events generated from free search are
ignored or discarded. This has the advantage of providing funnel
and repeating visitor reports as well as a reduced data collection
and storage rate. The campaign only analytics method provides a
balance of rich report data and reduced collection, processing, and
storage cost.
[0051] In yet another embodiment, the conversion counter method is
the most simple analytics data collection available. With
conversion counter analytics, the advertiser places a tag on pages
where value is generated for the advertiser, such as revenue. The
image server 145 places the lead "stack" in a cookie, which may be
used to accredit the proper term/creative to the conversion event.
This data collection mechanism generates enough data to provide
optimization on creative weighting. It should be further noted that
in one embodiment a direct accreditation method may be applied to
the conversion counter method. In the conversion counter approach,
no visitor state storage is needed and only conversion events are
received. Thus, this approach has a minimal effect on pod 100 load
and data storage requirements. In another embodiment, a sampling
method is utilized. In accordance with this method, only a random
number of unique visitors, for example, 10%, are tracked, which
reduces data collection and storage.
[0052] In order to allow for accreditation of the lead generation
source to a conversion event, the state of the customer session on
the advertiser's website may be maintained. Accreditation is the
process by which all the marketing events are tied to a specific,
or set of specific, marketing activities. There are two known
approaches that may be utilized for storage of visitor state:
client-side cookies and server-side database.
[0053] In one embodiment, cookies may be used as an exemplary
client-side visitor state storage. When cookies are used to store
visitor state one of two methods may be used to store visitor
state. A redirection server used on the lead generating event may
add the visitor state to the cookie at the click event.
Alternatively a collection server may set the cookie at the time of
a lead event. While visitor state in the cookie approach is the
most cost effective it has several disadvantages. Generally,
cookies have low storage requirements and thus an active search
user (typically, most valuable users because they generate the most
revenue) could lose accreditation information as their lead stack
grows and causes some older events to be pushed out. As a result, a
conversion event could occur where the lead information was lost in
the stack and thus the accreditation is lost. Furthermore,
cookie-off users are essentially invisible to the system. Moreover,
efficacy is reduced due to the additional time needed to parse the
collection server request when the cookie is set, which may cause
end users to click away from the lead page before the cookie can be
completed. Finally, cookie based visitor state storage prevents any
internal analysis of user behavior.
[0054] In another embodiment, server-side database, such as the CDS
105, may be used to store visitor state. Using server side storage
in a database offers the high efficacy rates but at the additional
cost of the storage. Using server side storage of visitor state
allows the ad campaign management system to have more advanced
accreditation models, which could allow for assist-based
accreditation. Efficacy rates over cookie based visitor state
storage are increased due to many factors. Primarily the system is
no longer limited in the amount of visitor state storage a single
user can have so no lead loss would occur. Cookies off users can
still be traced as unique visitors so they can still be tracked
(although at a reduced rate of accuracy) and thus are able to be
included. Collection event processing latency is greatly reduced
because the event can be just logged and then actually processed
later. With the cookie approach lead accreditation has to occur at
the time the event is received because the cookie must be evaluated
before the request is returned by the beacon servers. Furthermore,
with visitor state stored in the campaign data store, valuable
marketing data can be collected and analyzed for internal use.
[0055] In one embodiment, the ad campaign management system
utilizes a combination of the above-described client-side cookies
and server-side database techniques to collect and maintain visitor
state data. In particular, as indicated above the pod 100 utilizes
pod collection server 135, script server 140, and image server 145
to collect visitor state data and to store the same in the campaign
data store 105. In one embodiment, the pod collection server 135,
script server 140 and image server 145 may be implemented, for
example, as Java servlets.
[0056] FIG. 2 is a diagram of one embodiment of a model for the
maintenance of ads according to the ad campaign management system
of FIG. 1. As depicted, an ad campaign management system comprises
a data store 200 that facilitates hierarchical storage of ad
campaign data, providing advertisers with multiple levels of
structure for control of advertisement content. In particular, an
advertiser utilizing services of the ad campaign management system
may be provided with a master account 205 for receiving aggregated
analytics relating to the master account 205 and managing or
optimizing Web properties 210 and advertisements within the master
account 205 based on the aggregated analytics. A Web property 210
may include a website, or a combination of related websites and
pages for which the advertiser is advertising. Furthermore, within
master account 205, an advertiser may create several accounts 220
to separately manage ad campaigns, as well as to collect ad
performance information.
[0057] To facilitate tracking and collection of ad performance data
from Web properties 210, data store 200 further maintains custom
tags, program code, navigation code, etc. 215. According to one
embodiment, a tag 215 may comprise a piece of code that is created
by the system and placed on relevant Web pages of a given website
to allow automatic tracking and collection of data indicative of
customer session on the advertiser website. For example, a tag may
be used to track user visits, interaction, or purchases from a
website to which a user navigates as a result of clicking on an
advertisement link associated with the website. Depending on
specific needs and business objective of a given advertiser, tags
may be coded to collect specific information about the customer
session that is of interest to the advertiser. Thus, some tags may
enable collection of data on numbers of raw clicks on the
advertiser website, while others tags may track numbers of clicks
that resulted in conversions, e.g., purchase of a product or
service from the advertiser website. Those of skill in the art will
recognize that data collection may be limited to other portions of
the customer session.
[0058] Some embodiments utilize, or may be combined with, features
or technologies, such as, for example, HTML tagging, data tracking,
and related technologies, as described in U.S. patent application
Nos. 09/832,434 and 09/587,236, the entirety of which are both
hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0059] In one embodiment, within a master account 205, an
advertiser may maintain one or more accounts 220, which may be used
to receive analytics related to a specific account 220 and manage
ad campaign spending associated with individual Web properties 210.
Thus, accounts 220 allow advertisers to distribute their
advertising funding between different Web properties 210 and
between separate ad campaigns 225. A given ad campaign 225 may
include a set of one or more advertising activities or conduct
directed to accomplishing a common advertising goal, such as the
marketing or sales of a particular product, service, or content, or
group of products, services or content. Two ad campaigns may be
considered disparate when the ad campaigns are directed to
different advertising goals. For example, an advertiser may wish to
advertise a product for sale and a service associated with this
product. Thus, the advertiser may store separate ad campaigns 225
for advertising the product and the service.
[0060] In one embodiment, storage of an ad campaign 225 may be
further subdivided into several ad groups 230. An ad Group 230 may
be thought of as a conceptual compartment or container that
includes ads and ad parameters for ads that are going to be handled
in a similar manner. An ad group 230 may allow for micro-targeting,
e.g., grouping ads targeted to a given audience, a demographic
group, or a family of products. For example, an ad group may be
related to a given manufacturer's products, such as Sony,
Microsoft, etc. or a family of high-end electronics, such as TVs,
DVDs, etc. There is a number of ways in which a given group of ads
may be managed in a similar manner. For example, an advertiser may
specify that there be a certain markup (e.g., 50%) on items in a
given ad group, may want to distribute all those ads in a certain
way, or may want to spend a certain amount of its budget on those
advertisements. Further, an ad group 230 provides a convenient tool
for an advertiser to move a large group of ads and ad parameters
from one ad campaign 225 to another ad campaign 225, or to clone a
large group of ads and ad parameters from one ad campaign 225 to
another ad campaign 225.
[0061] In one embodiment, changes made to the parameters of a given
ad group 230 may apply to all ads within the given ad group. For
example, one such parameter may be pricing. For a sponsored search,
an advertiser may set the default price for the whole ad group but
may override the price on each individual term. Similarly, an
advertiser may further specify that certain terms are low value,
but decide to increase the amount spent on another term uniformly
across all ads in a given ad group. Thus, storage according to one
or more ad groups 230 enables advertisers to bridge the gap between
ad campaigns and the individual ads comprising a given ad
campaign.
[0062] A given ad may contain one or more items of advertising
content that are used to create ads/terms in an ad group,
including, but not limited to, creatives (e.g., titles,
descriptions) and destination URLs (plus associated URL tracking
codes). Optionally, a given ad may contain a {KEYWORD} token for
substitution of alternate text in the title, description, or other
ad component. Furthermore, ads may exist as a template in an ad
library (not pictured) that can be reused across ad groups or a
local ad that is used and stored only within a specific ad group.
The ad library, which may be provided by the ad campaign management
system, allows advertisers to store ad templates, sharing and
reusing them across campaigns and ad groups. Ads in the ad library
may be shared within an account, e.g., each account has its own
library.
[0063] An ad group 230 may utilize numerous tactics for achieving
advertising goals. The term "tactic" includes a particular form or
type of advertising. For example, in on-line advertising, tactics
may include sponsored search result listings 235, banner
advertisements 255, content match 270, etc. In off-line
advertising, tactics may include television commercials, radio
commercials, newspaper advertisements, etc. In different
embodiments, tactics may include subsets or supersets of the listed
examples or other examples. For instance, on-line advertising is an
example of a broader tactic than the narrower tactic of sponsored
search result listings. Furthermore, the advertiser may utilize
multiple advertising channels for different tactics. For example,
the advertiser may utilize sponsored search listings in several
websites or portals, such as Yahoo!, Google.com, MSN.com, etc. In
one embodiment, a user may set parameters within the ad group 230
to place a spend limit for each type of advertising tactic
comprising the ad group 230.
[0064] One example of an advertising tactic is sponsored search
235. According to one embodiment, sponsored search 235 operates as
follows: an auction-based system or marketplace is used by
advertisers to bid for search terms or groups of terms, which, when
used in a search, causes the display of a given advertiser's ad
listings or links among the display results. Advertisers may
further bid for position or prominence of their listings in the
search results. With regard to auction-based sponsored search 235,
a given advertiser may provide a uniform resource locator (URL) 240
to the webpage to which the ad should take the customer if clicked
on, as well as the text of the advertisement 245 that should be
displayed. Advertiser may further identify one or more terms 250
that should be associated with the advertisement 245.
[0065] Another example of advertising tactic is content match 270.
Storage of content match advertisements 280 may be used by the
advertiser to complement, or as alternative to, the sponsored
search tactic 235. Ads stored according to the content match tactic
270 are displayed alongside relevant articles, product reviews,
etc, presented to the customers. For the content match tactic 270,
data store 200 stores one or more URLs 275 identifying the address
of a webpage where given ad should take the customer if clicked on,
as well as the text, image, video or other type of multimedia
comprising the creative portion of the advertisement 280.
[0066] Yet another example of an advertising tactic is banner ad
255. Banner ad tactic 255 may be used by the advertiser to
complement, or as alternative to, the sponsored search tactic 235
and content match tactic 270. In contrast to the sponsored search
tactic and content match tactic, which are usually based on a
pay-per-click payment scheme, an advertiser pays for every display
of the banner ad 265, referred to as an impression. Alternatively,
if the banner ad displays a phone number, advertiser may only be
billed when a user calls the phone number associated with the
advertisement. Thus, for the banner ad tactic, the data store 200
maintains a URL 260 to the webpage where the ad should take the
customer if clicked on, as well as the creative that comprises the
banner ad 265.
[0067] The data store 200 of the ad campaign management system may
further store various parameters for each ad group. Such parameters
may include, for example, maximum or minimum bids or bidding
positions (rankings or prominence of listings) associated with a
term or term cluster for the particular ad group or ads within a
given ad group. As described above, in embodiments of an
auction-based sponsored search result listings environment,
prominence or rank of listings is closely related to ad
performance, and therefore a useful parameter in ad campaign
management. The rank of a given ad determines the quality of the
placement of the ad on pages that are displayed to customers.
Although details vary by advertising channel, top-ranked listings
typically appear at the top of a page, the next listings appear in
the right rail and additional listings appear at the bottom of the
page. Listings ranked below the top five or so will appear on
subsequent search results pages.
[0068] There is a correlation between rank and both number of
impressions and click-through rate (clicks per impression), which
provides an opportunity for advertisers to pay more per click (get
a higher rank) in order to get more visitors to their web site. The
result is that an advertiser may determine, how much the advertiser
should be willing to bid for each listing based on the advertiser's
business objectives and the quality of the traffic on their web
site that is generated by the listing. This information may also be
stored for a given ad group 230 in the data store 200 of the ad
campaign management system of the present invention.
[0069] FIGS. 3-31 are examples of different embodiments of
graphical user interfaces ("GUIs") 115 to the advertisement
campaign management system of FIG. 1 that provide a user the
ability to display, manage, optimize, or view and customize reports
on, advertisement campaign information. As used herein,
advertisement campaign information may comprise information such as
current or historical performance of an advertisement or one or
more groupings of advertisements; campaign objectives relating to
an advertisement or one or more groupings of advertisements;
budget-related conditions or constraints relating to an
advertisement or one or more groupings of advertisements;
information specifying, defining, or describing an advertisement;
bidding parameters such as maximum or minimum bidding positions
associated with an advertisement or one or more groupings of
advertisements; metrics such as return on ad spend ("ROAS"), cost
per click ("CPC"), or clicks per impression ("CPI") associated with
an advertisement or one or more groupings of advertisements; cost
per acquisition ("CPA") or any other parameter associated with
advertisements or one or more groupings of advertisement provided
by an advertisement service provider.
[0070] FIG. 3 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI displaying
advertisement campaign information. Generally, the GUI 300 provides
a high level summary of an account, a high level summary of at
least a portion of the ad campaigns and ad groups within a user
account, a graphical illustration of performance parameters related
to the user account, and a listing of any alerts associated with
the user account.
[0071] In one embodiment, the GUI 300 comprises an alert section
302, a account summary performance section 304, and an ad
campaign/ad group summary section 306. The alert section 302 may
comprise one or more notifications 308 to a user. The one or more
notifications 308 may relate to a user account as a whole, an ad
campaign of the advertiser account, an ad group of an ad campaign,
an individual advertisement, or any other grouping of information
defined by an advertiser or an advertisement service provider. For
example, the one or more notifications 308 may alert the user that
a keyword has been declined, that a credit card associated with the
user account is about to expire, that an advertisement has been
rejected, or any other type of alert desired by an advertisement
service provider. Further, the alert section 302 may comprise a
drop down menu 310 to filter the one or more notifications 308
based on a user account as a whole, an ad campaign, an ad group, an
individual advertisement, or any other grouping of information
defined by an advertiser or advertisement service provider.
[0072] The account summary performance section 304 may comprise a
graph 312 illustrating performance parameters for the account over
a period of time. Exemplary performance parameters include
impressions, clicks, acquisitions, or revenue relating to a user
account as a whole, an individual advertisement, an ad group, an ad
campaign, or any other grouping of information defined by an
advertiser or an advertisement service provider. In addition to the
graph 312, the account summary performance section 304 may also
comprise a numerical listing 314 of performance parameters such as
impressions, clicks, acquisitions, or revenue relating to a user
account as a whole, an ad campaign, an ad group, an individual
advertisement, or any other grouping of information defined by an
advertiser or an advertisement service provider.
[0073] The ad campaign/ad group summary section 306 may comprise
one or more summaries of ad campaigns and ad groups 316 which may
be filtered according to a drop-down menu filter 317. The drop-down
menu filter 317 may allow a user to filter the summaries of the ad
campaigns and ad group 316 based on an ad campaign, an ad group,
top performing ad groups, a search tactic, or any other grouping of
information defined by an advertiser or an advertisement service
provider. In FIG. 3, the one or more summaries of ad campaigns and
ad groups 316 are filtered according to the top target groups (top
ad groups). The summaries of the ad campaigns and ad groups 316 may
comprise information relating to the name of an ad campaign 320,
the name of an ad group 322 associated with the ad campaign 320, a
top performing advertisement 323, a search tactic of the ad
campaign and ad group 324, a number of impressions of the
advertisements within the ad group 326, a click-through-rate
("CTR") of the ad group 328, the number of clicks on advertisements
within the ad group 330, the cost-per-click ("CPC") of the
advertisements within the ad group 332, the amount spent by a user
on the advertisements within the ad group 334, or any other
performance parameter provided by an advertisement service provider
relating to an ad campaign or an ad group. A top performing
advertisement 322 may be an advertisement having a highest
performance parameter within the ad campaign or ad group as defined
by the advertiser or advertiser service provider, such as the
advertisement with the highest number of impressions, highest CTR,
or the largest number of clicks.
[0074] The ad campaign/ad group summary section 306 may
additionally comprise a date range selection tool 336. By
activating the date range selection tool 336, a user may choose a
date range over which they would like to view the performance
parameters listed in the ad campaign/ad group summary section 306.
For example, the user may choose to view performance parameters
over the last 24 hours, over the last month, for a two-week period
a month ago, or any other period of time defined by the user. It
will be appreciated that the date range selection tool 336 may be
applied to other GUIs described below with respect to FIGS.
4-31.
[0075] FIG. 4 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI
displaying advertisement campaign information. FIG. 4 illustrates
that when displaying advertisement information based on one or more
ad campaigns and ad groups 416 as in FIG. 3, a user may actuate one
or more hyperlinks 432 to dynamically create a secondary GUI 434.
The secondary GUI 434 may comprise information such as a top
performing advertisement.
[0076] FIGS. 5a and 5b are examples of embodiments of a GUI
displaying advertisement campaign information. In FIG. 5a, the GUI
500 comprises an ad campaign summary section 502 that lists
summaries of one or more ad campaigns 504, in addition to an alert
section 506 and a performance section 508 similar to the alert and
performance sections described above with respect to FIG. 3. The
summaries of the one or more ad campaigns 504 in FIG. 5 are
filtered according to the top performing ad campaigns 510. Each
summary of an ad campaign may comprise numerical listings of
performance parameters associated with ad campaigns such as a
monthly budget 512, a number of impressions 514, a clickthrough
rate ("CTR") 516, a number of clicks 518, a cost per click ("CPC")
520, a number of acquisitions 522, a cost-per-acquisition ("CPA")
524, revenue 526, return on ad spend ("ROAS") 528, the amount spent
on the ad campaign 530, or any performance parameter provided by an
advertisement service provider.
[0077] In FIG. 5b, the GUI 501 comprises an ad campaign section 502
that lists summaries of one or more ad campaigns 504, in addition
to an alert section 506 and a performance section 508 similar to
the alert and performance sections described above with respect to
FIGS. 3 and 5a. The GUI 501 additionally includes a drop-down menu
532 to select a master account and a drop-down menu 534 to select
an account within the selected master account. The ad campaign
management system typically organizes accounts in a hierarchical
manner such that multiple accounts are associated with a single
master account.
[0078] The GUI 501 additionally includes a drop-down menu 536 to
choose a performance parameter to graph in the performance section
508 and a drop-down menu 538 to select a number of campaign
summaries displayed in the ad campaign section 502 at one time.
Similar to the campaign summaries described above, the campaign
summaries include performance parameters relating to an ad campaign
such as an assist 540. A number of assists for a campaign is a
number of times that a potential completed a conversion for a
related product or service after previously searching for
information related to the campaign. For example, a potential may
first search a first search term and not complete a conversation.
However, the potential may then search a second term related to the
first term and complete a conversion. When this occurs, the first
term is given an assist in the conversion even though the potential
completed the conversion after searching the second term. A number
of assists may be calculated on a master account, account, ad
campaign, ad group, or individual advertisement or keyword level,
or any other level defined by an advertiser.
[0079] It should be appreciated that any of the drop-down menus
described with respect to FIG. 5b may be used with any of the user
interfaces described in FIGS. 3-31.
[0080] FIG. 6 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Generally, the GUI 600 of FIG. 6 comprises an ad campaign summary
section 602 comprising summaries of one or more ad campaigns 603
within an advertiser account. Each of the one or more summaries of
ad campaigns 603 may comprise performance parameters associated
with the ad campaign such as a monthly budget 604, a number of
impressions 606, a CTR 608, a number of clicks 610, a CPC 612, an
amount spent on an ad campaign 614, or any other performance
parameter provided by an advertisement service provider that
relates to an ad campaign. The GUI 600 may also comprise a summary
bar 616 that comprises the aggregate information of all the
advertisement campaign information displayed for the one or more ad
campaigns 603. For example, the summary bar 616 may comprise the
aggregate monthly budget 616, aggregate number of impressions 618,
aggregate CTR 620, aggregate number of clicks 622, aggregate CPC
624, a total amount spent on all ad campaigns 626, or any other
performance parameter provided by an advertisement service provider
relating to an ad campaign.
[0081] The GUI 600 may additionally comprise one or more ad
campaign action hyperlinks 628. By selecting one or more ad
campaigns and activating the one or more ad campaign action
hyperlinks 628, a user may be able to perform actions such as pause
an ad campaign, activate an ad campaign, delete an ad campaign,
group multiple campaigns into one campaign, clone an ad campaign,
add an ad campaign to a watch list, remove an ad campaign from a
watch list, or any other functions that can be performed on an ad
campaign as a whole.
[0082] FIG. 7 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. As in
the GUI of FIG. 6, the GUI 700 displays a summary of one or more ad
campaigns 702 within an advertiser account. The GUI 700 may also
comprise a filter bar 704 to allow a user to sort and view the ad
campaign summaries according to performance parameters, ad groups,
or any other parameter provided by an advertisement service
provider associated with an ad campaign.
[0083] FIGS. 8a and 8b are examples of embodiments of graphical
user interfaces for displaying and managing advertisement campaign
information. Similar to the GUIs of FIGS. 6 and 7, the GUI 800a
displays a summary of one or more ad campaigns 802 within an
advertiser account. The GUI 800 may also comprise a search bar 804
that allows a user to search the summaries of the one or more ad
campaigns 802. Using the search bar 804, a user may search for, and
display, particular summaries of the one or more ad groups 802
based on performance parameters such as impressions 806, CTR 808,
clicks 810, CPC 812, acquisitions 814, CPA 816, revenue 818, ROAS
820, amount spent on the ad campaign 822, or any other performance
parameter provided by the advertisement service provider relating
to an ad group. Further, the search bar 804 may allow a user to
search for, and display, particular summaries that are greater
than, less than, or equal to a value 824 input by the user.
[0084] FIG. 8b illustrates that in addition to, or in place of, a
search bar 804 (FIG. 8a), a GUI may provide an advanced search GUI
826. The advanced search GUI 826 provides a user the ability to
search for advertisements based on one or more search criteria. For
example, the user may search for advertisements based on a range of
values for one or more performance parameters associated with an
advertisement or one or more ad campaign management settings of an
advertisement.
[0085] In one embodiment, the advanced search GUI 826 provides the
ability to search for advertisements that contain a piece of text
or advertisements that do not contain a piece of text 828.
Additionally, the advanced search GUI 826 provides the ability to
search advertisements based on a range of values relating to
performance parameters such as average CPC 830, impressions 832,
CTR 834, clicks 836, cost 838, conversions 840, revenue 842, ROAS
844, or any other performance parameter associated with an
advertisement that is provided by an advertisement campaign
management system. Further, the advanced search GUI 826 provides
the ability to search advertisements based on whether the
advertisement is active 846, whether the advertisement is being
watched 848, or whether there are alerts associated with the
advertisement 850.
[0086] It will be appreciated that the advanced search GUI 826
provides the ability to search for advertisements based on any
combination of one or more search criteria. For example, a user may
conduct a first search for all advertisements having an average CPC
830 between $0.50 and $0.75. A user may also conduct a second
search for all advertisements having an average CPC 830 between
$0.50 and $0.75, a number of conversions 840 between 100 and 500,
and whose status 846 is set to active.
[0087] FIG. 9 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar
to the GUIs of FIGS. 6-8, the GUI 900 displays a summary of one or
more ad campaigns 902 within an advertiser account. The GUI 900 may
also comprise one or more hyperlinks, that when activated by a
user, causes the advertisement campaign management system to create
a secondary GUI 904. Typically, the secondary GUI 904 displays
information such as performance parameters relating to an ad
campaign in graphical form. In one embodiment, the secondary GUI
904 may comprise a graph 905 of performance parameters over a
period of time related to an ad campaign such as impressions 906,
clicks 908, acquisitions 910, revenue 912, or any other performance
parameter provided by an advertisement service provider associated
with an ad campaign.
[0088] FIG. 10 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Generally, the GUI 1000 comprises an ad group summary section 1002.
The ad group summary section 1002 typically comprises one or more
summaries of ad groups 1004 within a campaign, a summary bar 1006,
and a plurality of ad group action hyperlinks 1008. Each summary of
an ad group 1004 may comprise advertisement campaign information
relating to the ad group such as a search tactic 1010, a number of
advertisements within the ad group 1012, a number of impression
1014, a CTR 1016, a number of clicks 1020, a CPC 1022, an amount
spent on an ad group 1024, or any other performance parameter
provided by an advertisement service provider relating to an ad
group. Similarly, the summary bar 1006 may comprise aggregate
advertisement campaign information for all the ad groups within an
ad campaign such as an aggregate number of ads 1026, an aggregate
number of impressions 1028, an aggregate CTR 1030, an aggregate
number of clicks 1032, an aggregate CPC for the for the ad groups
within the ad campaign 1034, an aggregate amount spent for the ad
groups within the ad campaign 1036, or any other performance
parameter listed in the summary of an ad group 1004.
[0089] By selecting one or more ad groups within the ad group
summary section 1002 and activating one of the ad group action
hyperlinks 1008, a user may be able to perform an action such as
pause an ad group, activate an ad group, delete an ad group, group
multiple ad groups into one ad group, clone an ad group, move an ad
group to a different ad campaign, add an ad group to a watch list,
remove an ad group from a watch list, or any other function that
can be performed on an ad group as a whole.
[0090] The GUI 1000 may additionally comprise a campaign setting
hyperlink 1038 that when activated by a user opens one or more GUIs
such as those in FIGS. 11-15. FIG. 11 is an example of one
embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing an advertisement
campaign. Generally, in the illustrated embodiment, the GUI
comprises a basic information section 1102, a business objective
section 1104, a budget and schedule section 1106, a tactic setting
section 1108, and a geo-targeting section 1110.
[0091] The basic information section 1102 may comprise information
relating to an ad campaign such as a name of the ad campaign 1112,
a description of the ad campaign 1114, a status indicator 1116, an
indication of whether the ad campaign is on a watch list 1118, or
any other set of information provided by an advertisement service
provider related to an ad campaign. The basic information section
1102 may also comprise an edit hyperlink 1120 that when activated
by the user allows that the user to edit any of the information
listed in the basic information section 1102 as seen in FIG. 12
described below.
[0092] Referring again to FIG. 11, the business objective section
1104 gives an indication of results for respective business
objectives. A business objective may be a performance goal for one
of the parameters specified in FIG. 11, or another goal for the
advisement campaign. The business objective section 1104 may
comprise a listing of one or more performance parameters 1122, a
current value associated with each performance parameter 1124, a
designation of the importance of each performance parameter 1126,
and an indication of whether the values associated with each
performance parameter is inherited 1128. In one embodiment, a value
of a performance parameter may be inherited if the value was
obtained from an associated account level. For example, an ad
campaign may inherit a value of a performance parameter from an
advertiser account level setting that is propagated through all ad
campaigns within the advertiser account. Alternatively, ad group
may inherit a value of a performance parameter from an advertiser
ad campaign level setting that is propagated through all ad
campaigns within an ad group. The business objective section 1104
may also comprise an edit hyperlink 1130 that that when activated
by the user allows the user to edit any of the business objective
settings associated with the one or more performance parameters
1124 as seen in FIG. 13 described below.
[0093] Referring again to FIG. 11, the budget and schedule section
1106 may comprise advertisement campaign information such as a
current monthly budget 1132 for an ad campaign, and a start and end
date 1134 for the ad campaign. The budget and schedule section 1106
may additionally comprise an edit hyperlink 1136 that when
activated by the user allows the user to modify a budget, or a
start and end date of an ad campaign associated with an ad campaign
as seen in FIG. 14 described below.
[0094] Referring again to FIG. 11, the tactic setting section 1108
may comprise a sponsored search section 1140, a content match
section 1142, or a section for any other type of search tactic
known in the art. Generally, the sponsored search section 1140 may
comprise one or more performance parameters 1144 associated with
sponsored search, a current value of each performance parameter
1146, and an indication whether the value of each performance
parameter is inherited 1148. Similarly, the content match section
1142 may comprise one or more performance parameters 1150
associated with content match, a current value of each performance
parameter 1152, and an indication whether the value of each
performance parameter is inherited 1154. The tactic setting section
1108 may also comprise an edit hyperlink 1156 that when activated
by the user allows the user to modify the tactic settings
associated with an ad campaign as seen in FIG. 15 described
below.
[0095] Referring again to FIG. 11, the geo-targeting section 1110
may comprise a listing of the names of countries 1158, cities 1160,
or regions that an ad campaign is directed to. The geo-targeting
section 1110 may also comprise an edit hyperlink 1162 that when
activated by the user allows the user to modify the geo-target
settings associated with an ad campaign.
[0096] It will be appreciated that all of the advertisement
campaign information displayed in GUI 1100 with respect to an ad
campaign may also be displayed in a GUI with respect to an ad
group.
[0097] FIG. 12 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for editing
basic information relating to an advertisement campaign. However,
it will be appreciated that a similar GUI may be created for
editing basic information relating to an ad group. Generally, the
GUI 1200 comprises a window 1202 for editing a name of the
advertisement campaign, a window 1204 for editing a description of
the advertisement campaign, a drop-down menu 1206 for changing the
status of the advertisement campaign, a drop-down menu 1208 for
changing whether the advertisement campaign management system is to
watch the advertisement campaign, and a save changes hyperlink 1210
to save the current information within windows 1202 and 1204, and
drop-down menus 1206 and 1208.
[0098] FIG. 13 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing business objectives at an ad campaign
level. However, it will be appreciated that that a similar GUI may
be created for displaying and managing business objectives at an ad
group level. Generally, the GUI 1300 comprises listings for one or
more business objectives 1302. For each business objective, a user
may modify different parameters associated with the business
objective. For example, a user may choose whether a business
objective is inherited 1304 from a different advertiser account
level as described above. A user may also input values for
performance parameters associated with the ad campaign 1306 such as
minimum and maximum position in a search listing, CPM, CPC, CPA, or
ROAS if the value of the performance parameter is not inherited.
Further, a user may also choose a level of importance 1308 for the
business objective such as not important, important, or high
importance for use with the campaign optimizer 175 (FIG. 1).
[0099] FIG. 14 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing budget and scheduling parameters at an ad
campaign level. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI
may be created for displaying and managing budget and scheduling
parameters at an ad group level. Generally, the GUI 1400 comprises
an estimate tool 1402, an estimate graph 1404, and a scheduling
tool 1406.
[0100] The estimate tool 1402 allows a user to input values 1408
such as a target monthly budget and to dynamically create estimated
performance parameters such as an estimated number of monthly
impressions 1410 or an estimated number of monthly clicks 1412
based on the value input for a target monthly budget.
[0101] The estimate graph 1404 may comprise an illustration of a
potential number of clicks vs. a current estimated number of clicks
1414 and an illustration of a budget necessary to obtain the
potential number of clicks vs. a current target monthly budget
1416. Additionally, the estimate graph 1404 may comprise numerical
listings 1418 of a number of impressions and clicks that are missed
with the current target monthly budget. In one embodiment, the
illustrations 1414, 1416 and numerical listings 1418 are
dynamically updated when the user enters a new value in the
estimate tool 1402 and dynamically creates estimated performance
parameters. In one embodiment, the data necessary to calculate the
potential number of clicks, current estimated number of clicks,
budget necessary to obtain the potential number of clicks, and
number of impressions and clicks that are missed with the current
monthly budget is obtained from the campaign optimizer 175 (FIG. 1)
and forecast component 185 (FIG. 1) described above.
[0102] The scheduling tool 1406 allows a user to set a beginning
date and an end date for an ad campaign. Typically, the scheduling
tool 1406 comprises a starting date 1420 window where a user can
select a current date or a date in the future to start an ad
campaign, and an ending date window 1422 wherein a user may select
a date in the future to end the campaign or choose to not have an
ending date for the campaign.
[0103] FIG. 15 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for editing
advertisement campaign tactic settings relating to an advertisement
campaign. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI may be
created for editing campaign tactic settings relating to an ad
group. Generally, the GUI 1500 comprises a CPC selection area 1502,
an advance match selection area 1504, a listing of any negative
keywords 1506, and an auto optimize selection area 1508.
[0104] The CPC selection area 1502 allows a user to set the CPC for
the advertisement campaign. In one embodiment, the user may choose
to inherit a CPC from an account level by selecting an area 1510
within the CPC selection area 1502. Alternatively, a user may enter
a CPC to use for the advertisement campaign in a designated window
1512.
[0105] The advance match selection area 1504 allows a user to
select whether advance match is turned on or off within the
advertisement campaign management system. When advance match is
turned on, the advertisement service provider implements advanced
matching algorithms rather than exact-phrase matching algorithms so
that the advertisement service provider serves an advertisement
more often. The listing of negative keywords 1506 are terms used
when the advance match is turned on to avoid finding a match for an
advertisement for certain meanings of a word when a keyword has
multiple meanings.
[0106] Finally, the auto optimize selection area 1508 allows a user
to select whether to allow the advertisement campaign management
system to adjust one or more performance parameters of an
advertisement campaign to optimize performance of the advertisement
campaign based on one or more business objectives of a user.
[0107] FIG. 16 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Generally, the GUI 1600 of FIG. 16 comprises an ad campaign graph
section 1602, an ad campaign summary section 1604, an ad campaign
management section 1606, and an ad group summary section 1608
similar to the ad group summary section described above with
respect to the GUI 1000 of FIG. 10.
[0108] The ad campaign graph section 1602 typically comprises a
graph 1610 illustrating a selected performance parameter 1611 of
the ad campaign over a period of time. For example, the graph 1610
may illustrate a number of impressions of advertisements within a
campaign, a number of clicks, a number of acquisitions, revenue, or
any other performance parameter associated with an ad campaign
provided by the advertisement service provider.
[0109] The ad campaign summary section 1604 typically comprises one
or more average performance parameters 1612 for all ad groups
within an ad campaign. For example, the average performance
parameters 1612 may comprise an average CPC, an average position in
a search listing, an average click-through rate, a quality score
for the overall campaign, or any other performance parameter
associated with an ad campaign provided by the advertisement
service provider than can averaged over all ad groups within an ad
campaign.
[0110] The ad campaign management section 1606 typically comprises
one or more performance parameters 1614 associated with an ad
campaign, a current value 1616 associated with each performance
parameter 1614, and a current designation of the importance 1618 of
each performance parameter 1614. The one or more performance
parameters 1614 relating to an ad campaign may comprise a minimum
allowable position in a search listing, a maximum allowable
position in a search listing, CPM, CPC, CPA, ROAS, or any other
performance parameter provided by an internet service provider.
[0111] Further, the GUI 1600 may comprise an edit hyperlink 1620
that when activated by a user, takes the user to a GUI such as in
FIG. 13 to allow the user to modify the business objectives
associated with an ad campaign.
[0112] FIG. 17 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Generally, the GUI 1700 comprises an ad campaign graph section
1702, an ad campaign summary section 1704, an ad campaign
management section 1706, and an ad group summary section 1708
similar to the GUI 1600 of FIG. 16. However, the GUI 1700 of FIG.
17 also comprises a search bar 1710 that allows a user to search
for, and display, summaries of one or more ad groups 1712
associated with an ad campaign. Using the search bar 1710, a user
may search for summaries of the one or more ad groups 1712 based on
a search tactic 1714, impressions 1716, CTR 1718, clicks 1720, CPC
1722, acquisitions 1724, CPA 1726, revenue 1728, ROAS 1730, an
amount spent on the ad group 1732, or any other performance
parameter provided by the advertisement service provider relating
to an ad group. Further, the search bar 1710 may allow a user to
search for summaries that are greater than, less than, or equal to
a value 1734 input by the user.
[0113] FIG. 18 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Generally, the GUI 1800 of FIG. 18 may comprise an ad group graph
section 1802, an ad group summary section 1804, an ad group top
performing ad section 1806, and a keyword/advertisement summary
section 1808.
[0114] The ad group graph section 1802 typically comprises a graph
1810 illustrating a selected performance parameter 1812 of an ad
group over a period of time. For example, the graph 1810 may
illustrate a number of impressions of advertisements within an ad
group, a number of clicks, a number of acquisitions, revenue, or
any other performance parameter associated with an ad group
provided by the advertisement service provider.
[0115] The ad group summary section 1804 typically comprises one or
more average performance parameters 1813 for all advertisements
within an ad group. For example, the average performance parameters
1813 may comprise an average CPC, an average position in a search
listing, an average click-through rate, a quality score for the
overall ad group, or any other performance parameter associated
with an ad group provided by the advertisement service provider
than can averaged over all advertisements within an ad group.
[0116] The ad group top performing ad section 1806 may comprise an
advertisement 1814 and one or more performance parameters 1816
associated with the advertisement 1814. A top performing
advertisement within an ad group may be an advertisement having a
highest performance parameter within the ad group as defined by the
advertiser or advertiser service provider, such as the
advertisement with the highest number of impressions, highest CTR,
or the largest number of clicks.
[0117] The one or more performance parameters 1816 associated with
the advertisement 1814 may comprise a click-through rate of the
advertisement, a quality of the advertisement, a percentage of an
advertisement served in relation to all advertisements in the ad
group, or any other performance parameter associated with a top
performing advertisement provided by an advertisement service
provider.
[0118] The keyword/advertisement summary section 1808 comprises at
least two tabs 1817 to allow a user to view advertisement campaign
information relating to an ad group with respect to keywords or
advertisements. In FIG. 18, advertisement campaign information
relating to an ad group is displayed in terms of keywords where in
FIG. 19 (described below), advertisement campaign information
relating to an ad group is displayed in terms of advertisements.
Referring to FIG. 18, the keyword/advertisement summary section
1808 comprises one or more summaries of the keywords within the ad
group 1818. Each summary 1818 may comprise an average position in a
search listing of advertisements in the ad group related to the
keyword 1820, the number of impressions of advertisements in the ad
group related to the keyword 1822, a CTR of advertisements in the
ad group related to the keyword 1824, the number of clicks of
advertisements in the ad group related to the keyword 1826, a CPC
of advertisements in the ad group related to the keyword 1828, an
amount spent on advertisements in the ad group relating to the
keyword 1830, or any other performance parameter provided by the
advertisement service provider relating to a keyword of an ad
group.
[0119] The keyword/advertisement section 1808 may also comprise a
summary bar 1832. The summary bar 1832 may comprise advertisement
campaign information for all keywords in the ad group or all the
keywords currently displayed in the keyword/advertisement section
1808. For example, the summary bar 1832 may comprise an average
position of advertisements of the ad group associated with
particular keywords 1834, an aggregate number of impressions 1836,
an average CTR 1838, an aggregate number of clicks 1840, an average
CPC 1842, an aggregate amount spent on advertisements of the ad
group associated with particular keywords 1844, or an aggregate of
any other performance parameter listed in the summaries of the
keywords within an ad group 1818.
[0120] The GUI 1800 may also comprise one or more keyword action
hyperlinks 1846. Similar to the ad campaign and ad group action
hyperlinks described above, a user may select one or more keywords
and activate the one or more keyword action hyperlinks to perform
actions such as pause a keyword, activate a keyword, delete a
keyword, move a keyword to a different ad group, clone a keyword,
add a keyword to a watch list, remove a keyword from a watch list,
or any other functions that can be performed on keywords.
[0121] FIGS. 19a, 19b, and 19c are examples of embodiments of GUIs
for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information.
Similar to FIG. 15, the GUI 1900 of FIG. 19a may comprise an ad
group graph section 1902, an ad group summary section 1904, an ad
group top performing ad section 1906, and a keyword/advertisement
summary section 1908. The keyword/advertisement summary section
1908 displays advertisement campaign information relating to an ad
group in terms of advertisements. Generally, the
keyword/advertisement summary section 1908 comprises one or more
summaries 1910 of advertisement campaign information associated
with a particular advertisement. The summary 1910 may comprise a
name of the advertisement 1912, a percentage of an advertisement
served in relation to all advertisements in the ad group 1914, a
quality of an advertisement 1915, a number of impressions of an
advertisement 1916, a CTR of an advertisement 1917, a number of
clicks on an advertisement 1918, a CPC of an advertisement 1920, an
amount spent on an advertisement 1922, or another performance
parameter supplied by an advertisement service provider relating to
an advertisement.
[0122] FIG. 19b is another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and
managing advertisement campaign information. The GUI 1901 of FIG.
19b may comprise an ad group graph section 1924, an ad group top
performing ad section 1926, and a keyword/advertisement summary
section 1928. Generally, the keyword/advertisement section 1928
comprises one or more advertisement summaries 1930. Each
advertisement summary 1930 may include ad campaign information
associated with an advertisement such as an indication of whether
the advertisement has been approved 1932, a number of times an
advertisement service provider has served the advertisement using
sponsored search 1934, a number of times an advertisement search
provider has served an advertisement based on content match 1936, a
graphical representation of a quality of an advertisement 1938, or
performance parameters associated with an advertisement such as a
number of impressions 1940, a CTR 1942, a number of clicks 1944, or
any other performance parameter provided by an ad campaign
management system.
[0123] FIG. 19c is another embodiment of a GUI 1903 for creating an
advertisement. In one embodiment, the GUI 1903 is displayed after
activating a hyperlink such as hyperlink 1942 of GUI 1901 (FIG.
19b). Generally, the GUI 1903 includes an advertisement preview
area 1946, an advertisement creation area 1948, and an
advertisement creation help area 1950.
[0124] The advertisement creation area 1948 may include one or more
fields that provide the user with the ability to create an
advertisement and preview the advertisement in the advertisement
preview area 1946. The fields in the advertisement creation area
1948 may include fields to insert a title 1952, short description
1954, long description 1956, landing URL 1958, display URL 1960, or
name 1962 of an advertisement. As text is inserted in any of the
fields described above, the ad campaign management system
dynamically creates a preview of the advertisement in the
advertisement preview area 1946. The advertisement creation area
1948 may additionally include a keyword listing area 1964 that
lists keywords associated with the advertisement being created.
[0125] FIG. 20 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar
to FIGS. 18 and 19a, the GUI 2000 of FIG. 20 may comprise an ad
group graph section 2002, an ad group summary section 2004, an ad
group top performing ad section 2006, and a keyword/advertisement
summary section 2008. The GUI 2000 may also comprise a filter bar
2010 to allow a user to filter the keyword summaries of an ad group
according to a performance parameter or any other advertisement
campaign information associated with the ad group.
[0126] FIG. 21 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for
displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar
to FIGS. 18-20, the GUI 2100 of FIG. 21 may comprise an ad group
graph section 2102, an ad group summary section 2104, an ad group
top performing ad section 2106, and a keyword/advertisement summary
section 2108. The GUI 2100 may also comprise a search bar 2110 that
allows a user to search the one or more keyword summaries 2112
based on maximum CPC 2114, average position 2116, impressions 2118,
CTR 2120, Clicks 2122, CPC 2124, acquisitions 2125, CPA 2126,
revenue 2128, ROAS 2130, amount spent 2132, or any other
performance parameter related to a keyword of the ad group that is
provided by the advertisement service provider. Further, the search
bar 2110 may allow a user to search the one or more keyword
summaries 2112 that are greater than, less than, or equal to a
value 2134 input by the user.
[0127] FIGS. 22 and 23 are examples of additional embodiment of
GUIs for displaying and managing advertisement campaign
information. As seen in FIG. 22, a secondary management GUI 2202
may be dynamically created by activation of a hyperlink on the
primary GUI. The secondary management GUI 2202 may comprise a
listing of performance parameters 2206 such as average position,
impressions, CTR, clicks, acquisitions, CPA, revenue, ROAS, spend,
or any other performance parameter provided by the advertisement
service provider. Further, the secondary management GUI 2202 may
comprise an estimate tool 2208 and an estimate graph 2210. The
estimate tool 2208 allows a user to input potential performance
parameter values 2212 such as a potential value of a maximum CPC
and dynamically create other estimated performance parameters for
an ad group based on the value of the potential performance
parameter such as an estimated average position 2214, an estimated
monthly impression 2216, or a number of estimated monthly clicks
2218. If at any point a user wishes to save the value of the
potential performance parameter input 2212 to the estimate tool
2208 as a new value assigned to the appropriate performance
parameter, a user may execute the save 2219 button.
[0128] In one embodiment, the estimate graph 2210 comprises an
illustration of an estimated number of impressions 2220 and an
estimated number of clicks 2222 versus a maximum CPC setting (a
bid), and a current bid estimate indicator 2224. Typically, the
estimated number of impressions 2220 and the estimated number of
clicks 2222 are a function of the current performance parameter
settings of the ad group. The current bid estimate indicator 2224
illustrates where the current bid of the user is located in
relation to the estimated number of impressions 2220 and the
estimated number of clicks 2222. As a user creates new estimated
performance parameters for an ad group using the estimate tool
2208, the current bid estimate indicator 2224 shifts in relation to
the estimated number of impressions 2220 and the estimated number
of clicks 2222 according to the estimated performance
parameters.
[0129] FIGS. 24a and 24b are examples of additional embodiments of
GUIs for displaying, managing, and optimizing advertisement
campaign information. Generally, the GUI 2400 of FIG. 24a allows a
user to set various performance parameters for keywords within an
ad group. Generally, the GUI 2400 may comprise a performance
section 2402, an estimate tool 2404, an estimate graph 2406, and a
preview section 2408. The performance section 2402 may comprise one
or more numerical listings of performance parameters associated
with a keyword of the ad group such as an average position, number
of impressions, CTR, Clicks, CPC, acquisitions, CPA, revenue, ROAS,
amount spent, or any other performance parameter provided by an
advertisement service provider that relates to a keyword of the ad
group.
[0130] The estimate tool 2404 allows a user to input potential
performance parameters values 2410 such as a potential value of a
maximum CPC and dynamically create estimated performance parameters
for a keyword of an ad group based on the value of the potential
performance parameter such as an estimated average position 2412,
an estimated monthly impression 2414, or a number of estimated
monthly clicks 2416.
[0131] In one embodiment, the estimate graph 2406 comprises an
illustration of an estimated number of impressions 2418 and an
estimated number of clicks 2420 versus a maximum CPC setting, and a
current bid estimate indicator 2422. The current bid estimate
indicator 2422 illustrates where the current bid of the user is
located in relation to the estimated number of impressions 2418 and
the estimated number of clicks 2420. As a user creates new
estimated performance parameter values for a keyword of an ad group
using the estimate tool 2404, the current bid estimate indicator
2422 shifts in relation to the estimated number of impressions 2418
and the estimated number of clicks 2420 according to the estimated
performance parameters.
[0132] The preview section 2408 displays one or more advertisements
that are fixed to a keyword. Typically, the preview section 2408
provides a user with the ability to perform one or more actions
2424 on an advertisement displayed in the preview section, such as
providing the ability to remove an advertisement from a
keyword.
[0133] FIG. 24b is an example of another embodiment of a GUI 2401
for allowing a user to set various performance parameters for
keywords within an ad group. Similar to the GUI 2400 of FIG. 24a,
GUI 2401 may include a performance section 2426, an estimate tool
2428, and an estimate graph 2430 as described above. The GUI 2401
may additionally include a prime placement suggestion area 2432.
The prime placement suggestion area 2432 provides a recommendation
including a range of values to an advertiser that should result in
an advertisement obtaining a premium position in search results.
Examples of a premium position include a prominent position in the
search results such as near the beginning of a web page or a
position on a first page of search results. In one embodiment, the
recommendation in the prime placement suggestion area 2432 is
calculated based on current performance parameters such as those
listed in the performance section 2426 and forecasts obtained from
the forecast component 185 (FIG. 1) described above.
[0134] FIGS. 25-31 are different embodiments of GUIs for displaying
and customizing reports comprising advertisement campaign
information. As described above with respect to FIG. 1, the
campaign management system provides the ability to receive
advertisement campaign information from various sources including
the channel server 150, pod collection server 135 and third-party
analytics feeds component 180. The BIG component 155 of the
campaign management system assures that this data is received in a
correct and timely manner, and may also perform aggregation and
filtering on raw data impressions that are coming into the pod 100.
After the received data is filtered and received, the campaign
management system may generate reports regarding all advertisement
campaign information related to a single advertiser account from a
plurality of advertisement service providers.
[0135] Referring to FIGS. 25-31, typically the GUIs 2500 may
comprise a graph section 2502, a menu for choosing a report type
2504, a drop down menu for choosing at what account level to view
the report 2506, one or more activation areas for choosing between
types of graphs 2508, a drop-down menu 2510 for choosing a
performance parameter to plot on a left axis of the graph section
2502, a drop-down menu 2512 for choosing a value to plot on a right
axis of the graph section 2502, an updated action area 2514 for
updating the graph illustrated on the graph section 2502, numerical
listings of one or more performance parameters 2516 relating to the
plotted graph 2502, and download action area 2518 for downloading
advertisement campaign information in various formats.
[0136] To generate an illustration in the graph section 2502, a
user should choose a report type 2504, an account level 2506, a
type of graph 2508 and a value for either the left axis 2510 or the
right axis 2512. The report type 2504 defines the type of report
illustrated in the graph section 2502 such as a performance summary
report, a daily summary report, a daily budgeting report, an ad
campaign by name summary report, an ad group by name summary
report, an advertisement by name summary report, or any other type
of report defined by an advertiser or an advertisement service
provider. Examples of report types are described in detail in U.S.
Pat. App. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 12729/136), titled
"Advertiser Reporting System and Method in a Networked Database
Search System", filed on Apr. 28, 2006, the entirety of which is
hereby incorporated herein by reference. The report type 2504 is
further refined by the account level at which the user chooses to
view the report 2506. Typically, a report can be viewed based on an
advertiser account level, an advertisement campaign level, an ad
group level, or any other grouping of advertisement campaign
information as defined by an advertiser or an advertisement service
provider.
[0137] To customize the illustration in the graph section 2502, the
user may choose selector 2508 to view the report as a line graph, a
bar graph, a pie chart, or any other type of graph known in the
art. Further, the user may customize the illustration in the graph
section 2502 by choosing a performance parameter to graph with
respect to the left axis 2510 versus a period of time and choosing
a performance parameter to graph with respect to the right axis
2512 versus the period of time. The performance parameter graphed
on the left 2510 or right 2512 axis may be a number of impressions,
clicks, CPC, a number of conversions, a conversion rate, CPA,
amount spent, revenue, ROAS, or any other performance parameter
provided by an advertisement service provider associated with an
advertiser account, ad campaign, ad group, advertisement, or other
grouping of information as defined by an advertiser or
advertisement service provider.
[0138] In some embodiments, each of the GUIs described above with
respect to FIGS. 3-31 are dynamic and may be customizable. For
example, users may interact with the ad campaign management system
to turn on and off certain options associated with their account.
As a result, the ad campaign management system may display a
customized GUI to the user that removes information associated with
options at the ad campaign management system that have been
disabled. For example, if a user turns off an optimization function
at the ad campaign management system, the ad campaign management
system may remove all performance parameters or options from the
GUI presented to that user relating to optimization.
[0139] In other embodiments, the ad campaign management system may
additionally provide the ability for a user to define which
performance parameters are displayed to the user. For example, a
user may be able to choose which performance parameters relating to
an account the ad campaign management system presents to the user
in a GUI or the user may be able to choose an order of how the
different types of performance parameters are presented to the
user. A customizable GUI allows the ad campaign management system
to provide users with information that is most relevant to the user
as defined by the user.
[0140] FIG. 32 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system
3200 for facilitating display of advertisement campaign
information. The system 3200 typically comprises an advertisement
service provider (advertisement campaign management system)
comprising one or more servers 3202 in communications with a user
device 3204 over a network 3206. Generally, an advertisement
service provider 3202 organizes advertisement campaign information
into an account hierarchy, as described above, according to a user
account, one or more ad campaigns associated with the user account,
one or more ad groups associated with the ad campaigns, and keyword
and advertisement information associated with the ad groups. After
organizing the advertisement campaign information, the
advertisement service provider 3202 sends at least a portion of the
advertisement campaign information to the user 3204 for display
based at least in part on the one or more ad groups.
[0141] Each server of the advertisement service provider 3202 may
comprise a processor 3208, a network interface 3210 in
communication with the processor 3208, and a memory unit 3212 in
communication with the processor 3208. Typically, the memory unit
3212 stores at least advertisement campaign information.
Advertisement campaign information may comprise information
relating to relationships between a user account, ad campaigns, and
ad groups; performance parameters associated with a user account,
ad campaigns, and ad groups; or advertisements and keywords
associated with a user account, ad campaigns, and ad groups.
[0142] The processor 3208 is typically operative to perform one or
more operations to organize the advertisement campaign information
stored in the memory unit 3212 into one or more ad groups as
defined by an advertiser. As described above, an ad group may be
thought of as a conceptual compartment or container that includes
advertisements and parameters for advertisements that are handled
in a similar manner.
[0143] After organizing the advertisement campaign information into
one or more ad groups, the advertisement service provider 3202 may
send at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information
to the user device 3204 via the network interface 3210 for display
based at least in part on the one or more ad groups. In one
embodiment, the advertisement service provider 3202 sends one or
more hypertext pages that comprise a graphical user interface such
as those in FIGS. 3-31 when the one or more hypertext pages are
executed in an internet-browser, stand-alone application, or any
other device known in the art.
[0144] FIG. 33 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
facilitating display of advertisement campaign information. The
method 3300 begins with the advertisement service provider
organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more ad
groups 3302. The advertisement provider may organize the
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups as
defined by advertiser based on a search tactic, a performance
parameter of the advertisement campaign information, or any other
parameter provided by the advertisement service provider that
relates to an ad group.
[0145] The advertisement service provider then displays
advertisement campaign information based at least in part on the
one or more ad groups 3304 to a user. The advertisement campaign
information may be displayed in a GUI, such as in FIGS. 3-31,
running in an internet browser on a user device, displayed in a
stand-alone application running on a user device or displayed on
any other device known in the art.
[0146] FIG. 34 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the system
of FIG. 32, the system typically comprises an advertisement service
provider (advertisement campaign management system) comprising one
or more servers 3402 in communication with a user device 3404 over
a network 3406. As explained above, the advertisement service
provider may comprise a processor 3408, a network interface 3410 in
communication with the processor 3408, and a memory unit 3412 in
communication with the processor 3408.
[0147] Generally, the advertisement service provider 3402 executes
one or more programs running on the processor 3408 to organize
advertisement campaign information stored in the memory unit 3412
into one or more ad groups as defined by an advertiser.
[0148] In one embodiment, the advertisement service provider 3402
sends at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information
organized into one or more ad groups over the network 3406, via the
network interface 3410, to the user device 3404. The user device
3404, using an internet browser, stand-alone application, or any
other type of application known in the art, displays at least a
portion of the received advertisement campaign information in a
user interface ("UI"), such as in FIGS. 3-31, to a user and is
operative to allow the user to modify advertisement campaign
information based at least in part on at least one of the one or
more ad groups. For example, the user may modify a maximum CPC
associated with an ad group; add or delete a keyword associated
with an ad group; add or delete advertisements associated with an
ad group; modify a business objective associated with an ad group;
modify a search tactic associated with an ad group; modify budget
constraints associated with an ad group; or modify any other
performance parameter associated with an ad group.
[0149] In another embodiment, the user device 3402 sends at a least
a portion of the advertisement campaign information organized into
one or more ad groups over the network 3406, via an application
program interface ("API") of the network interface 3410, to the
user device 3404. The user device 3304, using an application
operative to communicate with the API of the advertisement service
provider 3402, receives the advertisement campaign information and
is operative to modify advertisement campaign information based at
least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups as
described above.
[0150] FIG. 35 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
managing advertisement campaign information. The method 3500 begins
with the advertisement service provider organizing advertisement
campaign information into one or more ad groups 3502. The
advertisement campaign information is then modified based at least
in part on the one or more ad groups 2904 as described above.
[0151] FIG. 36 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for managing advertisement campaign information. The method 3600
begins with the advertisement service provider organizing
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups 3602.
At least a portion of the advertisement campaign information is
displayed 3604, such as in FIGS. 3-31, based at least in part on at
least one of the one or more ad groups, and at least a portion of
the displayed advertisement campaign information is modified 3506
as described above.
[0152] FIG. 37 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method
for managing advertisement campaign information. The method 3700
begins with the advertisement service provider organizing
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups 3702.
Instructions are received via an application program interface
("API") for modifying at least a portion of the advertisement
campaign information based at least in part on at least one of the
one or more ad groups 3704 and at least a portion of the
advertisement campaign information is modified based on the
received instructions 3706.
[0153] FIG. 38 a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
optimizing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the
system of FIGS. 32 and 34, the system typically comprises an
advertisement service provider (advertisement campaign management
system) comprising one or more servers 3802 in communication with a
user device 3804 over a network 3806. As explained above, the
advertisement service provider may comprise a processor 3808, a
network interface 3810 in communication with the processor 3808,
and a memory unit 3812 in communication with the processor
3808.
[0154] Generally, the advertisement service provider 3802 executes
one or more programs running on the processor 3808 to organize
advertisement campaign information stored in the memory unit 3812
into one or more ad groups as defined by an advertiser.
[0155] In one embodiment, the advertisement service provider sends
at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information
organized into one or more ad groups over the network 3806, via the
network interface 3810, to the user device 3804. The user device
3804, using an internet browser, stand-alone application, or any
other type of application known in the art, displays at least a
portion of the received advertisement campaign information in a
user interface ("UI"), such as in FIGS. 3-31, to a user and is
operative to allow the user to optimize performance of the
advertisement campaign information based at least in part on at
least one of the one or more ad groups. For example, the user may
dynamically create estimates of performance parameters based on
potential CPC values or potential business objective setting, and
change actual performance parameter or business objective setting
based on the estimates for an ad group.
[0156] In another embodiment, the user device 3802 sends at a least
a portion of the advertisement campaign information organized into
one or more ad groups over the network 3806, via an application
program interface ("API") of the network interface 3810, to the
user device 3804. The user device 3804, using an application
operative to communicate with the API of the advertisement service
provider 3802, receives the advertisement campaign information and
is operative to optimize performance of the advertisement campaign
information based at least in part on at least one of the one or
more ad groups as described above.
[0157] FIG. 39 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
optimizing advertisement campaign information. The method 3900
begins with the advertisement service provider organizing
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups 3902.
The advertisement service provider obtains forecasting information
relating to at least a portion of the one or more ad groups 3904,
and the advertisement campaign information is modified based at
least in part on the forecasting information to optimize
performance of at least one of the one or more ad groups 3906 as
described above.
[0158] FIG. 40 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method
for optimizing advertisement campaign information. The method 4000
begins with the advertisement service provider organizing
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups 4002.
At least a portion of the advertisement campaign information is
displayed 4004 based at least in part on at least one of the one or
more ad groups, and the advertisement service provider obtains
forecasting information relating to at least a portion of the
displayed information 4006. The displayed information is then
modified based at least in part on the forecasting information to
optimize performance of at least one of the one or more ad groups
4008 as described above.
[0159] FIG. 41 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method
for optimizing advertisement campaign information. The method 4100
begins with the advertisement service provider organizing
advertisement campaign information into one or more ad groups 4102.
Forecasting information relating to at least a portion of the one
or more ad groups is obtained 4104 and instructions are received
via an application program interface ("API") for modifying at least
a portion of the advertisement campaign information based at least
in part on on the forecasting information to optimize performance
of at least one of the one or more ad groups 4106. At least a
portion of the advertisement campaign information is then modified
based on the received instructions 4108.
[0160] FIG. 42 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for
reporting advertisement campaign information. Similar to the system
of FIGS. 32, 34 and 38, the system typically comprises an
advertisement service provider (advertisement campaign management
system) comprising one or more servers 4202 in communication with a
user device 4204 over a network 4206. However, the system for
reporting advertisement campaign information additionally comprises
an analytics feed 4207 provided by the advertisement campaign
management system or another third-party. As explained above, the
advertisement service provider may comprise a processor 4208, a
network interface 4210 in communication with the processor 4208,
and a memory unit 4212 in communication with the processor
4208.
[0161] Generally, the advertisement service provider 4202 executes
one or more programs running on the processor 4208 to collect
advertisement campaign information from components within the
advertisement service provider and at least one analytics feed
4207, and to store the advertisement campaign information in the
memory unit 4212. The advertisement service provider 4202 executes
one or more additional programs running on the processor 4208 to
organize the advertisement campaign information stored in the
memory unit 4212 into one or more ad groups.
[0162] In one embodiment, the advertisement service provider 4202
receives instructions from the user device 4204, via the network
interface 4210, regarding how to customize a report based at least
in part on the one or more ad groups. In response, the
advertisement service provider 4202 executes one or more programs
running on the processor 4208 to generate a customized report based
on the received instructions from the user device 4204, and sends
at least a portion of the customized report over the network 4206,
via the network interface 4210, to the user device 4204. The user
device, using an internet browser, stand-alone application, or any
other type of application known in the art, displays at least a
portion of the received customized report in a user interface
("UI"), such as in FIGS. 3-31, based at least in part on at least
one of the one more ad groups.
[0163] In another embodiment, the advertisement service provider
4202 receives instructions from the user device 4204, via an
application program interface ("API") of the network interface
4210, regarding how to customize a report based at least in part on
the one or more ad groups. In response, the advertisement service
provider 4202 executes one or more programs running on the
processor 4208 to generate a customized report based on the
received instructions from the user device 4204, and sends at least
a portion of the customized report over the network 4206, via the
API of the network interface 4210, to user device 4204. The user
device, using an application operative to communication with the
API of the network interface 4210 of the advertisement service
provider 4202 receives the portion of the customized report and
display at least a portion of the received customized report based
at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups.
[0164] FIG. 43 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for
reporting advertisement campaign information. The method 4300
begins with the advertisement service provider (advertisement
campaign management system) collecting advertisement campaign
information from components within the advertisement service
provider and at least one analytics feed 4302. The advertisement
service provider organizes the advertisement campaign information
into one or more ad groups 4304 and receives instructions regarding
customization of a report based at least in part on at least one of
the one or more ad groups 4306. The advertisement service provider
generates the report based on the received instructions and
displays at least a portion of the customized report based at least
in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups 4008 as
described above.
[0165] FIG. 44 is a flow chart of another embodiment of a method
for reporting advertisement campaign information. The method 4400
begins with the advertisement service provider (advertisement
campaign management system) collecting advertisement campaign
information from components within the advertisement service
provider and at least one analytics feed 4402. The advertisement
service provider organizes the advertisement campaign information
into one or more ad groups 4404 and instructions are received via
an application program interface ("API") regarding customization of
a report based at least in part on at least one of the one or more
ad groups 4406. A customized report is then sent to a user device
via the API 4408.
[0166] FIG. 45 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system
4502 for interacting with an application program interface ("API")
4504 of an advertisement campaign management system 4506 over a
network 4507. Typically, the system 4502 comprises a processor
4508, a network interface 4510 in communication with the processor
4508, and a memory unit 4512 in communication with the processor
4508.
[0167] Generally, the processor 4508 is operative to execute one or
more instructions stored in the memory unit 4512 to communicate via
the network interface 4510 with the API 4504 of the advertisement
campaign management system 4506. In one embodiment, the processor
4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API 4504 to
send commands defining how to organize advertisement campaign
information into one or more ad groups. In another embodiment, the
processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API
4504 to send instructions to the advertisement campaign management
system 4506 to modify advertisement campaign information organized
into one or more ad groups based at least in part on at least one
of the one or more ad groups. In yet another embodiment, the
processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API
4504 to receive forecasting information related to advertisement
campaign information organized into one or more ad groups and send
instructions to the advertisement campaign management system 4506
to modify at least one ad group based on the forecasting
information to optimize performance of one or more ad groups. In
yet another embodiment, the processor 4508 may execute instructions
to communicate with the API 4504 to send information to the
advertisement campaign management system 4506 regarding
customization of a report comprising advertisement campaign
information organized into one or more ad groups and receive the
customized report via the API 4504 of the advertisement campaign
management system 4506.
[0168] It will be appreciated that the disclosed advertisement
campaign management system as described with reference to FIGS. 1
and 2, the graphical user interfaces as described with reference to
FIGS. 3-31, and the systems and methods as described with reference
to FIGS. 32-45 provide user interfaces and application program
interfaces to an advertisement campaign system that provides the
ability to flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage large
groups of advertisements. As opposed to traditional user interfaces
and application program interfaces that only provides the ability
to manage advertisement campaign information at a user account
level or an individual advertisement level, users many now manage
advertisement campaign information at an account level defined by
the user. Users are given the ability to define their own groups of
advertisement campaign information (an ad group) for advertisements
that will be handled by the advertisement campaign management
system in a similar manner. For example, users may group
advertisements by a search tactic, performance parameter,
demographic of user, family of products, or almost any other
parameter desired by the user. Allowing users to define their own
ad groups allows the advertisement campaign management system to
provide more useful information to the user thereby allowing the
user to display, manage, optimize, or view reports on,
advertisement campaign information in a manner most relevant to an
individual advertiser.
[0169] 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.
* * * * *