U.S. patent application number 13/784401 was filed with the patent office on 2013-07-18 for suggesting and/or providing targeting criteria for advertisements.
The applicant listed for this patent is Georges R. Harik, Ross Koningstein, Noam Shazeer, Valentin Spitkovsky. Invention is credited to Georges R. Harik, Ross Koningstein, Noam Shazeer, Valentin Spitkovsky.
Application Number | 20130185149 13/784401 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34749326 |
Filed Date | 2013-07-18 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130185149 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Koningstein; Ross ; et
al. |
July 18, 2013 |
SUGGESTING AND/OR PROVIDING TARGETING CRITERIA FOR
ADVERTISEMENTS
Abstract
Keyword suggestions that are category-aware (and field-proven)
may be used to help advertisers better target the serving of their
ads, and may reduce unused ad spot inventory. The advertiser can
enter ad information, such as a creative, a landing Webpage, other
keywords, etc. for example. A keyword facility may use this entered
ad information as seed information to infer one or more categories.
It may then request that the advertiser confirm or deny some basic
feedback information (e.g., categories, Webpage information, etc.).
For example, an advertiser may be provided with candidate
categories and may be asked to confirm (e.g., using checkboxes)
which of the categories are relevant to their ad. Keywords may be
determined using at least the categories. The determined keywords
may be provided to the advertiser as suggested keywords, or may
automatically populate ad serving constraint information as
targeting keywords. The ad server system can run a trial on the
determined keywords to qualify or disqualify them as targeting
keyword.
Inventors: |
Koningstein; Ross; (Menlo
Park, CA) ; Spitkovsky; Valentin; (Sunnyvale, CA)
; Harik; Georges R.; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Shazeer;
Noam; (Mountain View, CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Koningstein; Ross
Spitkovsky; Valentin
Harik; Georges R.
Shazeer; Noam |
Menlo Park
Sunnyvale
Palo Alto
Mountain View |
CA
CA
CA
CA |
US
US
US
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
34749326 |
Appl. No.: |
13/784401 |
Filed: |
March 4, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
10750451 |
Dec 31, 2003 |
8392249 |
|
|
13784401 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.49 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/3322 20190101;
G06F 16/316 20190101; G06Q 30/0242 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101;
G06Q 30/0251 20130101; G06Q 30/0201 20130101; G06F 16/334 20190101;
G06Q 30/0277 20130101; G06F 16/686 20190101; G06F 16/355 20190101;
G06Q 30/0256 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.49 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20120101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1. A computer-implemented method for determining one or more ad
targeting keywords, the computer-implemented method comprising: a)
storing, with a computer system including a plurality of networked
computers, an index data structure including a plurality of
entries, each of the plurality of entries including (1) a category
provided as a lookup key, and (2) one or more keywords associated
with the category by virtue of them being in the same entry of the
index; b) receiving, with the computer system, a category input; c)
finding, using the computer system, an entry in the previously
stored index data structure having a lookup key matching the
category input; d) reading out, using the computer system, the one
or more keywords included in the matching entry found in the
previously stored index data structure; e) storing, using the
computer system, at least some of the one or more keywords read out
as one or more ad targeting keywords of an advertisement; and f)
controlling, with the computer system, a serving of the
advertisement using the stored one or more ad targeting keywords,
wherein when the advertisement is served with the computer system,
presentation of the advertisement to a user is induced, wherein
each of the acts of (c) finding an entry in the previously stored
index data structure having a lookup key matching the category
input, (d) reading out the one or more keywords included in the
matching entry found in the previously stored index data structure,
and (e) storing at least some of the one or more keywords read out
as one or more ad targeting keywords of an advertisement, occur
after the act of (a) storing an index data structure including a
plurality of entries.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein at least one
of the one or more ad targeting keywords is a negative keyword for
the advertisement, which negative keyword is used to make the
advertisement ineligible to be served for requests including the
negative keyword.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
performing, with the computer system, qualification testing of the
one or more keywords read out; and determining, with the computer
system, if a keyword is qualified or unqualified for use as a
targeting keyword of the advertisement, wherein each of the at
least some of the keywords stored as one or more ad targeting
keywords of the advertisement are qualified keywords.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, with the computer system, ad information; and
determining, with the computer system, the category input using the
accepted ad information.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the
advertisement includes ad creative information for rendering the
advertisement and an address of a landing Webpage linked from the
advertisement, and wherein the act of determining the category
input uses the creative information of the advertisement as the
received ad information.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 wherein the
advertisement includes ad creative information for rendering the
advertisement and an address of a landing Webpage linked from the
advertisement, and wherein the act of determining the category
input uses information from the landing Webpage as the received ad
information.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, with the computer system, ad information; determining,
with the computer system, one or more categories using the accepted
ad information; transmitting, with the computer system, at least
one of the one or more categories determined to induce presentation
of the at least one of the one or more categories to an advertiser;
and receiving, with the computer system, advertiser feedback with
respect to the presented one or more categories.
8. A computer-implemented method for determining one or more ad
targeting keywords, the computer-implemented method comprising: a)
storing, with a computer system including a plurality of networked
computers, an index data structure including a plurality of
entries, each of the plurality of entries including (1) a category
provided as a lookup key, and (2) one or more keywords associated
with the category by virtue of them being in the same entry of the
index; b) receiving, with the computer system, a category input; c)
finding, using the computer system, an entry in the previously
stored index data structure having a lookup key matching the
category input; d) reading out, using the computer system, the one
or more keywords included in the matching entry found in the
previously stored index data structure; e) transmitting, with the
computer system, the one or more keywords read out as suggested
targeting keywords to induce presentation of the one or more
keywords read out to an advertiser; f) receiving, with the computer
system, advertiser input in response to the suggested targeting
keywords; and g) determining whether or not to store at least some
of the one or more keywords as targeting keywords for an
advertisement of the advertiser using the received advertiser
input, wherein each of the acts of (c) finding an entry in the
previously stored index data structure having a lookup key matching
the category input, (d) reading out the one or more keywords
included in the matching entry found in the previously stored index
data structure, (e) transmitting the one or more keywords read out
as suggested targeting keywords to induce presentation of the one
or more keywords read out to an advertiser, (f) receiving
advertiser input in response to the suggested targeting keywords,
and (g) determining whether or not to store at least some of the
one or more keywords as targeting keywords for an advertisement of
the advertiser using the received advertiser input, occur after the
act of (a) storing an index data structure including a plurality of
entries.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein at least one
of the one or more ad targeting keywords is a negative keyword for
the advertisement, which negative keyword is used to make the
advertisement ineligible to be served for requests including the
negative keyword.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:
performing, with the computer system, qualification testing of the
one or more keywords read out; and determining, with the computer
system, if a keyword is qualified or unqualified for use as a
targeting keyword of the advertisement, wherein each of the at
least some of the keywords stored as one or more ad targeting
keywords of the advertisement are qualified keywords.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:
receiving, with the computer system, ad information; and
determining, with the computer system, the category input using the
accepted ad information.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the
advertisement includes ad creative information for rendering the
advertisement and an address of a landing Webpage linked from the
advertisement, and wherein the act of determining the category
input uses the creative information of the advertisement as the
received ad information.
13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the
advertisement includes ad creative information for rendering the
advertisement and an address of a landing Webpage linked from the
advertisement, and wherein the act of determining the category
input uses information from the landing Webpage as the received ad
information.
14. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising:
receiving, with the computer system, ad information; determining,
with the computer system, one or more categories using the accepted
ad information; transmitting, with the computer system, at least
one of the one or more categories determined to induce presentation
of the at least one of the one or more categories to an advertiser;
and receiving, with the computer system, advertiser feedback with
respect to the presented one or more categories.
15. Apparatus for generating one or more keywords as candidates for
use as ad targeting keywords, the apparatus comprising: a) an input
for accepting ad information; b) one or more processors; and c) at
least one storage device storing executable instructions which,
when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more
processors to perform a method including 1) storing an index data
structure including a plurality of entries, each of the plurality
of entries including (i) a category provided as a lookup key, and
(ii) one or more keywords associated with the category by virtue of
them being in the same entry of the index, 2) receiving a category
input, 3) finding an entry in the previously stored index data
structure having a lookup key matching the category input, 4)
reading out the one or more keywords included in the matching entry
found in the previously stored index data structure, 5) storing at
least some of the one or more keywords read out as one or more ad
targeting keywords of an advertisement, and 6) controlling a
serving of the advertisement using the stored one or more ad
targeting keywords, wherein when the advertisement is served with
the computer system, presentation of the advertisement to a user is
induced, wherein each of the acts of (3) finding an entry in the
previously stored index data structure having a lookup key matching
the category input, (4) reading out the one or more keywords
included in the matching entry found in the previously stored index
data structure, and (5) storing at least some of the one or more
keywords read out as one or more ad targeting keywords of an
advertisement, occur after the act of (1) storing an index data
structure including a plurality of entries.
16. Apparatus for generating one or more keywords as candidates for
use as ad targeting keywords, the apparatus comprising: a) an input
for accepting ad information; b) one or more processors; and c) at
least one storage device storing executable instructions which,
when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more
processors to perform a method including 1) storing an index data
structure including a plurality of entries, each of the plurality
of entries including (i) a category provided as a lookup key, and
(ii) one or more keywords associated with the category by virtue of
them being in the same entry of the index, 2) receiving a category
input, 3) finding an entry in the previously stored index data
structure having a lookup key matching the category input, 4)
reading out the one or more keywords included in the matching entry
found in the previously stored index data structure, 5)
transmitting the one or more keywords read out as suggested
targeting keywords to induce presentation of the one or more
keywords read out to an advertiser, 6) receiving advertiser input
in response to the suggested targeting keywords, and 7) determining
whether or not to store at least some of the one or more keywords
as targeting keywords for an advertisement of the advertiser using
the received advertiser input, wherein each of the acts of (3)
finding an entry in the previously stored index data structure
having a lookup key matching the category input, (4) reading out
the one or more keywords included in the matching entry found in
the previously stored index data structure, (5) transmitting the
one or more keywords read out as suggested targeting keywords to
induce presentation of the one or more keywords read out to an
advertiser, (6) receiving advertiser input in response to the
suggested targeting keywords, and (7) determining whether or not to
store at least some of the one or more keywords as targeting
keywords for an advertisement of the advertiser using the received
advertiser input, occur after the act of (1) storing an index data
structure including a plurality of entries.
Description
.sctn. 0. RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a contination of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 10/750,451 (referred to as "the '451 application" and
incorporated herein by reference), titled "SUGGESTING AND/OR
PROVIDING TARGETING CRITERIA FOR ADVERTISEMENTS," filed on Dec. 31,
2003 and listing Ross KONINGSTEIN, Valentin SPITKOVSKY, Georges R.
HARIK and Noam SHAZEER as the inventors.
.sctn. 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] .sctn. 1.1 Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention concerns advertising. In particular,
the present invention concerns improving keyword targeting used to
serve ads.
[0004] .sctn. 1.2 Background Information
[0005] Advertising using traditional media, such as television,
radio, newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even
when armed with demographic studies and entirely reasonable
assumptions about the typical audience of various media outlets,
advertisers recognize that much of their ad budget is simply
wasted. Moreover, it is very difficult to identify and eliminate
such waste.
[0006] Recently, advertising over more interactive media has become
popular. For example, as the number of people using the Internet
has exploded, advertisers have come to appreciate media and
services offered over the Internet as a potentially powerful way to
advertise.
[0007] Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt
to maximize the value of such advertising. In one strategy,
advertisers use popular presences or means for providing
interactive media or services (referred to as "Websites" in the
specification without loss of generality) as conduits to reach a
large audience. Using this first approach, an advertiser may place
ads on the home page of the New York Times Website, or the USA
Today Website, for example. In another strategy, an advertiser may
attempt to target its ads to more narrow niche audiences, thereby
increasing the likelihood of a positive response by the audience.
For example, an agency promoting tourism in the Costa Rican
rainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travel subdirectory of
the Yahoo Website.
[0008] Regardless of the strategy, Website-based ads (also referred
to as "Web ads") are typically presented to their advertising
audience in the form "banner ads" (i.e., a rectangular box that may
include graphic components). When a member of the advertising
audience (referred to as a "viewer" or "user" in the Specification
without loss of generality) selects one of these banner ads by
clicking on it, embedded hypertext links typically direct the
viewer to the advertiser's Website. This process, wherein the
viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a "click-through"
("Click-through" is intended to cover any user selection.).
[0009] Advertisers may judge the efficacy of an advertising
campaign using a number of measurable or determinable user
behaviors, such as click-throughs, click-through rates,
conversions, conversion rates, etc. The ratio of the number of
click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the
number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the
"click-through rate" of the ad.
[0010] A "conversion" is said to occur when a user consummates a
transaction related to a previously served ad. What constitutes a
conversion may vary from case to case and can be determined in a
variety of ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion
occurs when a user clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's
Web page, and consummates a purchase there before leaving that Web
page. Alternatively, a conversion may be defined as a user being
shown an ad, and making a purchase on the advertiser's Web page
within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). In yet another
alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser to be any
measurable/observable user action such as, for example, downloading
a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of a Website,
viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending at least a
predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page, registering
on a Website, etc. Often, if user actions don't indicate a
consummated purchase, they may indicate a sales lead, although user
actions constituting a conversion are not limited to this. Indeed,
many other definitions of what constitutes a conversion are
possible. The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of
impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed
or otherwise rendered) is commonly referred to as the conversion
rate. If a conversion is defined to be able to occur within a
predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possible
definition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have
been served more than the predetermined time in the past.
[0011] Despite the initial promise of Website-based advertisement,
there remain several problems with existing approaches. Although
advertisers are able to reach a large audience, they are frequently
dissatisfied with the return on their advertisement investment.
Some have attempted to improve ad performance by tracking the
online habits of users, but this approach has led to privacy
concerns.
[0012] .sctn. 1.2.1 Targeted Ad Serving
[0013] A popular recent trend has been to target ads to users based
on some type of user request, such as the submission of a search
query to a search engine. For example, the Google search engine
Website allows advertisers to specify keywords for triggering the
serving of an ad or a group of ads when those keywords, or some
derivative thereof, are included in a search query. Unfortunately,
it can often be difficult for advertisers to specify appropriate
keywords, or some other targeting criteria, for a given ad. Such
poor targeting may lead to inappropriate ad serves
("over-serving"), or no ad servers when appropriate
("under-serving").
[0014] .sctn. 1.2.1.1 Over-Serving and Consequent Problems
[0015] In ad serving systems in which advertisers pay per
selection, rather than per impression, most advertisers are not
troubled if they get non-relevant impressions. After all, if users
don't select the ads, the impressions are free. Some Website hosts
have chosen to place advertising revenues over the interests of
users. One such Website is "Overture.com", which hosts a so-called
"search engine" service returning advertisements masquerading as
"search results" in response to user queries. The Overture.com
website permits advertisers to pay to position an ad for their
Website (or a target Website) higher up on the list of purported
search results. If schemes where the advertiser only pays if a user
selects the ad (i.e., cost-per-click) are implemented, the
advertiser lacks incentive to target their ads effectively, since a
poorly targeted ad will not be selected and therefore will not
require payment. Consequently, high cost-per-click ads show up near
or at the top, but do not necessarily translate into real revenue
for the ad publisher because viewers don't click on them.
Furthermore, ads that users might otherwise select may be further
down the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads
is compromised. Accordingly, such systems are certainly not good
from the standpoint of users seeking relevant information, since
their interests are subordinated to those of the advertisers.
However, when such systems employ a cost per click payment scheme
rather than a cost per impression scheme, they are not particularly
efficient from the standpoint of generating revenue for the ad
server.
[0016] Some ad serving systems, such as Adwords Select from Google
for example, will shut off low click-through keywords, and account
for the performance of ads in serving decisions. In such systems,
advertisers may need to pick relevant keywords for their ads.
[0017] Further, sometimes targeting criteria will trigger the
serving of an ad at an inappropriate or undesirable time. For
example, although a keyword targeting criteria (e.g., "travel") of
an ad (e.g., an ad for business travel) may literally match a term
of a user's search query (e.g., "space travel"), serving the ad
(e.g., an ad for business travel) might sometimes be inappropriate
or undesirable. This could affect the performance of the ad. In
some advertising systems, poor ad performance can result in
increased costs and/or the ad being dropped.
[0018] .sctn. 1.2.1.2 Under-Serving and Consequent Problems
[0019] In the case where an advertiser did not consider a
particular targeting criteria for its ad, there could be a lost
opportunity to serve an otherwise relevant ad for presentation to
an end user because of the missing targeting criteria. For example,
an advertiser selling "Star Trek" DVDs may not think of using
"Captain Kirk" as a targeting criteria, although such a query would
likely be indicative of a user with an interest in "Star Trek"
movies. This example illustrates problems associated with missed
opportunities, where an ad isn't served when doing so would be
appropriate or desirable.
[0020] From the perspective of the entity serving ads, missed
opportunities to serve a relevant ad are lost opportunities to
generate revenue. For example, with some ad serving systems, such
as Adwords Select from Google for example, many search result pages
served may contain no (or few) ads. If such opportunities to show
an ad are missed, not only are they lost forever as a source of
revenue, but nothing is learned about what ads could be shown for
these searches, consequently forsaking future revenue.
[0021] From the perspective of an advertiser, not only does the
advertiser miss an opportunity to serve its ad, but if its ad were
served pursuant to a match with a less popular keyword, the cost of
such an ad serve may be less expensive than a more popular keyword
with more competing advertisers.
[0022] .sctn. 1.2.1.3 Selecting Effective Serving Criteria such as
Keywords
[0023] As the sections on over-serving and under-serving above
illustrate, poorly targeted ads are bad for users, advertisers, and
ad serving systems. Conversely, well targeted ads are relevant and
therefore should perform well and enhance a user's experience.
Unfortunately, it may be difficult for advertisers to learn how to
pick good keyword targets.
[0024] Selecting good keyword targets may come with a difficult
learning curve, and certain problems often occur repeatedly. For
example, an advertiser may pick its own keywords, its ads may run
for a brief time, and several keywords (or their whole campaign)
may get shut off because of low performance (e.g., a low
click-through rate). Such advertisers may then request keywords,
and recommendations (e.g., from customer service or from an
automated keyword recommendation facility) may be provided to the
advertiser. However, if the keyword recommendations aren't good,
the ad can continue to perform poorly, and get shut off again. This
learning process may become a source of advertiser frustration.
Such frustration can lead to advertisers to stop using an ad
serving system altogether, to reduce their use of an ad serving
system, or not to expand their use of an ad serving system. Even if
the advertiser sticks with the ad serving system, a process which
slowly converges on a good keyword targeting slows the sales
cycle.
[0025] Accordingly, there is a need to improve the performance of
online advertising. More specifically, there is a need to increase
the relevancy of ads, and to exploit opportunities to serve an ad
that might otherwise be missed. Doing so could increase the revenue
of an ad serving entity, improve the experience of users, and
improve efficacy and cost of advertiser's ads.
.sctn. 2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0026] The present invention may be used to help advertisers better
target the serving of their ads by having more keyword suggestions
that are category-aware (and field-proven). For advertisers with
new campaigns, the advertiser can enter ad information, such as a
creative for example. The keyword facility may use this entered
information as seed information to infer one or more categories. It
may then request that the advertiser confirm or deny some basic
feedback information (e.g., categories, Webpage information, etc.).
For example, an advertiser may be provided with candidate
categories and may be asked to confirm (e.g., using checkboxes)
which of the categories are relevant to their ad. In one
embodiment, the ad server system may then automatically provide
keywords to the advertiser for its ad.
[0027] In one embodiment of the present invention, the ad server
system can run a trial on determined keywords. It may then provide
recommendations to the advertiser using results of the trial. Some
recommendations may be as simple as the recommendation of negative
keywords (which will increase the customer's click-through rate,
which may save it from being shut off, and/or allow the advertiser
to get clicks at a lower CPC while maintaining their rank).
Advertisers that have been running ads can request keyword
suggestions. The ad serving system could contact such advertisers
(e.g., via e-mail) with notices like, "you could get X more clicks
at your current CPC if you used {suggested keywords}," or "using
{suggested negative keywords} as negative keywords, you could get
your clicks cheaper", or "use {suggested keywords} to avoid shut
off," etc. Keyword suggestions may also be used for building new
campaigns and projecting inventory available. For existing
campaigns that are not meeting targets, keyword suggestions make it
easy to find and add more keywords.
[0028] Thus, one method consistent with the present invention may
include harvesting keyword targets, building category pools,
augmenting ad targeting information with information from similar
advertisers (e.g., linked by advertiser "category" and keyword
intersection), providing category recommendations and accepting
advertiser feedback (e.g., decline, accept, confirm, etc.) with a
user interface. It may also include running test ads for
advertisers on unused inventory, by using category pools or
competitor pre-qualified keywords, and suggesting keywords that
performed well on the test ads to the end user. In addition to
helping advertisers to select targeting keywords, one method
consistent with the present invention may also suggest negative
category targeting (and negative keyword targeting using the
negative categories).
.sctn. 3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] FIG. 1 is a high-level diagram showing parties or entities
that can interact with an advertising system.
[0030] FIG. 2 is a bubble chart of an exemplary advertising
environment in which, or with which, the present invention may
operate.
[0031] FIG. 3 is a bubble chart of operations, consistent with the
present invention, that may be used to associate keywords and
categories in an online advertising environment, such as the one in
FIG. 2.
[0032] FIG. 4 is a bubble chart of operations, consistent with the
present invention, that may be used to suggest and/or automatically
supply keywords for targeting an ad.
[0033] FIG. 5 is a bubble chart of operations, consistent with the
present invention, that may be used to compile unused ad inventory
information.
[0034] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be
used to suggest or provide keywords in a manner consistent with the
present invention.
[0035] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be
used to support a user interface in a manner consistent with the
present invention.
[0036] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be
used to test keywords in a manner consistent with the present
invention.
[0037] FIG. 9 is a block diagram of apparatus that may be used to
effect at least some of the various operations that may be
performed consistent with the present invention.
.sctn. 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0038] The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus,
message formats and/or data structures for suggesting and/or
providing keywords used to target ads (referred to as "targeting
keywords"). The following description is presented to enable one
skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided
in the context of particular applications and their requirements.
Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be apparent
to those skilled in the art, and the general principles set forth
below may be applied to other embodiments and applications. Thus,
the present invention is not intended to be limited to the
embodiments shown and the inventors regard their invention as any
patentable subject matter described.
[0039] In the following, environments in which, or with which, the
present invention may operate are described in .sctn. 4.1. Then,
exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in
.sctn. 4.2. Examples illustrating operations of exemplary
embodiments of the present invention are described in .sctn. 4.3.
Finally, some conclusions regarding the present invention are set
forth in .sctn. 4.4.
.sctn. 4.1 Environments in which, or with which, the Present
Invention may Operate
[0040] .sctn. 4.1.1 Exemplary Advertising Environment
[0041] FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of an advertising
environment. The environment may include an ad entry, maintenance
and delivery system 120. Advertisers 110 may directly, or
indirectly, enter, maintain, and track ad information in the system
120. The ads may be in the form of graphical ads such as so-called
banner ads, text only ads, image ads, audio ads, video ads, ads
combining one of more of any of such components, etc. The ads may
also include embedded information, such as a link, and/or machine
executable instructions. Ad consumers 130 may submit requests for
ads to, accept ads responsive to their request from, and provide
usage information to, the system 120. Although not shown, other
entities may provide usage information (e.g., whether or not a
conversion or click-through related to the ad occurred) to the
system 120. This usage information may include measured or observed
user behavior related to ads that have been served.
[0042] One example of an ad consumer 130 is a general content
server that receives requests for content (e.g., articles,
discussion threads, music, video, graphics, search results, web
page listings, etc.), and retrieves the requested content in
response to, or otherwise services, the request. The content server
may submit a request for ads to the system 120. Such an ad request
may include a number of ads desired. The ad request may also
include content request information. This information may include
the content itself (e.g., page), a category corresponding to the
content or the content request (e.g., arts, business, computers,
arts-movies, arts-music, etc.), part or all of the content request,
content age, content type (e.g., text, graphics, video, audio,
mixed media, etc.), geolocation information, etc.
[0043] The content server may combine the requested content with
one or more of the advertisements provided by the system 120. This
combined information including the content and advertisement(s) is
then forwarded towards the end user that requested the content, for
presentation to the user. Finally, the content server may transmit
information about the ads and how, when, and/or where the ads are
to be rendered (e.g., position, click-through or not, impression
time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the
system 120. Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be
provided back to the system 120 by some other means.
[0044] Another example of an ad consumer 130 is a search engine. A
search engine may receive queries for search results. In response,
the search engine may retrieve relevant search results (e.g., from
an index of Web pages). An exemplary search engine is described in
the article S. Brin and L. Page, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale
Hypertextual Search Engine," Seventh International World Wide Web
Conference, Brisbane, Australia and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999
(both incorporated herein by reference). Such search results may
include, for example, lists of Web page titles, snippets of text
extracted from those Web pages, and hypertext links to those Web
pages, and may be grouped into a predetermined number of (e.g.,
ten) search results.
[0045] The search engine may submit a request for ads to the system
120. The request may include a number of ads desired. This number
may depend on the search results, the amount of screen or page
space occupied by the search results, the size and shape of the
ads, etc. In one embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from
one to ten, and preferably from three to five. The request for ads
may also include the query (as entered or parsed), information
based on the query (such as geolocation information, whether the
query came from an affiliate and an identifier of such an
affiliate), and/or information associated with, or based on, the
search results. Such information may include, for example,
identifiers related to the search results (e.g., document
identifiers or "dociDs"), scores related to the search results
(e.g., information retrieval ("IR") scores such as dot products of
feature vectors corresponding to a query and a document, Page Rank
scores, and/or combinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores),
snippets of text extracted from identified documents (e.g.,
WebPages), full text of identified documents, feature vectors of
identified documents, etc.
[0046] The search engine may combine the search results with one or
more of the advertisements provided by the system 120. This
combined information including the search results and
advertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the user that requested
the content, for presentation to the user. Preferably, the search
results are maintained as distinct from the ads, so as not to
confuse the user between paid advertisements and presumably neutral
search results. Finally, the search engine may transmit information
about the ad and when, where, and/or how the ad was to be rendered
(e.g., position, click-through or not, impression time, impression
date, size, conversion or not, etc.) back to the system 120.
Alternatively, or in addition, such information may be provided
back to the system 120 by some other means.
[0047] .sctn. 4.1.2 Exemplary Ad Entry, Maintenance and Delivery
Environment
[0048] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary ad system 120' in which, or
with which, the present invention may be used. The exemplary ad
system 120' may include an inventory system 210 and may store ad
information 205 and usage information 245. The exemplary system
120' may support ad information entry and management operations
215, campaign (e.g., targeting) assistance operations 220,
accounting and billing operations 225, ad serving operations 230,
relevancy determination operations 235, optimization operations
240, relative presentation attribute assignment (e.g., position
ordering) operations 250, fraud detection operations 255, and
result interface operations 260.
[0049] Advertisers 110 may interface with the system 120' via the
ad information entry and management operations 215 as indicated by
interface 216. Ad consumers 130 may interface with the system 120'
via the ad serving operations 230 as indicated by interface 231. Ad
consumers 130 and/or other entities (not shown) may also interface
with the system 120' via results interface operations 260 as
indicated by interface 261.
[0050] An advertising program may include information concerning
accounts, campaigns, creatives, targeting, etc. The term "account"
relates to information for a given advertiser (e.g., a unique email
address, a password, billing information, etc.). A "campaign" or
"ad campaign" refers to one or more groups of one or more
advertisements, and may include a start date, an end date, budget
information, geo-targeting information, syndication information,
etc. For example, Honda may have one advertising campaign for its
automotive line, and a separate advertising campaign for its
motorcycle line. The campaign for its automotive line have one or
more ad groups, each containing one or more ads. Each ad group may
include a set of keywords, and a maximum cost (cost per
click-though, cost per conversion, etc.). Alternatively, or in
addition, each ad group may include an average cost (e.g., average
cost per click-through, average cost per conversion, etc.).
Therefore, a single maximum cost and/or a single average cost may
be associated with one or more keywords. As stated, each ad group
may have one or more ads or "creatives" (That is, ad content that
is ultimately rendered to an end user.). Naturally, the ad
information 205 may include more or less information, and may be
organized in a number of different ways.
[0051] The ad information 205 can be entered and managed via the ad
information entry and management operations 215. Campaign (e.g.,
targeting) assistance operations 220 can be employed to help
advertisers 110 generate effective ad campaigns. For example, the
campaign assistance operations 220 can use information provided by
the inventory system 210, which, in the context of advertising for
use with a search engine, may track all possible ad impressions, ad
impressions already reserved, and ad impressions available for
given keywords. The ad serving operations 230 may service requests
for ads from ad consumers 130. The ad serving operations 230 may
use relevancy determination operations 235 to determine candidate
ads for a given request. The ad serving operations 230 may then use
optimization operations 240 to select a final set of one or more of
the candidate ads. The ad serving operations 230 may then use
relative presentation attribute assignment operations 250 to order
the presentation of the ads to be returned. The accounting/billing
operations 225 may be used to track charges related to the serving
of advertisements and to bill advertisers. The fraud detection
operations 255 can be used to reduce fraudulent use of the
advertising system (e.g., by advertisers), such as through the use
of stolen credit cards. Finally, the results interface operations
260 may be used to accept result information (from the ad consumers
130 or some other entity) about an ad actually served, such as
whether or not click-through occurred, whether or not conversion
occurred (e.g., whether the sale of an advertised item or service
was initiated or consummated within a predetermined time from the
rendering of the ad), etc. Such results information may be accepted
at interface 261 and may include information to identify the ad and
time the ad was served, as well as the associated result.
[0052] As will be appreciated from the description to follow,
various aspects of the present invention may be applied to campaign
targeting assistance operations 220.
[0053] .sctn. 4.1.3 Definitions
[0054] Online ads, such as those used in the exemplary systems
described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, or any other
system, may have various intrinsic features. Such features may be
specified by an application and/or an advertiser. These features
are referred to as "ad features" below. For example, in the case of
a text ad, ad features may include a title line, ad text, and an
embedded link. In the case of an image ad, ad features may include
images, executable code, and an embedded link. Depending on the
type of online ad, ad features may include one or more of the
following: text, a link, an audio file, a video file, an image
file, executable code, embedded information, etc.
[0055] When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be
used to describe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These
parameters are referred to as "serving parameters" below. Serving
parameters may include, for example, one or more of the following:
features of (including information on) a page on which the ad was
served, a search query or search results associated with the
serving of the ad, a user characteristic (e.g., their geolocation,
the language used by the user, the type of browser used, previous
page views, previous behavior), a host or affiliate site (e.g.,
America Online, Google, Yahoo) that initiated the request, an
absolute position of the ad on the page on which it was served, a
position (spatial or temporal) of the ad relative to other ads
served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of the ad relative to
other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other ads served, types
of other ads served, time of day served, time of week served, time
of year served, etc. Naturally, there are other serving parameters
that may be used in the context of the invention.
[0056] Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features,
they may be associated with an ad as serving conditions or
constraints. When used as serving conditions or constraints, such
serving parameters are referred to simply as "serving constraints"
(or "targeting criteria"). For example, in some systems, an
advertiser may be able to target the serving of its ad by
specifying that it is only to be served on weekdays, no lower than
a certain position, only to users in a certain geolocation, etc. As
another example, in some systems, an advertiser may specify that
its ad is to be served only if a page or search query includes
certain keywords or phrases. As yet another example, in some
systems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only
if a document being served includes certain topics or concepts, or
falls under a particular cluster or clusters, or some other
classification or classifications.
[0057] In targeted advertising, a "targeting keyword" may be an
identified keyword or group of keywords (including phrases, or
negative keywords), that target the serving of the ad by specifying
(or restricting) when the ad is eligible to be shown. In some ad
serving systems, an advertiser can specify how its keywords are to
be used in ad serving decisions by specifying match types. For
example, if an advertiser specifies a "broad" match type (which may
be a default setting), the advertiser may include general keyword
or keyword phrases (such as "tennis shoes" for example) in its
keyword list. In this example, the advertiser's ads are eligible
for serving when users search for "tennis" and "shoes," in any
order, and possibly along with other terms. The advertiser's ads
might also be subject to expanded matches, including plurals and
relevant variations. Since other advertisers may be competing for
the same broad-matched keyword combinations that trigger the
serving of ads, using broad targeting keywords may increase cost
amounts. Using exact, phrase, or negative matches (discussed below)
can help advertisers minimize costs. An advertiser may specify a
"phrase" match type (e.g., by entering their keyword in quotation
marks, as in "tennis shoes"). In this case, its ad will be eligible
for serving when a user searches on the phrase "tennis shoes," in
this order, and possibly with other terms in the query. For
example, the advertiser's ad will be eligible for serving for the
query "red tennis shoes" but not for "shoes for tennis." Phrase
matching is more targeted than broad matching, but slightly more
flexible than exact matching. An advertiser may specify an "exact"
match type (e.g., by surrounding its keywords in brackets--such as
[tennis shoes]). In this case, its ads will be eligible for serving
when users search for the specific phrase "tennis shoes," in this
order, and without any other terms in the query. For example, the
advertiser's ad won't be eligible for serving for the query "red
tennis shoes." An advertiser may also specify "negative" keywords.
For example, if an advertiser's keyword is tennis shoes and it adds
the negative keyword -red, its ad will not be eligible for serving
if a user searches on "red tennis shoes." Naturally, other types of
targeting keywords are possible.
[0058] "Geolocation information" may include information specifying
one or more of one or more countries, one or more (inter-country)
regions, one or more states, one or more metro areas, one or more
cities, one or more towns, one or more boroughs, one or more areas
with common zip codes, one or more areas with common telephone area
codes, one or more areas served by common cable head end stations,
one or more areas served by common network access points or nodes,
etc. It may include latitude and/or longitude, or a range thereof.
It may include information, such as an IP address, from which a
user location can be estimated.
[0059] "Ad information" may include any combination of ad features,
ad serving constraints, information derivable from ad features or
ad serving constraints (referred to as "ad derived information"),
and/or information related to the ad (referred to as "ad related
information"), as well as an extension of such information (e.g.,
information derived from ad related information).
[0060] A "document" is to be broadly interpreted to include any
machine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may
be a file, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded
links to other files, etc. The files may be of any type, such as
text, audio, image, video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered
to an end user can be thought of as "content" of the document. A
document may include "structured data" containing both content
(words, pictures, etc.) and some indication of the meaning of that
content (for example, e-mail fields and associated data, HTML tags
and associated data, etc.) Ad spots in the document may be defined
by embedded information or instructions. In the context of the
Internet, a common document is a Web page. Web pages often include
content and may include embedded information (such as meta
information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embedded instructions (such
as Javascript, etc.). In many cases, a document has a unique,
addressable, storage location and can therefore be uniquely
identified by this addressable location. A universal resource
locator (URL) is a unique address used to access information on the
Internet.
[0061] "Document information" may include any information included
in the document, information derivable from information included in
the document (referred to as "document derived information"),
and/or information related to the document (referred to as
"document related information"), as well as an extensions of such
information (e.g., information derived from related information).
An example of document derived information is a classification
based on textual content of a document. Examples of document
related information include document information from other
documents with links to the instant document, as well as document
information from other documents to which the instant document
links.
[0062] Content from a document may be rendered on a "content
rendering application or device". Examples of content rendering
applications include an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer or
Netscape), a media player (e.g., an MP3 player, a Realnetworks
streaming audio file player, etc.), a viewer (e.g., an Abobe
Acrobat pdf reader), etc.
[0063] A "content owner" is a person or entity that has some
property right in the content of a document. A content owner may be
an author of the content. In addition, or alternatively, a content
owner may have rights to reproduce the content, rights to prepare
derivative works of the content, rights to display or perform the
content publicly, and/or other proscribed rights in the content.
Although a content server might be a content owner in the content
of the documents it serves, this is not necessary.
[0064] "User information" may include user behavior information
and/or user profile information. It may also include a user's
geolocation, or an estimation of the user's geolocation.
[0065] "E-mail information" may include any information included in
an e-mail (also referred to as "internal e-mail information"),
information derivable from information included in the e-mail
and/or information related to the e-mail, as well as extensions of
such information (e.g., information derived from related
information). An example of information derived from e-mail
information is information extracted or otherwise derived from
search results returned in response to a search query composed of
terms extracted from an e-mail subject line. Examples of
information related to e-mail information include e-mail
information about one or more other e-mails sent by the same sender
of a given e-mail, or user information about an e-mail recipient.
Information derived from or related to e-mail information may be
referred to as "external e-mail information."
[0066] Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention are
now described in .sctn. 4.2.
.sctn. 4.2 Exemplary Embodiments
[0067] As indicated above, the present invention may be used to
suggest and/or provide keywords used to target ads. Exemplary
embodiments for associating keywords and categories are described
in .sctn. 4.2.1 below. Then, exemplary embodiments for using such
associations to suggest and/or provide keywords is described in
.sctn. 4.2.2. Some possible refinements and alternative embodiments
are discussed in .sctn. 4.2.3. Finally, exemplary apparatus that
may be used to effect various aspects of the invention are
described in .sctn. 4.2.4.
[0068] .sctn. 4.2.1 Associating Keywords and Categories
[0069] FIG. 3 is a bubble chart of operations that may be
performed, and information that may be used or stored, consistent
with the present invention. More specifically, the operations of
FIG. 3 may be used to generate associations between keywords and
categories. For example, keyword classification operations 320 may
be used to generate a keyword index 330 from keywords 310. The
keywords 310 may be from search queries for example. The keyword
index 330 may use a keyword 332 as a lookup key to one or more
associated categories 334. Sorting operations 360 may be used to
sort the entries of the keyword index 330. For example, the entries
may be sorted based on frequency of use of keywords 332. Finally,
index inversion operations 340 may be used to generate a keyword
inverted index 350 from the keyword index 330. The keyword inverted
index 350 may use a category 352 as a lookup key to associated
keywords 354.
[0070] .sctn. 4.2.2 Using Keyword and Category Associations to
Suggest and/or Provide Keywords
[0071] FIG. 4 is a bubble chart of operations, consistent with the
present invention, that may be used to suggest and/or automatically
supply keywords for targeting an ad. Category determination
operations 410 may use ad information 420 to determine one or more
categories 450. The category determination operations 410 may
determine one or more categories using one or more of the following
techniques. For example, using one technique, if the ad information
420 includes one or more keywords, the category determination
operations may use keyword-category association information, such
as a keyword index 330, to determine one or more categories 334
associated with the one or more keywords. The one or more
categories determined may be provided to user interface operations
440. The user interface operations 440 may be used to (i) present
determined categories to an advertiser, or its representative
(simply referred to as "advertiser"), and to receive feedback
concerning the presented categories from the advertiser. For
example, a number of candidate categories may be presented to an
advertiser. In response, the advertiser can indicate which of the
candidate categories are appropriate and/or inappropriate. In
another technique, the ad information 410 may include a creative or
a link to a landing Webpage. The category determination operations
410 may use such information, as well as other information 405, to
determine one or more categories. (See, for example, U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/419,692 (incorporated herein by reference),
titled "DETERMINING CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION FOR ADVERTISEMENTS AND
USING SUCH DETERMINED CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION TO SUGGEST TARGETING
CRITERIA AND/OR IN THE SERVING OF ADVERTISEMENTS," filed on Apr.
21, 2003 and listing Amit Singhal, Mehran Sahami, Amit Patel and
Steve Lawrence as inventors. That application stated that generated
ad context information may be used to help advertisers consider
additional serving constraints, such as keywords for example.)
[0072] Regardless of the technique or techniques used, one or more
categories 450 are generated. Keyword suggestion/provision
operations 460 may use the one or more generated categories 450, to
generate one or more keywords 465. For example, the keyword
suggestion/provision operations 460 may use the one or more
categories 450 as keys 352 to lookup keywords 354 in a keyword
inverted index 350. The determined keywords 476 may be provided to
the user as suggested keywords, or may automatically be associated
with an ad as targeting keywords. However, in one embodiment of the
present invention described below, the keywords are tested for
qualification first.
[0073] In one embodiment of the present invention, the keyword
suggestion/provision operations 460 may use unused inventory
information 455 in its determination of keywords. For example, such
unused inventory information 455 may associate keywords with a
number of unused ad spots over a period of time. Generated
targeting keywords 465 may be ordered based on number of unused ad
spots associated with the keywords. In this way, keywords that, if
used as targeting keywords, would fill many otherwise unused ad
spots may be preferred over those that would fill few otherwise
unused ad spots.
[0074] Referring to FIG. 5, unused inventory information 560 may be
compiled by page assembly operations 510. These operations 510
basically mix Web page information (e.g., search results) 530,
query information 520 and ads (e.g., from an ad server) 540 to
generate a Web page with ads 550. Suppose that the Web page has ten
(10) ad spots and ten (10) ads are served. In this case, there are
no unused ad spots, and the information 560 need not be updated.
If, however, the Web page has ten (10) ad spots and only three (3)
ads are served, there are seven (7) unused ad spots. In this case,
entries of the information 560 corresponding to keywords 562 found
in the query 520 may have an associated number of unused ad spots
564 increased. Thus, the number of unused ad spots 564 may
correspond to a sum of unused ad spots over a number of page
serves. The number 564 may be a running total, may have a time
windowing function applied (e.g., based on page serves for the past
two weeks), etc. The unused inventory information 560 may be
ordered from time to time based on the number of unused ad
spots.
[0075] Referring back to FIG. 4, as described above, although the
determined keywords can simply be suggested to the advertiser, or
provided to the ad as keyword targets, it may be desirable to test
the keywords for qualification first. In an embodiment in which
keywords are tested for qualification, keyword status check
operations 470 may check keyword status information (e.g., one or
more of: qualified for use as ad targeting information without need
for advertiser approval; qualified for use as ad targeting
information but only with advertiser approval; neither qualified,
nor disqualified; or disqualified for use as ad targeting)
information of the keyword(s) 465 under consideration. The keyword
status information 475 may be maintained for a keyword in general
(e.g., without regard to a category of the ad), and/or may be
maintained for a keyword in the context of one or more particular
categories. Although not shown in FIG. 4, the keyword status
information 475 may be stored in, or otherwise linked with, the
keyword inverted index 350. If the keyword is qualified for use as
ad targeting information without the need for advertiser approval,
it may be added to the ad information as a targeting keyword. If
the keyword is qualified for use as ad targeting information but
only with advertiser approval, it may be provided to user interface
operations 440 for presentation to the advertiser. If the keyword
is disqualified, it should be dropped from consideration. Finally,
if the keyword is neither qualified, nor disqualified (e.g., if
there is no qualification information for the keyword), it may be
passed to keyword trial operations 480.
[0076] The keyword trial operations 480 may use the keyword as a
targeting keyword to serve an ad 485 to see how it will perform.
The trial may be limited to otherwise unused inventory. Generally,
if the ad performs well, it may be qualified, if it performs
poorly, it may be disqualified, and the keyword status information
475 may be updated appropriately. Various status levels may be
associated with various levels of trial performance. Other ways of
qualifying or disqualifying a keyword may be used. If there are a
number of keywords that are under consideration but that don't have
qualification information, keyword trial operations 480 may try the
keywords with the highest amount of unused inventory first. Then
additional keywords may be tried. In one embodiment of the present
invention, the additional keywords may be from those with more
unused inventory to those with less unused inventory.
[0077] Having introduced operations that may be performed in
accordance with the present invention, a number of exemplary
methods for performing the operations are now described.
[0078] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 600 that may
be used to perform keyword suggestion/provision operations 460 in a
manner consistent with the present invention. One or more
categories are accepted. (Block 610) One or more keywords are
determined using the accepted categories. (Block 620) Recall that
this may be done using a keyword index 330. The determined keywords
may be ordered using unused inventory information. (Block 630) In
this way, keywords that, if used as targeting keywords, would fill
more ad spots may be considered first. As indicated by loop
640-660, a number of acts may be performed for each of the
determined keywords, or at least of the determined keywords under
consideration. In one embodiment of the present invention, the
keyword is simply suggested to the advertiser or provided as a
targeting keyword. (Block 650) In an alternative embodiment of the
present invention, keyword status is checked. For example, it may
be determined whether or not the keyword is qualified. (Decision
block 680) If so, the method 600 continues to block 650 already
discussed. If the keyword is not qualified (and hasn't been
disqualified), the password may be passed to trial operations for
qualification testing. (Block 690) Once all of the keywords have
been processed, the method 600 is left. (Node 670)
[0079] FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 700 that may
be used to perform user interface operations 440 in a manner
consistent with the present invention. As indicated by block 710,
various branches of the method 700 may be performed in response to
the occurrence of various different events. More specifically, if
one or more candidate categories are provided (e.g., by category
determination operations 410), the candidate category(ies) may be
presented to the advertiser to accept or decline (Block 720) before
the method 700 branches back to block 710. If one or more candidate
keyword(s) are provided (e.g., by keyword suggestion operations
460), the candidate keyword(s) may be presented to the advertiser
to accept or decline (Block 730) before the method 700 branches
back to block 710. If one or more categories are accepted by the
advertiser, the category(ies) may be passed to keyword
suggestion/provision operations, such as those 460 of FIG. 4 (Block
740) before the method 700 branches back to block 710. If one or
more keyword(s) are accepted by the advertiser, the keyword (s) may
be added to ad information as a targeting keyword (Block 750)
before the method 700 branches back to block 710. If an exit
condition occurs, the method 700 may leave. (Node 760)
[0080] FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 800 that may
be used to try keywords for qualification as targeting keywords in
a manner consistent with the present invention. A keyword (or more
than one keyword) is accepted. (Block 810). The trial operations
may use one or more keywords as targeting keywords in the serving
of an ad (or even a group of ads) (Block 820) and the performance
of such ads may be tracked (Block 830). In one embodiment of the
present invention, the serving of the ads using trial targeting
keyword(s) may be limited to ad spots (inventory) that otherwise
would be unused. After a certain amount of time and/or after a
certain number of such ad serves, various branches of the method
800 may be performed responsive to various different performance
levels. If a keyword performs well (e.g., in general, or for a
particular category), it may be marked as a keyword to be
suggested, and/or as a qualified keyword (e.g., in general, or for
the particular category) (Block 850) before the method 800 is left
(Node 870). In fact, generic creatives (for example, creative
templates with certain advertiser information inserted) with
qualified targeting keywords could be subject to expedited
approvals. If, on the other hand, a keyword does not perform well
(e.g., in general, or for a particular category), it may be
disqualified and marked as unusable (e.g., in general, or for the
particular category) (Block 860) before the method 800 is left
(Node 870). In this way, advertisers can avoid the frustration of
targeting their ads using poorly performing keywords. Although not
shown, keywords can be assigned various different status levels
associated with various different levels or performance. In one
embodiment, performance for one or more keywords may be considered
to be good if ads served pursuant to using the keyword(s) as
targeting keywords perform (e.g., have a click-through rate)
comparable to what salespeople and/or customers already think are
the best keywords (e.g., the keywords that they are already
using).
[0081] .sctn. 4.2.3 Refinements and Alternatives
[0082] It may be desirable for the ad serving entity to provide
advertisers with opaque ad performance reporting (e.g. not by
specific keyword targets). In this way, it may become possible to
protect a keyword targeting knowledge base and treat the data as a
trade secret. In such an embodiment, advertisers may be satisfied
to know that their ad campaign is performing well, without needing
to know the details about keyword targeting used. This may make
alternative keyword targeting ad serving firms less attractive to
an advertiser.
[0083] Note that qualified keywords may be any type of keyword,
such as negative keywords for example.
[0084] .sctn. 4.2.4 Exemplary Apparatus
[0085] FIG. 9 is high-level block diagram of a machine 900 that may
perform one or more of the operations and store various information
discussed above. The machine 900 basically includes a processor(s)
910, an input/output interface unit(s) 930, a storage device(s)
920, and a system bus or network 940 for facilitating the
communication of information among the coupled elements. An input
device(s) 932 and an output device(s) 934 may be coupled with the
input/output interface(s) 930.
[0086] The processor(s) 910 may execute machine-executable
instructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating
system available from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or
the Linux operating system widely available from a number of
vendors such as Red Hat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to perform one or
more aspects of the present invention. At least a portion of the
machine executable instructions may be stored (temporarily or more
permanently) on the storage device(s) 920 and/or may be received
from an external source via an input interface unit 930.
[0087] In one embodiment, the machine 900 may be one or more
conventional personal computers. In this case, the processing
unit(s) 910 may be one or more microprocessors. The bus 940 may
include a system bus. The storage devices 920 may include system
memory, such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory
(RAM). The storage device(s) 920 may also include a hard disk drive
for reading from and writing to a hard disk, a magnetic disk drive
for reading from or writing to a (e.g., removable) magnetic disk,
and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing to a
removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compact disk or other
(magneto-) optical media.
[0088] A user may enter commands and information into the personal
computer through input devices 932, such as a keyboard and pointing
device (e.g., a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as a
microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or
the like, may also (or alternatively) be included. These and other
input devices are often connected to the processing unit(s) 910
through an appropriate interface 930 coupled to the system bus 940.
The output device(s) 934 may include a monitor or other type of
display device, which may also be connected to the system bus 940
via an appropriate interface. In addition to (or instead of) the
monitor, the personal computer may include other (peripheral)
output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers for
example.
.sctn. 4.3 Examples of Operations
[0089] An example illustrating exemplary operations of the present
invention is now provided. Suppose an advertiser is a Jaguar car
dealer. The word "jaguar" may be provided as ad information 420. It
may have been taken from entered creative information, information
from a landing Webpage specified in the ad, and/or an entered
targeting keyword, etc. Category determinations operations 410 may
determine various, possibly relevant, categories (and possibly
sub-categories) such as: [0090] automobiles . . . [0091] computers
. . . operating systems . . . [0092] music . . . popular music . .
. [0093] music . . . musical instruments . . . [0094] animals . . .
mammals . . . felines . . . [0095] movies . . . foreign films . . .
[0096] travel . . . resorts . . . [0097] sports & recreation .
. . snorkeling . . . scuba . . . [0098] sports & recreation . .
. football . . . [0099] pets . . . fish
[0100] For example, "jaguar" may be relevant to the luxury
automobile, the apple Macintosh operating system, the recording
artist (Jaguar Wright or Jet Jaguar), the foreign movie (Aimee and
Jaguar), the reef in Belize, the football team, or the cichlid
fish. The determined categories may be provided to the advertiser
via user interface operations 440 and the advertiser may specify
that only the automobile category is relevant. The "automobile"
category may then be provided to keyword suggestion/provision
operations 460 which may generate one or more keywords, such as:
[0101] cars, parts, service, dealer, loaner, X-type, S-type, XJ . .
.
[0102] therefrom. The generated keywords may (a) be added to the ad
as targeting keywords, (b) suggested to the advertiser as targeting
keywords, or (c) tested if not already qualified. Keyword trial
operations 480 may run the ad with the keyword(s) under
consideration and track the performance of the ad with respect to
one or more of the keyword(s) under consideration. Keywords that
perform well may (a) be added to the ad as targeting keywords, or
(b) suggested to the advertiser as targeting keywords. Keyword that
do not perform well may be disqualified in general, or disqualified
for the category automobile.
.sctn. 4.4 Conclusions
[0103] As can be appreciated from the foregoing disclosure, the
present invention can be used to help online advertisers and
entities serving online ads by (i) suggesting or providing
targeting criteria to better target the ad and to exploit otherwise
missed opportunities to serve relevant ads, and (ii) helping
advertisers to eliminate poorly targeted ads. The various
techniques described above may be used in combination or in
concert. Some embodiments of the present invention unburden
advertisers of the need to learn the details of keyword targeting.
Moreover, valuable information is learned from queries where few
ads are otherwise served. The present invention can improve the
targeting of ads, improve customer experience, reduced load on
customer support, and increase revenue.
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