U.S. patent application number 14/058080 was filed with the patent office on 2014-02-20 for monitoring campaign referral sources.
This patent application is currently assigned to Marchex Sales, Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is Marchex Sales, Inc.. Invention is credited to Todd LIEBERMAN, Jeffrey WEISBERG.
Application Number | 20140052528 14/058080 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 39585297 |
Filed Date | 2014-02-20 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140052528 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
LIEBERMAN; Todd ; et
al. |
February 20, 2014 |
MONITORING CAMPAIGN REFERRAL SOURCES
Abstract
A method and system for tracking telephone calls made in
response to advertising campaigns in electronic or other media. An
advertiser is permitted to associate a specific and distinct
telephone number with an associated advertising campaign. Telephone
calls made to the selected telephone numbers are correlated to the
referring campaign and reports are providers to advertisers of call
data associated with the respective advertising campaign.
Inventors: |
LIEBERMAN; Todd;
(Philadelphia, PA) ; WEISBERG; Jeffrey;
(Philadelphia, PA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Marchex Sales, Inc. |
Las Vegas |
NV |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
Marchex Sales, Inc.
Las Vegas
NV
|
Family ID: |
39585297 |
Appl. No.: |
14/058080 |
Filed: |
October 18, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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13294436 |
Nov 11, 2011 |
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14058080 |
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11985188 |
Nov 14, 2007 |
8442862 |
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13294436 |
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60865671 |
Nov 14, 2006 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.45 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 3/4878 20130101;
G06Q 30/0244 20130101; G06Q 30/0242 20130101; H04M 3/42059
20130101; G06Q 30/0246 20130101; G06Q 30/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.45 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20060101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1. A method for enabling data collection for at least one
advertising campaign, comprising: receiving data associated with at
least one request associated with at least one advertising
campaign; assigning at least one phone number to the at least one
advertising campaign; causing the at least one phone number to be
displayed; accepting at least one phone call placed to the at least
one phone number; identifying the advertising campaign associated
with the at least one phone number, the identifying including
correlating the receiving of the at least one request and the
accepting of the at least one phone call; and determining which
advertising campaign is associated with the at least one
request.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one request
comprises a request to receive data via an interne accessible
application.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data comprises at least one
webpage.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one phone number is
assigned based on a uniform resource locator from which the at
least one request was received.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one phone number is
assigned based on a search engine from which the at least one
request was received.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one phone number is
assigned based on a search term used in a search engine from which
the at least one request was received.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one phone number is
assigned based on a keyword associated with a uniform resource
locator from which the at least one request was received.
8. The method of claim 3, further comprising: generating at least
one new webpage, wherein the at least one new webpage is
substantially a copy of the at least one pre-existing webpage with
the at least one phone number added to the at least one new
webpage; wherein causing the at least one phone number to be
provided to the at least one user comprises transmitting the at
least one new webpage to the at least one user.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: analyzing the at
least one pre-existing webpage to identify at least one
pre-existing phone number; wherein the at least one new webpage is
substantially a copy of the at least one pre-existing webpage with
at least one phone number inserted in place of the at least one
pre-existing phone number.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one pre-existing
phone number on the at least one pre-existing webpage and the at
least one phone number on the at least one new webpage are
displayed as text.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one pre-existing
phone number on the at least one pre-existing webpage and the at
least one phone number on the at least one new webpage are
displayed as graphics.
12. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting at least
one cookie to facilitate future requests.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one phone number is
assigned to the at least one advertising campaign based on a bid
received from an owner of the at least one advertising
campaign.
14. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a revenue
with the at least one advertising campaign associated with the at
least one request.
15. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording phone call
data associated with the at least one phone call.
16. The method of claim 1, further comprising playing at least one
ring tone on the at least one phone call.
17. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a time
at which the at least one phone call is accepted; determining
whether the time is within business hours; and playing a first
message on the at least one phone call if the time is within
business hours and playing a second message on the at least one
phone call if the time is not within business hours.
18. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating at least
one report using the phone call data.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising transferring the at
least one report to at least one advertiser.
20. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the at
least one phone call to at least one advertiser.
21. The method of claim 1, further comprising terminating the at
least one phone call after recording the phone call data.
22. The method of claim 17, further comprising terminating the at
least one phone call after playing the first message or the second
message.
23. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying at least
one phone number as a blacklisted number associated with an
inactive campaign; determining whether the at least one phone
number is blacklisted after accepting the at least one phone call;
and terminating the at least one phone call if the at least one
phone number is blacklisted.
24. The method of claim 1, further comprising running an answer
application on the at least one phone call.
25. The method of claim 1, further comprising running a call
wrap-up application on the at least one phone call.
26. A system for enabling data collection for at least one
advertising campaign, the system comprising: at least one server;
at least one telephony interface coupled to the at least one
server; at least one telephonic connector coupled to at least one
telephone network and the at least one server; and at least one
database coupled to the at least one server and at least one
telephony interface; wherein the at least one server comprises at
least one server application configured to: locate at least one
phone number associated with each advertising campaign in the at
least one database; receive data associated with at least one
request associated with at least one advertising campaign; and
cause the at least one phone number to be displayed; wherein the at
least one telephony interface comprises at least one telephony
application configured to: assign at least one phone number to each
advertising campaign; and wherein the at least one telephonic
connector is configured to: accept at least one phone call placed
to the at least one phone number; identify the advertising campaign
associated with the at least one phone number by correlating the
receiving of the at least one request to display the at least one
pre-existing webpage and the accepting of the at least one phone
call; and determine which advertising campaign is associated with
the at least one request.
27. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one request
comprises a request to receive data via an internet accessible
application.
28. The system of claim 27, wherein the data comprises at least one
webpage.
29. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one phone number
is assigned based on a uniform resource locator from which the at
least one request was received.
30. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one phone number
is assigned based on a search engine from which the at least one
request was received.
31. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one phone number
is assigned based on a search term used in a search engine from
which the at least one request was received.
32. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one phone number
is assigned based on a keyword associated with a uniform resource
locator from which the at least one request was received.
33. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one server
application is further configured to: generate at least one new
webpage, wherein the at least one new webpage is substantially a
copy of the at least one pre-existing webpage with the at least one
phone number added to the at least one new webpage; and send the at
least one new webpage.
34. The system of claim 33, wherein the at least one server
application is further configured to: analyze the at least one
pre-existing webpage to identify at least one pre-existing phone
number; wherein the at least one new webpage is substantially a
copy of the at least one pre-existing webpage with at least one
phone number inserted in place of the at least one pre-existing
phone number.
35. The system of claim 34, wherein the at least one pre-existing
phone number on the at least one pre-existing webpage and the at
least one phone number on the at least one new webpage are
displayed as text.
36. The system of claim 34, wherein the at least one pre-existing
phone number on the at least one pre-existing webpage and the at
least one phone number on the at least one new webpage are
displayed as graphics.
37. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one server further
comprises at least one proxy server.
38. The system of claim 26, wherein the server application is
further configured to transmit at least one cookie to facilitate
future requests.
39. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephony
application is further configured to assign the at least one phone
number to each advertising campaign based on a bid received from an
owner of each advertising campaign.
40. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one server
application is further configured to associate a revenue with at
least one advertising campaign associated with the at least one
request.
41. The system of claim 26, further comprising: at least one
recording server comprising at least one recording application
configured to record phone call data associated with the at least
one phone call.
42. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephony
application is further configured to: identify at least one phone
number as a blacklisted number associated with an inactive
campaign; determine whether the at least one phone number is
blacklisted after accepting the at least one phone call; and
terminate the at least one phone call if the at least one phone
number is blacklisted.
43. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephonic
connector is configured to play at least one ring tone on the at
least one phone call.
44. The system of claim 26, wherein: the at least one telephony
application is further configured to determine a time at which the
phone call is accepted and determine whether the time is within
business hours, and the at least one telephonic connector is
further configured to play a first message on the at least one
phone call if the time is within business hours and play a second
message on the at least one phone call if the time is not within
business hours.
45. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one server
application is further configured to generate at least one report
using the phone call data.
46. The system of claim 45, wherein the at least one server
application is further configured to transfer the report to at
least one advertiser.
47. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephonic
connector is further configured to transfer the phone call to at
least one advertiser.
48. The system of claim 26, wherein the telephonic connector is
further configured to terminate the phone call after the phone call
data is recorded.
49. The system of claim 44, wherein the telephonic connector is
further configured to terminate the phone call after playing the
first message or the second message.
50. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephonic
connector is further configured to run an answer application on the
at least one phone call.
51. The system of claim 26, wherein the at least one telephonic
connector is further configured to run a call wrap-up application
on the at least one phone call.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Divisional of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 13/294,436, filed Nov. 11, 2011, which, in turn, claims
the benefit and priority of U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/985,188, filed Nov. 14, 2007, which, in turn, claims benefit of
U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/865,671, filed Nov. 14, 2006,
the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference in their
entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates to a system and method for tracking
telephone calls, in particular the invention relates to a method
and system for assigning telephone numbers to advertising campaigns
and tracking the efficacy of the advertising campaigns.
INTRODUCTION
[0003] With the advent of interne based advertising, it has become
possible to track the efficiency of electronic advertising
campaigns with an accuracy hitherto unknown. Advertisers find
electronic advertising to be one medium in which the effectiveness
of advertising can be measured in such a way as to appropriately
budget advertising expenditures to target the most effective types
of advertising placements. It would be desirable to extend this
sort of precision measurement to advertising campaigns involving
telephone contacts with potential customers and leads, and to
measure response rates for campaigns utilizing telephone contact,
whether in electronic, print, broadcast or, any media.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] In accordance with the present invention, there are provided
methods and systems for tracking telephone call contacts with
potential customers in the course of advertising campaigns in
various media. In one embodiment thereof, there is provided a
system for presenting advertisements to a potential customer in
which the advertisement contains a telephone number that has been
selected by an advertiser in association with a specific campaign
to which the advertisement relates. The system includes means for
permitting an advertiser to assign respective telephone numbers to
any of a plurality of such campaigns. In the case of Internet
advertising, the system includes a server for retrieving an
electronic contact mechanism, such as a web page or interactive
form, and inserting an associated telephone number in dependence
upon the advertising campaign to which the user has responded by
requesting the electronic contact mechanism. The system further
includes a telephone interface and call handling system for
establishing telephonic contact with the prospective customer, and
for recording the telephone number used for such contact; and a
logging system for recording the telephone number employed for the
contact, and hence the associated campaign in response to which the
contact was established. Furthermore, recording and logging system
includes a report generator by which the advertiser may access
reports based upon the data recorded by the recording and logging
system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] Additional features of the invention shall be made apparent
in the following detailed description, read in connection with the
attached figures in which:
[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the telephone call tracking
system in accordance with an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0007] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method carried out by the
telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
[0008] FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing operation of a
web proxy of the telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
[0009] FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a method
carried out using a customer contact information form presented by
the telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
[0010] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method carried out by the
telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
[0011] FIG. 6 is an illustration of a graphical client interface
provided by the telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
[0012] FIGS. 7-12 are illustrations of reports generated by the
telephone tracking system of FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] The invention relates to a method and system for tracking
telephone calls made to assigned phone numbers associated with
advertising campaigns. The system comprises a computer server
comprising various engines and platforms for effecting the tracking
of telephone calls assigned to various advertising campaigns.
[0014] Referring now to FIG. 1, the system 100 of the present
invention comprises a server 102. The server 102 is in
communication with a database 104. The database 104 is a collection
of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be
accessed, managed and updated for storing data utilized in the
practice of the invention. The system 100 further includes a
recording server for recording and retrieving message data, as
described in greater detail below.
[0015] The server 102 is connected to the Internet via an Internet
service provider or ISP 106. Typically, the server 102 is a
computer, including software package(s), that provides a specific
kind of service to client software running on other computers. More
specifically, the server 102 is a computer that manages and shares
web based applications accessible anytime from any computer 110
connected to the Internet.
[0016] The server 102 may also optionally include a proxy web
server 108 for proxying documents, such as HTML based web
documents, on the Internet. In the present invention, users may
access the system 100 of the present invention via the Internet or
by some other network protocol, for example through the proxy
server 108 or directly through the web server 102.
[0017] The system 100 may include a telephony interface 112, such
as the ASTERISK open-source telephone platform or PBX server. The
telephony interface may, for example, assign and configure phone
numbers and otherwise handle and transmit of voice data received by
the system 100 and process phone calls through a telephonic
connector such as a voice gateway 114 to the public switched
telephone network (PSTN) 116 which includes analog and digital
voice data.
[0018] Users 120 are able to access the system 100 via the
Internet. The user 120, may utilize a computer 110 or other web
enabled computing device to access the system 100 via the web
server 102 or proxy server 108 in various ways known to those
skilled in the art, such as by use of any suitable Internet
browsing software application. Users may also access the system 100
by use of a suitable telephone or telephonic device 122 capable of
interfacing with the PSTN 116. Such devices include, but are not
limited to voice telephone, VOIP phone devices, cellular phones,
PDAs or the like as known to those skilled in the art. The user
accesses the voice PBX/IBR server 112 by using telephone device 122
across the PSTN 116 via the voice gateway 114 as known to those
skilled in the art.
[0019] The system also includes a recording server 124 for the
recording and storing of data, such as voice data initiating from
telephone calls placed by users 120 accessing the system
telephonically, as set forth in greater detail below.
[0020] Turning now to FIG. 2, the operation of the system 100
includes four phases: the assigning and configuring phase 202, the
displaying phase 204, the tracking phase 206, and the report
generation phase 208.
[0021] The assigning and configuring phase 202 includes assigning
and configuring one or more phone numbers residing in the PBX
platform to various advertising campaigns. Typically, the assigned
phone numbers may originate from blocks of phone numbers
pre-purchased from one or more phone carriers. In the assigning and
configuring phase 210, one or more phone numbers are assigned and
configured in the database 104 to correspond to one or more
advertising campaigns, as described in greater detail below.
[0022] Optionally, prior to or concurrent with the assignment and
configuration phase 202, the assigned phone numbers may be tested
in a phone test phase 211. In one form of the invention, before a
phone number is assigned to an advertising campaign, the phone
number is cleaned to avoid unwanted phone traffic due to previous
use of the phone numbers by previous users. This cleaning procedure
may employ any suitable mechanism for limiting such unwanted use,
such as monitoring phone traffic over an interval of time to
determine if unwanted use falls below a defined threshold.
[0023] The displaying phase 204 includes displaying the assigned
phone number(s) via various media to recipients, such as user 120,
of an advertising campaign(s), as described in greater detail
below. The customer 120 may initiate a phone call, via telephone
device 122, to the system 100.
[0024] The tracking phase 206 includes tracking of phone calls made
to the displayed phone number(s). A user 120 calls the phone number
displayed in phase 204, proceeds to calling step 203 and accesses
the system 100 via the telephone interface. The phone is then
routed through the phone flow 250 of the system 100, as shown in
FIG. 5 and described in greater detail below. In the phone flow
250, the voice data of the phone call can be recorded by the
recording server 124. In addition, the system 100 records in a log,
which may be kept in database 104, that a user 120 has called the
displayed phone number. Once the data has been logged by the system
100 at step 207, the phone call may optionally be transparently
transferred or passed in steps 252 to the advertiser 320 of the
advertising campaign for further processing by the advertiser, or
otherwise terminated.
[0025] In the report generation phase 208, real time reports can
also be generated based on the data collected by the system 100.
These reports may be made accessible to an advertiser 320 of the
advertising campaign. The recorded data can include such
identifying data as the caller ID information, the number called by
the user, the time the call occurred, the duration of the call, and
other information, along with the recorded call itself.
[0026] Preferably, the reports can be generated by the system and
viewed over the Internet by the advertiser 320, upon access to the
server 102, of the system 100, using suitable statistical report
means known to those skilled in the art. Sample embodiments of
reports so generated are shown in FIGS. 7-12.
[0027] The advertiser may assign different telephone numbers to
each of multiple advertising campaigns, to permit the advertiser to
measure the relative response of such campaigns. The invention
contemplates that for each advertising campaign, phone numbers are
assigned by the advertiser based on various criteria, described in
greater detail below, and these assigned phone numbers are
displayed to user 120 based upon the campaign the user is viewing.
The display can be any suitable media on which phone numbers can be
communicated to the customer, such as on a web page, a document, a
brochure, a radio, advertisement, a newspaper, periodical, or
journal, a podcast, a telephone call, and the like.
[0028] During the configuration phase 202, phone numbers are
assigned to advertising campaigns. Each advertising campaign
includes a defined transaction for which the advertiser 320 of the
campaign desires to track information. For example, the advertiser
320 may want to track information relating to which of several
particular advertising campaigns may have resulted in a call from a
user. In one example, the advertising campaign may be a Internet
accessible web page displaying one or more phone numbers in which
each phone number is assigned based on which Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) referred the lead, which search engine the lead used,
which search term(s) or keyword(s) were used, and/or other
criteria.
[0029] Turning now to FIG. 3, one preferred form of the system is
shown to illustrate the operation of the system 100. In this
example, a phone number 302 has been assigned to a particular
advertising campaign. In this advertising campaign, the phone
number 302 will be displayed on a web page which is accessible to a
potential user 120 via the Internet. In one embodiment, it is
contemplated that the web page will be based on an existing web
page 306 that resides on server 310. The existing web page 306 may
be an existing web page 306 of the advertiser, such as the home
page or contact page of the advertiser 320. It is contemplated that
the existing web page 306 contains at least one existing phone
number 308, of the advertiser 320. In order to track responses to
an advertisement associated with the campaign, the system 100
operates to replace the existing phone number 308 with campaign
phone number 302 while otherwise retaining all the remaining data
and formatting of the web page 306. A resulting web page is created
and displayed to the potential customer or user 220, containing the
assigned campaign phone number 302 instead of the existing phone
number 308. Otherwise the web pages presented to the user and the
web pages 306 of the advertiser are substantially identical.
[0030] To accomplish insertion of the campaign telephone number,
the proxy server 108 is used to automatically modify and display
the assigned campaign phone number 302 on the pre-existing static
or dynamically generated webpage 306. In some embodiments of the
automatic modification and display is accomplished as follows. The
proxy server 108 receives an http request 328 from a user 120 in
response to an advertisement associated with the advertising
campaign. The system 100 analyzes various request parameters in
step 222, such as the request URL, the http referrer, cookies, and
the like to look up the stored configuration data 228 for a
particular ad campaign to determine a new web URL and set of page
modifications rules 226. The configuration data 228, including the
telephone number 302, is stored in the database 104.
[0031] A request 372 is then made by the proxy server 108 to the
advertiser's server 310 for the existing web page 306 which is
intended to be modified. The web page 306 is thereby fetched 324
over the Internet and the modification rules 226 are applied to it
and a new URL is assigned to the modified web page 304. The new web
page 304 is generated by referencing stored modification rules 226,
and modifying the existing web page 306 to display the assigned
phone number 302 in place of the existing phone number 308.
[0032] For example, in a first advertising campaign a first phone
number may be displayed if the user's referring URL is a particular
URL corresponding to a link presented in an advertisement. In a
second advertising campaign a second phone number may be displayed
for a different referring URL, such as the URL of a particular
search engine. In a third advertising campaign, a third phone
number may be assigned if a particular search term was used to
locate the existing web page. These rules are described in greater
detail below. When a user 120 calls one of the assigned numbers,
the system 100 is capable of determining which advertising campaign
generated the lead based upon the phone number utilized by the user
120. For example, if the user 120 initiated a phone call using the
second phone number, it would be known that the user viewed the
display of second phone number in connection with the second
advertising campaign. For example, a customer referring URL may
indicate that the customer's http request 328 shows that the
customer has utilized a particular search engine, such as
GOOGLE.RTM..
[0033] Once the page modification rules are applied to the existing
web page 306 by the proxy server 108, and the page is thus
modified, the resulting modified web page 304 is delivered and
displayed 326 to the potential customer 120. A typical modification
is that one or more contact phone numbers 308 on the existing page
306 may be replaced with the assigned phone number 302 so that when
the user calls the assigned phone number 302, he calls the system
100 of the present invention instead of the existing phone numbers
308. Once in the system 100, the customer phone call can be tracked
and the passed on to the client 320 in due course.
[0034] In one form of the invention, a cookie 330 can be delivered
to the customer 120 with various cookie parameter(s) to facilitate
future requests, as is well known in the art.
[0035] In another form of the invention, the existing web page 306
may be modified to contain javascript. When a user requests the web
page 306 directly from server 310, server 310, the javascript
executes and call the system 100. The request analysis 222 may
analyze the request as described above. The HTML of the web page
306 is modified to replace the phone number 308 with phone number
302 on the client side, as is known to those skilled in the art.
The modified web page 302 is then delivered 326 to the customer
120, as described above. In this way the use of the proxy server
108 is eliminated.
[0036] In FIG. 4, another way of entering the system 100 of the
present invention is illustrated. In this form of the invention a
form 402 is provided for a potential customer or user 220 to enter
in a phone number 404. A user 220 activates the form 402, by
activating the input element 406 of a HTML form, and the customer's
phone number 404 is transmitted to system 100. It should be
understood that other means of collecting user information and
transmitting same are also contemplated by the present invention
such as those known by those skilled in the art. The input request
406 is transmitted to the server 108, and the system 100 generates
a contact event 410, for example a telephone call via the system
PBX 112 to that user's phone 412 via the PSTN. Contact is made with
the user 220, and the user 220 is placed in the phone flow, as
described below.
[0037] The system of the invention contemplates that the step of
automatically modifying existing web pages may be customized to
include and/or exclude certain phone numbers on the existing web
page. For example, the modification rules can specifically include
certain phone numbers, such as the main number or the sales number
of the advertising campaign client or exclude certain numbers, such
as the sales or parts numbers of the advertising campaign
client.
[0038] Additionally, the assigned phone numbers may be displayed as
graphic images, such as jpeg images, instead of as hyperlinks when
the phone numbers are displayed as HTML web-based content. In this
embodiment, an existing phone number is replaced with pre-generated
or a generated-on-the-fly graphic images to create the displayed
web page.
[0039] The server 108 includes an application that runs a routine
for replacing the existing phone numbers with the assigned numbers
on the fly based on algorithms used for identifying and parsing
phone numbers in html code. When the advertiser 320 assigns
telephone numbers to respective campaigns, the advertiser 320 may
also identify telephone numbers within the existing web page 306 to
be replaced by the system 100.
[0040] Turning now to FIG. 5, the phone flow 500 of the system 100
will now be described. When a user 220 places a phone call to a
phone number assigned by the system 100, or requests a call back,
the user 220 enters the phone flow 500. It will be recognized that
the inclusion and sequence of steps set forth below will depend on
whether the call is inbound or outbound.
[0041] Before answering or making a call, the system 100 uses the
incoming call data for the user's 220 phone call identification to
initiate the phone flow routine in step 502. In step 504, the
system 100 determines if the phone number through which the
customer has reached the system has been assigned to an advertising
campaign. If the phone number has not been assigned, the system
runs an unassigned phone number application in step 506 and
terminates the phone call in step 590.
[0042] If the system determines that the phone number is assigned
in step 504, the system determines if the phone number has been
blacklisted in step 508. For example, a phone number may be
blacklisted if the advertiser 320 has disabled receipt or making of
certain telephone calls for the corresponding campaign. If the
phone number has been blacklisted, the call is disconnected in step
510 and is terminated in step 590.
[0043] If the phone number has not been blacklisted in step 508,
the system answers the phone call in step 512, and ring tones are
played in step 514. In step 516, the routine determines if the call
is being received within business hours. If not, then a first file
is retrieved from the recording server and played to the user in
step 516a. The first file may be, for example, a recording of a
first voice message provided by the advertising campaign client,
such as an "after hours" message. If the call is being received
within business hours, a second file is played in step 516b. The
second file may be, for example, a recording of second voice
message provided by the advertiser, such as the advertisers normal
business hours message. Optionally, the playing of the message may
be skipped in either of steps 516a and/or 516b.
[0044] In embodiments where the advertiser 320 desires to receive
calls from the user 220, after steps 516a or 516b, the system 100
attempts to pass the call to the advertiser's telephone interface
configured to receive contact from a user 220 in step 518. If the
attempt fails then the call is disconnected in step 520 and passed
to the call termination step 590.
[0045] If the connection is successful in step 520, then the call
proceeds through the advertising's client's call system in step
522. For example, the client 310 may talk with the user 220, the
user 220 may be directed to the client's DISA system or operator,
or the like.
[0046] Once step 522 has completed, the call is disconnected in
step 524 and passed to the call termination step 590 whereupon the
phone flow routine is completed.
[0047] It should be understood that the system 100 may include
various applications initiated after step 520, or after step 524.
An answer application may be present after step 520, and/or a call
wrap-up application may be present after step 524. These
applications are known to those skilled in the art.
[0048] The phone flow routine permits the system 100 to
transparently log data from a customer initiated call and
transparently and seamlessly transfer the phone call to the
advertising client. To the potential customer, it should appear
that the call is being placed directly with the advertising
client.
[0049] Turning now to FIG. 6, a user interface 600 is provided to
enable a campaign advertiser 320 to make such rule modifications
and/or to assign phone numbers to various ad campaigns as desired.
An advertiser 320 can use the interface to configure various
advertising campaigns and to associate phone numbers to specific
advertising campaigns pursuant to the assignment and configuration
phase 202, described above in connection with FIG. 2.
[0050] Using the interface 600, the advertiser 320 assigns an
individual advertising campaign 602 to an individual phone number
604. (These phone numbers 604 become phone numbers 302 during a
user call.) For example, a search term or keyword can constitute a
first campaign and be assigned to a first phone number. An adword
can be assigned to a second campaign. Referrals from a particular
search engine, such as GOGGLE.RTM. or YAHOO!.RTM. can be assigned
to a third campaign. Using the interface 600, the advertiser 320
can also indicate which phone number 606 that the system is to
transfer calls to in step 518 of the phone flow. (These phone
numbers represent the existing phone numbers 308). In addition, the
advertiser 320 can indicate certain phone numbers, such as fax
numbers, service or parts numbers, and the like, to exclude during
the page modification algorithm 226 process.
[0051] FIG. 6 also shows the interface 610 which can be used to
insert a graphic image of phone number 302 as described above.
[0052] Turning now to FIGS. 7-12, the system also includes a way to
communicate data logged via the system 100 to the advertiser 320.
During the report generation phase 208, the data logged by the
system 100 can be displayed to the advertiser 320. In the
embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 7-12, that data is an
HTML web page that is accessible to the advertiser via the
Internet. For each call made to a phone number 604 associated with
a campaign 602, data is logged and collected. For example, this
data may include the time and date of the call, the phone number
called from, the assigned phone number called, the area code of the
customer, the associated zip code of the customer, the status of
the call, and the like. This data can be presented in various
textual or graphical forms to the client as is known to those
skilled in the art. Such reports are illustrated in FIGS. 7-12.
[0053] In an embodiment of the invention the system includes a
marketplace for advertising. A customer, such as a business owner,
provides advertising for his business. The system 100 is used, as
described above, to assign a phone number to this advertising. The
ad with the assigned number is displayed to a potential customer on
a medium of a publisher, such as a web page. The ad can be
displayed based on various parameters known in the advertising
industry to target the potential customer. Users can then call the
assigned phone numbers. Call data is tracked as set forth above and
passed on to the customer. It is contemplated that the advertiser
will pay the publisher for each lead generated in this manner and
that revenue can be divided between the publisher and the operator
of the system based on agreed upon terms.
[0054] It is further contemplated that the customer can provide a
bid price of the amount he is willing to spend along with
predefined limits and the various publishers can provide asking
prices they are willing to accept for publishing the ad. In this
way a marketplace for telephonic response advertising can be
effected and tracked and revenue distributed using the system of
the present invention.
[0055] The operation of the system 100 will now be described. Using
the interface 600 the advertiser 320 assigns telephone numbers 604
to various ad campaigns 602. For example, a manufacturer of widgets
sets up the first advertising campaign to be a print advertisement
and assigns it to a first telephone number. The second campaign is
set up for the keyword "widget" and is assigned a second telephone
number. A third ad campaign is set up to track referrals from the
search engine GOOGLE.RTM. and is assigned a third telephone number.
The widget client associates all three advertising campaigns with
his company's sales department telephone number. The widget client
has a webpage accessible from the Internet at URL www.widgets.com
that displays the sales department telephone number. Lastly, the
widget client prints up a sales brochure which is massed mailed to
ten thousand potential customers. The brochure has the first
assigned telephone number printed on it instead of the company
sales telephone number.
[0056] Potential customers receiving the sales brochure and who are
interested in purchasing widgets will call the first assigned
telephone number since it is displayed as the widget company's
sales number. Alternatively, the widget client could have run a
radio or television advertisement that communicated the first
assigned telephone number to potential clients.
[0057] Other potential customers performing an Internet search for
any search term that is associated with the Widget company using
the search engine GOOGLE.RTM. will find links to widgets.com.
Potential customers following those links will see a proxy version
of the widgets.com homepage. When the potential customer sends a
http request for widgets.com the proxy server of the system 100
intercepts the request, analyzes the request to determine that the
referral came from the search engine GOOGLE.RTM. and initiates a
new request to widgets.com for the index page. Upon receiving the
index page from widgets.com the system using the rule supplied by
the widget manufacturer replaces the HTML code for the Widget
company sales telephone number with the second advertising campaign
sales telephone number. The modified webpage is then displayed to
the potential customer. If this customer is interested in
purchasing widgets, he will call the second campaign number since
it is displayed as the widget company sales telephone number.
[0058] Similar to the second customer, potential customers who use
any Internet search engine to find the keyword "widget" and
following a link generated by the search engine pointing to the
widgets.com URL will be shown the widgets Company homepage with the
third advertising campaign telephone number listed as the sales
number.
[0059] Upon calling the phone number displayed to them, the
potential clients will access the system 100, will proceed through
the phone flow 500 and the call will be transferred to the widget
client's sales department in the normal course of business. The
system logs the data for each incoming phone call. In particular,
the system 100 logs the particular advertising campaign each
potential customer called.
[0060] After a period of time, the widget client can access the
real time reports generated by the system 100 to determine the
efficacy of each of the advertising campaigns he has initiated as
set forth in FIGS. 7-12.
[0061] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that
changes could be made to the embodiments described above without
departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is
understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the
particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover
modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention
as defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *
References