Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING A
MARKETING CAMPAIGN ON BEHALF OF AN ADVERTISER
FIELD
The present invention generally relates to marketing campaigns. More
particularly, the present invention relates to implementing and managing
marketing
campaigns among a plurality of publishers.
BACKGROUND
Before the widespread use of data networks such as the Internet, businesses
reached potential customers using conventional advertising techniques: printed
advertisements in newspapers and magazines, direct mailings, television
commercials, radio commercials, yellow pages advertisements, sponsorships,
etc.
These conventional advertising techniques were "offline" in nature, that is,
distributed
through traditional media, that is; communications channels other than data
networks
such as the Internet. For most merchants, these offline advertising techniques
were
also local in nature. The advertisements were distributed within a limited
local
geographic area, typically on a town, city or county level. A dentist reached
patients
by purchasing an ad in the yellow pages. A used car dealer reached customers
using a
television commercial, an ad in the Sunday paper, and sponsorship of a local
athletic
team.
With the advent of the Internet, many businesses have achieved success on a
national and international level. These businesses have focused their
marketing to
reach customers on the Internet. "Dot-com merchants" purchase banners and
other
advertisements for display by search engines and other web sites. The
advertisement
is displayed on a customer's or other user's personal computer when the user
accesses
the web site or runs a search on the search engine using keywords associated
with the
advertiser. National and international merchants, particularly those selling
products
by mail order, have benefited greatly from Internet advertising, which has
essentially
removed the geographic constraints associated with conventional advertising.
Regardless of the user's physical location, the user can access Amazon.com
over the
World Wide Web ("web"), and purchase a book or DVD.
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While the Internet has taken advertising to a global level, it is estimated
that a
large percentage of merchant searches performed on the Internet are still
primarily
local in nature. Local consumers are still looking for local merchants.
Many local businesses have not yet established any online presence. Local
businesses have simply continued with the offline advertising techniques
described
above. Many local businesses believe it is simply not worth the time and cost
to learn
about internet advertising, decide on the appropriate publishers, e.g., search
engines,
online directories, other advertising web pages, and then figure out how to
advertise
on those sites. Most local merchants are unclear as to which keywords to use,
how
much to spend on each keyword, etc. Also, most local merchants do not have the
time or means to decide how to allocate a budget for the different publishers
and
different types of advertisements. In addition, local merchants are unsure as
to how to
target online advertisements to a specific geographic area. The owner of a
bowling
alley in Los Angeles, California is not interested in paying for
advertisements to be
displayed on the computer screen of a computer user located in Portland,
Maine.
Further, local merchants are unable to track new customers reached and
acquired
through online advertisements. At the end of the day, most local merchants
decide it
is not worth the trouble to engage in online advertising.
By foregoing Internet advertising, many local merchants cannot reach an
increasing number of local customers who have moved online. These local
customers
have taken to using the Internet during leisure time, and as a matter of
course in their
lives. Nowadays, many local customers looking for a car dealer, dentist,
lawyer, hair
salon, handyman, restaurant, exercise club, or other local merchant, will
start their
search on the Internet. The Internet has become so integrated with our daily
lives, that
many potential customers begin a search for essentially anything by accessing
an
online directory or an Internet search engine and entering the appropriate
keywords.
Local businesses and merchants who fail to establish an online presence and
conduct
online advertising, or fail to do so in an effective manner, will fail to
reach these
potential customers.
SUMMARY
Disclosed are methods and apparatus, including computer program products,
implementing and using techniques for performing a marketing campaign on
behalf of
an advertiser. A plurality of electronic publishers are in communication with
a data
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network. The advertiser has an associated computer also in communication with
the
data network. An advertising apparatus, in one aspect of the present
invention,
includes one or more engines. A user interface engine is configured to
interact with
the advertiser computer over the data network for generating a budget amount,
marketing campaign parameters associated with and defining the marketing
campaign, and information describing the marketing campaign. A campaign
allocation engine is configured to allocate the budget amount among the
electronic
publishers based on the generated marketing campaign parameters and publisher
parameters associated with the electronic publishers. An advertisement engine
is
configured to generate advertisement information based on the generated
information
describing the marketing campaign and the publisher parameters. A publisher
interface engine is configured to provide the advertisement information to at
least one
of the electronic publishers in a format appropriate for the electronic
publisher.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1 shows an advertising system 100, constructed according to one
embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of an advertising platform 120, constructed
according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2B is a block diagram 200 illustrating the general interaction of the
engines of advertising platform 120, according to one embodiment of the
present
invention.
FIG. 2C shows a flow diagram of a method 260 for performing a marketing
campaign, performed in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention.
FIG. 3 shows a flow,diagram of a method 300 for accessing and using an
advertising platform, performed in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention.
FIG. 4 shows a method 400 for setting up a marketing campaign using an
advertising platform, performed in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention.
FIG. 5 shows a data structure 500 providing a taxonomy of categories
providing geographic territories for targeting a marketing, in accordance with
one
embodiment of the present invention.
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FIG. 6 shows a data structure 600 providing a taxonomy of categories for
conducting a marketing campaign, in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention.
FIG. 7 shows a method 700 for generating keywords, performed in accordance
with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIGs. 8A and 8B show keyword tables constructed according to embodiments
of the present invention.
FIG. 9A shows a flow diagram of a method 900 for allocating a budget among
a plurality of publishers for a marketing campaign, performed in accordance
with one
embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9B shows a flow diagram of a method 950 for allocating a budget among
a plurality of publishers for a marketing campaign, performed in accordance
with one
embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 10 shows a publisher allocation table 1000 constructed in accordance
with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 11 shows a method 1100 for optimizing a budget allocation, performed
in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 12 shows a method 1200 of tracking customer interactions, performed in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 13 shows a method 1300 of rendering a web page as a proxied web page,
performed in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 14 shows an advertising system 1400, constructed according to one
embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 15A shows an advertiser web page 1510, provided in accordance with
one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 15B shows a proxied web page 1520, provided in accordance with one
embodiment of the present invention.
Like reference symbols in the various Figures indicate like elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Embodiments of the present invention provide for an advertising platform
enabling advertisers such as sole proprietors, businesses, and essentially
anyone
wishing to advertise for anything to reach customers over data networks such
as the
Internet. The advertiser can establish an online presence using the
advertising
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platform. As used herein, "advertising platform" refers to part or all of the
apparatus
and methods described herein for implementing and conducting a marketing
campaign. The advertising platform enables advertisers to reach potential
customers
in a manner that is easy to use, fast and cost effective. Through a single
interface, an
advertiser can describe its services and products, indicate to whom and where
the
marketing should be targeted, and determine how much to spend on the marketing
campaign. The advertiser can then create, place, purchase and monitor the
effectiveness of the marketing campaign across one or more publishers using
the
single interface.
The subject matter of the marketing campaign provided by implementations of
the advertising platform can be essentially anything. Implementations of the
advertising platform allow the advertiser to specify the subject matter when
interacting with the advertising platform. In one example, the marlceting
campaign is
conducted on behalf of a local merchant. The subject matter of the campaign
includes
the products and services provided by that local merchant. Advertisements and
directory listings are placed among a number of electronic publishers,
described
below. In another example, a candidate for public office uses an
implementation of
the advertising platform to place ads across the same or a different set of
the
electronic publishers. In this example, the subject matter of the marketing
campaign
includes information about the candidate. Implementations of the advertising
methods and apparatus are robust, as will be shown below, and accommodate a
wide
range of subject matter.
Some implementations of the advertising platform provide placement of
advertisements by various electronic publishers including Internet search
engines,
e.g., Google, Yahoo, online directories including online yellow page sites,
e.g.,
SuperPages.com, advertiser web sites, e.g., Advertising.com, and online
directories.
As used herein, "electronic publishers" refers to entities which will receive
and
display advertisement information on behalf of the advertisers for publishing
as part
of the marketing campaign. In one implementation, each publisher can receive a
certain percentage of the advertiser's campaign budget based on budget
allocation
methods described below.
The advertising platform described herein enables publishing the
advertisements across the various publishers using a number of features
including:
search engine keyword selection, keyword submission to the various publishers,
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selection and optimization of keyword bids, ad creation on online yellow pages
sites,
submission of created ads to online directories, bid optimization for online
directories,
and creation and submission of banners, textual advertisements, graphic
advertisements and other advertisements for targeting to advertiser-defmed
geographic territories. Geographic targeting of online advertising includes
targeting
at advertiser-defined granularities including state, designated marketing area
("DMA"), city or town level, and zip code or SCF level including radius-based
targeting based on the advertiser's primary zip code. The advertising platform
described herein enables the advertiser to create and implement an online
marketing
campaign without having to learn the complexities of the various publishers
advertising techniques and keyword bidding systems or having to establish
individual
advertising accounts with each of the publishers.
Some implementations of the advertising platform described herein provide
the advertiser with a web site or campaign-specific offer page if the
advertiser does
not already have one. This web site can include one or more campaign-specific
offer
pages, that is, web pages having text and/or graphics describing an offer of
some
product or service for purchase by the customer. In one embodiment, the web
site
includes an electronic coupon which can be printed and/or electronically
registered
with the advertising platform.
Some implementations of the advertising platform described herein further
provide for a proxied web site which proxies the advertiser's web site and
enables
tracking, that is, monitoring of campaign events such as customer interactions
communicating information to the advertiser, e.g., emails, phone calls, coupon
registration, accessing of designated HTML pages, further described below.
Thus, the
overall effectiveness of the marketing campaign can be monitored. In addition,
the
advertising platform described herein provides reporting of return on
investment
information.
The advertising platform can be used primarily by two groups of advertisers:
(1) individual advertisers, and (2) agencies. An individual advertiser is an
individual
entity, e.g., person, corporation, partnership, wishing to conduct a marketing
campaign. An agency acts on behalf of one or more individual advertisers. In
one
embodiment, each advertiser subscribes to the advertising platform to access
the
services described below. An account is set up and maintained by the
advertising
platform for each subscriber. A billing structure can be implemented as
desired
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including, for example, a subscription fee, weekly billing, monthly billing,
etc. When
an account is set up for an agency, that account can be subdivided as needed
to
maintain information for each entity represented by that agency using account
management techniques known to those skilled in the art.
FIG. 1 shows an advertising system 100, constructed according to one
embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, individual advertisers such as
person
105 operating a personal computer 110, and business organization 115, can
access
advertising platform 120 over data network 125. Personal computer 110 is in
comniunication with data network 125 by any suitable means. Data network 125
is
any suitable network for sending and receiving data, such as the Internet.
Each
individual advertiser 105 and 115 will log into the advertising platform 120.
In one
embodiment, the log in procedure will include supplying a unique user ID and
password issued to the particular advertiser for accessing its own account.
Also, in
FIG. 1, an advertising agency 130 can access advertising platform 120 in a
similar
manner as individual advertisers 105 and 115. In this embodiment, advertising
agency 130 represents several individual advertisers, including person 135 and
local
merchant 140.
In FIG. 1, at least two publishers 145 and 150 are also in communication with
data network 125. The publishers 145 and 150 are capable of interfacing with
advertising platform 120, using techniques described below, to run
advertisements on
behalf of one or more advertisers. In one embodiment, the publishers 145 and
150
interface with advertising platform 120 over data network 125, as shown in
FIG. 1. In
an alternative embodiment, publishers 145 and 150 interface directly with
advertising
platform 120 over any suitable communications link. Implementations of system
100
may include additional publishers, as will be appreciated by those skilled in
the art.
FIG. 2A shows a block diagram of an advertising platform 120, constructed
according to one embodiment of the present invention. The coinponents of
advertising platform 120 include a user interface engine 237 configured to
interact
with an advertiser computer such as personal computer 110 over data network
125, of
FIG. 1. In FIG. 2A, advertising platform 120 further includes a campaign
allocation
engine 210 which is configured to allocate a budget amount, such as a total
campaign
budget amount, a total number of leads, or a maximum cost per lead amount,
among a
plurality of publishers, such as electronic publishers 145 and 150 of FIG. 1.
The
advertising platform 120 of FIG. 2A further includes an advertisement engine
235
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configured to generate advertisement information for running advertisements on
one
or more electronic publishers. In advertising platform 120, a publisher
interface
engine 230 is configured to interface with the electronic publishers and
provide the
advertisement information to those publishers in a proper format. Advertising
platform 120 further includes a reporting engine 220, an optimization engine
215, a
reverse proxy engine 225, and keyword engine 205. The structure and
functionality
of these various engines is described below. In addition, a processor readable
storage
medium 240, such as a database, is in communication with advertising platform
120
and can provide storage of various tables and data structures described below.
FIG. 2B is a block diagram 200 illustrating the general interaction of the
engines 205-240 of FIG. 2A with one or more publishers 145. FIG. 2C shows a
flow
diagram of a method 260 for performing a marketing campaign, performed in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2C is described
with
reference to FIGs. 2A and 2B.
In FIG. 2B, the user interface engine 237 interacts with an advertiser
computer
110 over data network 125, as shown in FIG. 1, and receives inputs from the
advertiser in Step 265 of FIG. 2C. These advertiser inputs include information
which
is used by user interface engine 237 to generate a budget amount or a set of
campaign
objectives, marketing campaign parameters which define the marketing campaign,
and information describing the marketing campaign. In FIG. 2B, the budget
amount
or set of campaign objectives is provided from user interface engine 237 to
campaign
allocation engine 210. In Step 270 of FIG. 2C, campaign allocation engine 210
allocates the budget amount among a plurality of publishers 145 using the
generated
marketing campaign parameters and publisher parameters associated with the
electronic publishers. These publisher parameters are described below. The
budget
amount and information describing the marketing campaign from user interface
engine 237, and output of campaign allocation engine 210, including the
selected
publishers for the campaign, are provided to advertisement engine 235. In Step
275,
advertisement engine 235 generates advertisement inforination using the
information
input to engine 235. Advertisement engine 235 also uses the publisher
parameters, as
described below. In addition, in Step 277 of Fig. 2C, the output of campaign
allocation engine 210 is provided to keyword engine 205 so that keywords can
be
generated for the campaign, as described below. The generated keywords and
advertisement information are provided to publisher interface engine 230.
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In Step 280 of FIG. 2C, the publisher interface engine 230 interfaces with
publishers 145 using APIs and other techniques to provide the advertisement
information to the publishers 145 in a format usable by those publishers 145 .
The
publisher interface engine 230 provides the advertisement information to
publishers
145 in accordance with the budget allocation made by campaign allocation
engine
210.
In Step 285 of FIG. 2C, after the marketing campaign has begun using
publishers 145, information is received by reporting engine 220 and reverse
proxy
engine 225 of FIG. 2B. Reporting engine 220 receives campaign event
information,
described below, from one or more publishers 145. In addition, through reverse
proxy
engine 225, reporting engine 220 gathers campaign event information. In FIG.
2B,
the reverse proxy engine 225 is configured to retrieve an advertiser web page
from a
suitable storage facility such as processor-readable medium 240 of FIG. 2A.
The
advertiser web page is retrieved responsive to a request from a customer. The
advertiser web page can then be rendered as a proxied web page for customizing
data
presented to the customer. This customization generally includes dynamic
editing of
the advertiser web page to produce the proxied web page. The proxied web page
is
then provided for the customer over the data network 125.
In Step 290 of FIG. 2C, an optimization or updating of allocation rules and a
refinement of the campaign allocation engine is performed by optimization
engine
215 of FIG. 2B.
Various publishers, such as electronic publishers, can be used in accordance
with embodiments of the present invention. As mentioned above, suitable
electronic
publishers include search engines, on-line directories, and on-line yellow
pages. In
another embodiment, one or more of the electronic publishers is an e-commerce
provider. For example, one electronic publisher may be an on-line shopping
service
or a comparison shopping service. In this embodiment, the advertisement
information
may include, in addition to the usual textual or graphical advertisements,
items for
sale in an e-commerce setting. For instance, the item for sale may be any
product
offered for sale by the advertiser. These e-commerce embodiments are
beneficial for
on-line or off-line businesses which desire to promote part or all of their
inventory
over a plurality of e-commerce sites, serving as electronic publishers. In
these
embodiments, one or more items belonging to the advertiser can be syndicated
across
a network of publishers. Thus, the advertisement information can include
purchase
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information, transaction information, and other necessary information for
conducting
e-commerce transactions.
FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of a method 300 for accessing and using an
online advertising platform, performed in accordance with one embodiment of
the
present invention. In one embodiment, the method 300 is performed by
advertising
platform 120, as shown in FIG. 1, responsive to advertiser inputs. In another
embodiment, the method 300 is performed by a server or other data processing
system
in conimunication with advertising platform 120.
In Step 305, the advertiser accesses the platform and sets up an account.
Examples of advertisers include individual advertisers, agencies acting on
behalf of
one or more individuals or organizations, and other entities desiring to
conduct a
marketing campaign. In one embodiment, a business account with certain
attributes is
provided for agencies. Individual accounts are provided for individual
advertisers.
The self-service or individual advertiser will maintain an account itself. In
one
embodiment, the agency will have a single account that manages marketing
campaigns for a plurality of advertisers. Depending on the type of advertiser,
different levels of the features described below can be provided. Unique user
IDs and
passwords for login will be provided, using techniques known to those skilled
in the
art.
In step 305, the advertiser submits registration data including, for example,
name, billing address, phone number, fax number, email address, and a URL if
available. In Step 310, the advertiser also submits marketing campaign
information
describing the marketing campaign. All of the submitted information is stored
in a
memory or other storage medium accessible by advertising platform 120. In one
embodiment, the advertiser is prompted to submit such information using text
boxes
in an HTML page, or using dropdown menus or check boxes as will be understood
by
those skilled in the art. The submitted marlceting campaign information can be
used
to populate creative templates, such as a destination page or banners, as
described
below. The marketing campaign information can also be used to generate certain
marketing campaign parameters, also described below. The submitted marketing
campaign information can also be used to categorize the business within a
local
directory, as described below.
In one embodiment, the marketing campaign information submitted in Step
310 can include a category identifier which identifies one of a plurality of
top-level
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categories organized in a hierarchical structure and providing a taxonomy for
the
marketing campaign. Generally, each advertiser is assigned to one top-level
category,
although in some embodiments, the advertiser can be assigned to more than one
top-
level category. The identified top-level category and general category
taxonomy is
then used by the advertising platform for the marketing campaign, as described
below.
Also, during Step 310, in one embodiment, the advertiser also submits a city
identifier, designated marketing area (DMA) identifier, state identifier,
desired radius
for targeting from a specific zip code, and possibly other identification of
geographical territory indicating a geographical area for targeting the
marketing
campaign. The city identifier can be used to facilitate city-level browsing of
advertiser listings within a local directory. Other uses for this geographic
identification information are provided below.
In Step 310 of FIG. 3, the method 300 for accessing and using an online
advertising platform continues with setting up the marketing campaign. A
campaign
budget is determined, in one example, how much the advertiser wants to spend
on the
marketing campaign, as well as the duration of the marketing campaign. Other
features are provided, as described with respect to FIG. 4 below.
FIG. 4 shows a method 400 for setting up a marketing campaign in accordance
with one embodiment of the present invention. Method 400 is generally
performed by
user interface engine 237 during the campaign setup Step 310 of FIG. 3,
responsive to
advertiser input. In Step 405, a budget is determined by the advertising
platform 120
based on a set of objectives provided by the advertiser, or as specified by
the
advertiser. In one embodiment, through a user interface displayed on the
advertiser's
computer, the advertiser interacts with user interface engine 237. Using the
user
interface engine 237, the individual advertiser or agent enters a desired
budget amount
to spend on the marketing campaign.
There are several different budget amounts which are used, depending on the
desired implementation. In one embodiment, the user enters an objective amount
to
spend on the entire marketing campaign. This amount can provide a target for
the
campaign allocation, that may or may not be satisfied depending on the desired
number of leads, publishers, and advertisements placed in the marketing
campaign.
In another embodiment, the budget amount is a maximum spend amount for the
entire
campaign, or a maximum spend amount per publisher. The advertiser can be
allowed
to indicate a fixed total spending amount for the marketing campaign, e.g.,
$600 per
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month or $20 a day. In one example, the advertiser is allowed to indicate
fixed cost
per lead, e.g., $2 per lead. As used herein, "lead" generally refers to a
request for
information from the advertiser by a customer, in response to an advertisement
placed
by advertising platform 120. For example, leads include phone calls to the
advertiser,
emails sent the advertiser, responses to specific advertisement offers, and in-
person
visits to the advertiser's place of business. In another example, the budget
amount
includes a maximum spend per lead amount.
In step 410, the user interface engine 237 interacts with the advertiser to
define a preferred number of leads. In one embodiment, user interface engine
237 can
provide the advertiser with an estimated number of leads based on the entered
budget
amount, using a table of stored historical data. The advertiser can then
modify the
budget amount accordingly. The user interface engine 237 provides the
advertiser
with estimates, as the desired budget is dependent upon the desired number of
leads
and vice versa. Thus, in one embodiment, the user interface engine 237
estimates the
budget required based on the cost required to obtain the desired number of
leads.
In Step 415 of FIG. 4, the advertiser inputs a duration for the marketing
campaign. The advertiser can select a start date and end date for the
marketing
campaign. Preferably, the indicated duration may be modified by the advertiser
through the course of the marketing campaign. Duration information can be
provided
in different forms. In one embodiment, the advertiser can customize the
duration of
advertisements placed on specific publishers.
In Step 420 of FIG. 4, as part of campaign setup Step 310, the advertiser
inputs geographical areas for targeting the marketing campaign. This
geographical
targeting is beneficial, as it allows advertisers to target ads to various
levels of
geographic territory. Different levels of geographic information are inputted
by the
advertiser through an appropriate user interface. In one embodiment, such
information includes the following designations: "global" indicating no
geographic
restrictions, "national" designating the United States only, "DMA" indicating
one or
more DMAs with standard classification codes associated with those DMAs,
"city"
indicating a city or town within the designated DMA, sectional center facility
("SCF")
referring to the first three digits of one or more zip codes, "zip code"
indicating a
particular zip code, and "radius" referring to a certain mile radius from the
advertiser's business address or other designated address within which
consumers
should be targeted. In one embodiment, a sequence of dropdown menus are
provided
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to the advertiser to facilitate the selection of geographic areas. For
instance, in one
embodiment, the advertiser inputs a particular DMA, followed by a dropdown
menu
listing cities and towns within the selected DMA. In this embodiment, a table
is
maintained on a suitable storage medium in which each town and city in the
United
States is mapped to a DMA so that such lists can be provided.
FIG. 5 shows an organizational structure 500 of a processor-readable storage
medium such as a database, providing geographic territories for targeting a
marketing
campaign. The processor-readable storage medium in which data structure 500 is
stored can be a component of advertising platform 120, or a separate component
in
communication with advertising platform 120. In one embodiment, the data is
organized in a hierarchical structure of categories providing a taxonomy for
targeting
the marketing campaign. In the data structure 500 of FIG. 5, a top-level
category
indicates whether the geographic territory for the marketing campaign should
occur
on a national level 505. Under the national level are lower level categories
including
DMA leve1510, city leve1515, SCF level 520, and zip code level 525. In one
embodiment, each lower level category provides sub-geographic categories
within the
upper level category to which the lower level category belongs, as shown in
FIG. 5.
As used herein, upper level categories refer to those in the hierarchy that
are above
any lower level category in the data structure. For instance, national level
505 is an
upper level with respect to DMA leve1510, and both national leve1505 and DMA
leve1510 are upper levels with respect to city level 515. Similarly, zip code
level 525
is a lower level with respect to SCF level 520, and both SCF level 520 and zip
code
leve1525 are lower levels with respect to city level 515. In another
embodiment,
lower level categories are not always sub-categories of an upper level
category. In yet
another embodiment, a state level is situated between the nationalleve1505 and
city
leve1515.
In one embodiment, geographic information includes latitude and longitude
information provided for each city or town in category 515 of FIG. 5. Such
information can be used to calculate the distance from the advertiser's
business
location when performing a "radius" calculation. For instance, using the
latitude and
longitude information, the advertising platform can determine a list of cities
within a
50-mile radius of the advertiser's business and use that information for
generating
keywords, described below, or for simply supplying the names of those
cities/DMAs.
Alternatively, given the list of cities an advertiser wishes to target, the
radius can be
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calculated from the advertiser's place of business and supplied. Such distance
calculation software is available, as will be appreciated by those skilled in
the art.
In Step 425 of FIG. 4, the advertiser enters marketing campaign information
describing subject matter for the marketing campaign. As mentioned above, the
subject matter of the campaign can be essentially anything the advertiser
wishes to
promote. In one example, the advertiser indicates specific areas of business
for which
advertising is desired. In one embodiment, a hierarchical structure of
categories is
provided as a data structure 600, as shown in FIG. 6. This hierarchical
structure of
categories provides a taxonomy with levels of granularity in characterizing a
marketing campaign. At a top leve1605, an advertiser is associated with one of
the
top level categories. In this example, the advertiser is a law firm and is,
therefore,
associated with the "attorney" top-level category. Under the "attorney"
category are a
plurality of lower level categories for further characterizing the attorney.
In one
example, subcategories at leve1610 include "patent," "criminal," and "real
estate."
These categories in level 610 are further divided in a lower level 615. In
this
example, the lower level categories 615 are specialties, representing specific
services
which can be performed by patent lawyers. As with the geographical data
structure
500 in FIG. 5, the data structure 600 of FIG. 6 is organized in a hierarchical
manner
and provided in a suitable storage medium such as a database.
In step 425 of Fig. 4, the categories and subcategories shown in FIG. 6 can be
provided to the advertiser by user interface engine 237 in a dropdown menu in
a user
interface, in one embodiment. In another embodiment, the marketing campaign
information is input directly by the advertiser. The advertiser can then
select the
appropriate categories to characterize the products or services offered as
part of the
marketing campaign.
In Step 425 of FIG. 4, categories at the various levels are assigned to and
associated with the advertiser to properly identify and provide keywords,
described
below, for that advertiser's marketing campaign. For instance, a patent
prosecution
firm would have associated categories at three levels of FIG. 6, including
"attorney"
at level 605, "patent" at leve1610, and "prosecution" at leve1615. In one
embodiment, the categories associated with the particular advertiser can be
used to
generate keywords for that advertiser's marketing campaign and also in
estimating a
budget for the marketing campaign by accessing a table of stored historical
data
describing the approximate leads for the selected categories.
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In FIG. 6, the taxonomy of categories are arranged such that the subcategories
belong to one or more upper level categories as shown in FIG. 6. For instance,
the
lower level categories "patent," "criminal," and "real estate" all belong to
the upper
level category "attorney." In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, a further
lower
level of specialties is provided at level 615. In this example, a lower level
620
indicates geographic areas for the advertiser. Thus, for instance, potential
clients of
patent litigation firms in San Francisco could be targeted using the
appropriate
categories in levels 605, 610, 615 and 620. Those skilled in the art should
appreciate
that the categories shown in FIG. 6 are only exemplary, and may be
alternatively
labeled and further subdivided as desired for the particular implementation.
In Step 430 of FIG. 4, after the advertiser selects the categories from the
lists
provided, e.g., in dropdown menus, the advertiser is then presented with the
opportunity to submit additional categories or keywords which the advertiser
believes
further describe the services or products of the marketing campaign to ensure
that
such terms are submitted during publishing of advertisements for that
campaign. For
instance, in the example above, a patent prosecution firm could submit
additional
keywords such as "utility patents," "design patents," and "plant patents" as
additional
miscellaneous keywords describing the services provided by that firm.
Returning to FIG. 3, after the campaign is set up in Step 310, the budget
amount is allocated among one or more electronic publishers by campaign
allocation
engine 210, as described below with reference to FIGs. 9A and 9B. The proposed
marketing campaign is presented to the advertiser in Step 315, and can be
reviewed
and adjusted as desired before proceeding with the campaign. One of the
determinations which can be made during campaign review, in accordance with
embodiments of the present invention, includes determining whether the budget
of
Step 405 is still sufficient based on the number of categories and specialties
selected
in FIGS. 5 and 6. This determination is made based on historical data
indicating the
estimated cost of minimum bid per click amounts of keywords corresponding to
the
categories selected by the advertiser. If the original budget estimate is
insufficient,
the advertiser is provided with a message through user interface engine 237
recommending that the budget amount be increased. The computation involves
iterating through all of the keyword groups, described below, that are
associated with
the selected categories, specialties, and subspecialties selected, looking at
the
minimum bid per click amounts and the expected number of clicks, and comparing
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that to the total budget allocated to the marketing campaign. If the resulting
budget is
insufficient, several events can occur. The advertiser can increase the
budget, the
number of keywords or keyword groups can be automatically adjusted by platform
120 as needed, the advertiser can be alerted to: (1) reduce the scope or
number of
geographies selected, or (2) reduce the number of products and/services to
promote.
In Step 320 of FIG. 3, an advertisement engine 235 generates advertisements
for the marketing campaign based on the information provided by the advertiser
in
Steps 305 through 315. Advertisement engine 235 creates advertisement
information
based on the received information describing the marketing campaign, and a
plurality
of publisher parameters. Examples of suitable advertisement information
include
banner ads, keyword ads, textual ads, graphical ads, items for sale, products,
services,
purchase information, transaction information, and other similar information
of
interest to customers. In addition, advertisement information will often
include
budget amounts, duration, one or more categories, keywords, geographic
infonnation,
and other information useable by the various electronic publishers to run the
advertisements. The advertisement information generated by advertisement
engine
235 is provided to publisher interface engine 230, shown in FIGs. 2A and 2B,
where
the advertisement is formatted in formats suitable for display by the selected
publishers from method 300. These formats will vary depending on whether the
publisher provides a search engine, advertisement web site, online directory,
or other
service. Suitable APIs are provided in publisher interface engine 230 for
interfacing
with the publishers, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. In one
example,
in Step 325 of FIG. 3, a directory listing can be made for the advertiser for
display in
an online directory such as an online yellow pages. Keywords selected for the
marketing campaign and/or headlines used in advertisements such as banner ads
can
be used in the online directory listing. The particular publisher receiving
the
advertisement will have specified the format of the advertisement. The number
of
advertisements and number of publishers, as well as the selected publishers,
will
depend greatly on the campaign budget determined in Step 405 of FIG. 4.
In Step 330 of FIG. 3, an advertiser web page can be created or identified by
the advertiser, the location of which is provided to the advertising platform.
The
advertiser web page will be the intended destination for customers which
respond to
the advertisements submitted to the various publishers. The advertiser web
page is
generally in the form of an HTML page. In one embodiment, the advertiser web
page
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is included as part of an existing website implemented by the advertiser
separate and
apart from the advertising platform 120. In another embodiment, when the
advertiser
does not have an existing website or has an existing website but wishes to
develop a
campaign-specific offer page, a website creation tool is incorporated into
advertising
platform 120 for assisting the advertiser in creating an advertiser web page.
The
website creation tool can provide examples of suitable destination pages for
modification by the advertiser. The advertiser web page can be created using
template software and other tools generally known to those skilled in the art,
to
facilitate creation of the advertiser web page by the advertiser. The location
of the
advertiser web page can be identified by providing a URL for the page.
FIG. 7 shows a method for generating keywords based on the marketing
campaign information and category information describing the individual
advertiser.
This method 700 is performed by keyword engine 205 of advertising platform
apparatus 120 shown in FIG. 2. The keywords generated by method 700 are
provided
to publishers such as search engines that use keywords for delivering
advertisements
to advertisers of those search engines who enter search queries which match
the
keyword or keywords that the advertising platform 120 purchased on behalf of
the
advertiser. The method of 700 of FIG. 7 is beneficial because the advertiser
does not
have to determine individual keywords. Instead, a table of keywords is
assembled
with keywords associated in groups, as shown in FIG. 8A. These groups are
related
to the advertiser's designated business categories and specialties, as
described above
with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6. By group ID, the keywords are typically
assigned a
maximum bid per click, and a number of bidders, as shown in the two far-left
columns in FIG. 8B. Because methods and apparatus according to embodiments of
the present invention group individual keywords into keyword groups, the rules
for
keyword bids generally occur at the keyword group level. In one embodiment,
keywords are single words, e.g., "BMW." In another embodiment, the keyword is
a
string of multiple words, e.g., "Beverley Hills."
When grouped together, keywords form a "keyword group." The keyword
group can include essentially any number of keywords. The business rules for
how
keywords are assembled and how they are bid for are contained in one or more
keyword tables. In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8A, a first keyword table
includes the following fields: keyword name and keyword group ID. This table
is
used to identify the keywords associated with a given keyword group ID. That
is, all
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of the keyword names associated with a particular keyword group ID can be
identified
in the first column as associated with a keyword name. FIG. 8B shows a second
keyword table which can be used for keyword group IDs. The keyword table of
FIG.
8B includes the following fields: geography, category, publisher ID, keyword
group
ID, keyword group bid amount, campaign budget, number of bidders, and current
max
bid. Using the table of FIG. 8B, for every geography, category, and publisher,
and
possibly other marketing campaign parameters, both a keyword group bid amount
and
keyword group ID can be determined. The publisher or publishers are determined
in
step 970 of FIG. 9B, as described below.
In Step 705 of FIG. 7, the budget, geography, categories, and possibly other
parameters are provided. The categories can include categories, subcategories,
and
specialties associated with those subcategories as lower level categories, and
in some
instances, subspecialties such as geographic subspecialties associated with
the
specialties. These selections were made by the advertiser when specifying the
nature
of the campaign in Step 425 of FIG. 4. In a table or tables such as those
shown in
FIGs. 8A and 8B maintained by the keyword engine 205 of FIG. 2, keywords and
keyword bid amounts associated with the various categories are accessed in
Step 710.
Those keywords and keyword bid amounts are retrieved in Step 715. In one
embodiment, individual keywords are retrieved for each category and specialty
in the
hierarchical structure of data and then formed as a group in Step 720. In
another
embodiment, groups of keywords are stored in the keyword table of FIG. 8A and
accessed by keyword group ID. These keywords are then retrieved and can be
output
individually or can then be output as one group in Step 720.
In Step 705 of FIG. 7, the categories provided can include geographical
territories, as described above. For example, an advertiser may have specified
a
specific DMA, city, zip code and/or radius to target their ad. In one
embodiment, for
publishers using customer IP addresses to target the ad, the ad can be
displayed when
the keyword term is used by someone in the specified DMA. Those skilled in the
art
will appreciate that the various categories, geographies, etc. can be used to
cross-
reference other tables such as the category taxonomy structure of Figs. 5 and
6.
In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8B, a keyword table can include
additional information including bidding amounts indicating how much to bid on
each
keyword for various publishers. The "keyword group bid amount" field contains
rules for how much to bid for each keyword group on behalf of the advertiser.
For
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some publishers, every individual keyword has its own specified bid. Other
publishers allow a single maximum bid to be assigned to a group of keywords,
which
facilitates the use of the keyword groupings provided by embodiments of
methods and
apparatus of the present invention.
In FIGs. 2A and 2B, the advertising platform 120 includes a publisher
interface engine 230 which interfaces with publishers to submit keywords,
advertisements, and otherwise interact with the publishers on behalf of
advertisers of
the advertising platform 120. In one embodiment, application programming
interfaces (APIs) are generated by publisher interface engine 230 and used as
needed
to interface with the publishers. Categories selected by the advertiser can be
mapped
to publisher-specific taxonomies. The publisher interface engine 230 takes
into
account publisher-specific business rules, publisher-specific ad requirements,
and
publisher-specific account creation requirements, all of which are considered
"publisher parameters." Other publisher parameters are used by the advertising
platform 120, as described below. The advertiser docs not to need to interact
directly
with any one publisher. The APIs provided by publisher interface engine 230
receive
information provided by the advertiser, e.g., categories, advertisements,
keywords,
format that information based on the specific requirements of the publisher,
and
submit that information to the publisher on behalf of the advertiser. In an
alternative
embodiment, rather than using APIs, screen scraping technology is incorporated
to
perform a screen scrape of the publisher's web page or site.
The various categories, geographic areas, and keywords described above are
provided as marketing campaign parameters by the advertising platform 120. In
some
embodiments, the marketing campaign parameters further include demographics,
such
as populations, associated with geographic regions. In some embodiments, the
marketing campaign parameters further include psychographics for targeting the
marketing campaign. The demographic and psychographic information can be
generated using similar techniques as that provided for the categories,
keywords, and
geographic areas, as set forth above.
In FIG. 4, the recommended budget is calculated based on data in campaign
allocation rules and campaign allocation and destination data tables. In one
embodiment, the budget is determined according to the following calculation.
First,
the total number of desired leads indicated by the advertiser is divided by
the total
number of days in the duration of the campaign, ascertained in Step 415, to
determine
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a target daily lead amount. Second, based on the target geographies and
selected
categories, and based on historical costs for each lead for those target
geographies and
categories, a total campaign budget is calculated and a preliminary budget
allocation
is made. In an alternative embodiment, an advertiser submits a budget and
then,
based on the budget, the target geographies, and business categories, an
initial
allocation is made. From the approximate allocation of budget across
publishers, it
can be determined what the overall campaign budget should be by aggregating
the
daily costs for each publisher, summing them, and then multiplying by the
number of
days in the campaign.
FIG. 9A shows a flow diagram of a method 900 for selecting publishers for a
marketing campaign and allocating expenditures among the selected publishers,
perfomied in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. In one
embodiment, the method of FIG. 9A is performed by campaign allocation engine
210
in advertising platform apparatus 120.
In FIG. 9A, the method begins in Step 905 with retrieving information
provided by the advertiser during campaign setup in Step 310 of FIG. 3 and the
method of FIG. 4. In one embodiment, this information or marketing campaign
parameters include a campaign budget, duration, type of campaign, e.g., fixed
budget,
fixed cost per lead, cost per lead, cost per click, geographic target area,
and category
information. Such information can be stored in and retrieved from a table such
as
publisher allocation table 1000 shown in FIG. 10. The retrieved parameters
from Step
905 are then used to allocate the budget across one or more publishers, in
Step 910,
according to one or more allocation rules. In one embodiment, the advertiser
selects
the publishers from a list. In another embodiment, the platform 120 recommends
an
optimal selection of publishers based on the marketing campaign parameters.
Then,
within a particular publisher, the budget is allocated across keyword groups
and/or
advertisement types.
In FIG. 10, the publisher allocation table includes the following entries:
publisher 1 1002, publisher 2 1005, and possibly additional publisher fields
which
identify all of the publishers available to receive the advertisement by name
or
identification number or code. Preferably, each row in the table has IDs for
every
publisher so that a 100 percent allocation can be enforced row by row. A
category ID
1010 provides a category in each row, as described above, with respect to
FIGs. 5 and
6. When an advertiser has selected multiple categories, a weighted average
allocation
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can be made across the relevant rows. In addition, the table 1000 includes a
Geo ID
1015, which identifies a geographic area for targeting the marketing campaign,
selected by the advertiser, as described above with respect to FIG. 5. In
addition, the
table includes daily campaign budget amounts minimum 1020 and maximum 1025.
Preferably, the indicated daily campaign budget minimum and maximum "amounts"
in columns 1020 and 1025 are actually bands providing a range of amounts for
which
the allocation will apply. In one embodiment, the specific allocation
performed in
step 910 is an interactive process in which the campaign allocation engine 210
provides recommended allocations to the advertiser which can be adjusted as
desired.
In another embodiment, the allocation is determined entirely by campaign
allocation
engine 210 based on the information in table 1000 and possible additional
historical
data assessing the likelihood of obtaining leads using each publisher and the
designated categories and keywords.
In FIG. 9A, in one embodiment, after allocating the budget across the selected
publishers, in Step 915, the budget for each publisher can be allocated across
keyword
groups to be submitted to the particular publisher. In performing step 915, a
table
similar to that shown in FIG. 10 is provided for each publisher, in which
average cost
per click amounts are provided for a list of keywords or groups of keywords.
Those
skilled in the art should appreciate that certain publishers may only provide
banner
advertisements or other marketing techniques than keywords, in which case step
915
can be skipped. In Step 920, advertisers providing different types of
advertisements
are addressed. In Step 920, the campaign allocation engine 210 allocates
budget
amounts for particular publishers across ad types provided by the particular
publisher.
Again, a table similar to that shown in FIG. 10 can be provided for each
publisher, in
which a list of ad types provided by a particular publisher and associated
average
costs are set forth.
Those skilled in the art should appreciate that, in certain embodiments, when
an advertiser is allowed the flexibility to select a fixed total campaign
budget, or to set
a maximum cost per lead, or to be billed on a cost per click versus a cost per
call
basis, then different allocation rules enforced by campaign allocation engine
210 can
be established based on those different campaign types.
In another embodiment, in which an advertiser selects multiple geographic IDs
or territories to target, each geographic area may have its own allocation
rules. In this
situation, additional rules are provided to manage how the budget gets divided
across
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geographic areas. In one embodiment, a weighted average distribution is made
based
on population. In another embodiment, the advertiser is allowed to specify a
weighting. In another embodiment, there are national and regional variants of
each
keyword group. The budget for a keyword publisher is allocated between the two
variants, across each of the keyword groups delivered to a publisher.
In step 925 of FIG. 9A, certain adjustments can be made as desired by the
advertiser to adjust the marketing campaign. The budget allocation can be
adjusted
using empirical data gathered from monitoring the leads from actual the
advertisements placed across the various publishers. For keyword publishers,
the
allocated budget amount can be adjusted at the keyword group level or at the
category
level.
Fig. 9B shows a method 910 for allocating a campaign budget among a
plurality of electronic publishers, in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention. In Step 955 of FIG. 9B, the budget amount determined for the
marketing
campaign is retrieved. This budget amount can be in any of several forms as
described above, depending on the desired implementation. In Step 960,
marketing
campaign parameters are retrieved. These marketing campaign parameters
generally
include categories, geographies, and duration information for the marketing
campaign, developed by user interface engine 237 as described above. For
example, a
category describing subject matter of the marketing campaign could be
"dentist." The
duration of the marketing campaign could have a target of 30 days, and
geographic
areas for targeting the marketing campaign could include San Francisco and San
Jose.
In addition, in some embodiments, the marketing campaign parameters may also
include demographic information and psychographic information for targeting
the
marketing campaign.
In Step 965 of FIG. 9B, publisher parameters are retrieved by the campaign
allocation engine 210. The publisher parameters generally include a number of
values, including a minimum campaign spend amount and a maximum campaign
spend amount, both on a daily basis as well as for an entire campaign. In one
embodiment, the minimum and maximuni campaign spend amounts are determined
by the user for the entire marketing campaign, as described above with
reference to
user interface engine 237 of FIGS. 2A and 2B. In one embodiment, in Step 970,
the
specific publishers to be used for the marketing campaign are selected by
accessing a
table stored on a processor-readable storage medium using one or more of the
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marketing campaign parameters described above. A table look-up operation is
performed, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. The designated
electronic
publishers are retrieved from the table in accordance with the marketing
campaign
parameters provided to the table. This table can be updated by optimization
engine
215 throughout the course of the marketing campaign and other marketing
campaigns
conducted on behalf of other advertisers, to keep the campaign allocation
optimized.
In one embodiment, when the publishers to be used for the marketing campaign
are
determined, in accordance with the generated marketing campaign parameters,
publisher paranieters are also retrieved from the table for each of the
selected
publishers, in Step 965. The publisher parameters can include a maximum
potential
daily budget for each selected publisher, a total daily click or impression
inventory, an
average cost per click or impression for each electronic publisher, maximum
potential
daily budget, average click-to-lead ratios, average impression-to-lead ratios,
number
of current advertisers, nuinber of current bidders, and other information for
the
selected electronic publishers. In one embodiment, an average cost per click
amounts
can be given as initial estimates to the advertiser when creating a campaign
in step
310 of FIG. 3 to better estimate how many clicks and leads they should expect
to
receive based on their budget.
In one embodiment, there are unique publisher parameters for each publisher
depending on the particular category or categories selected and geography. For
instance, a total daily click inventory in one example is 10,000 clicks per
day on
Google for "dentists" in Los Angeles. The average cost per click for the
publisher is
$1.50 per click on Google for "dentists" in Los Angeles. The average click-to-
lead
ratio, another publisher parameter, is also provided for the particular
category and
geography, e.g., 10 percent of clicks generate leads for Google for "dentists"
in Los
Angeles. The average click-to-lead ratio is preferably calculated for various
ranges of
click or impression volume to determine when there is an optimal number of
clicks to
leads. That is, there are diminishing returns after a certain point. In one
embodiment,
one or more publishers have minimum and maximum daily campaign spend amount
requirements. In another embodiment, a publisher has a minimum and maximum
total campaign spend requirement.
In Step 975 of FIG. 9B, using the provided marketing campaign parameters
and publisher parameters, the budget amount is allocated among the selected
electronic publishers from Step 970 according to one or more allocation rules
to
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define an allocated budget. There can be various allocation rules used,
depending on
the desired implementation. In one embodiment, the budget amount is allocated
among the selected electronic publishers so that the allocated budget is
within the
maximum potential daily budget or total budget for each of the selected
electronic
publishers. The budget amount is allocated among the selected electronic
publishers
according to priorities assigned to those selected electronic publishers, in
one
embodiment. For instance, the priorities can be assigned according to lowest
cost
lead generator values associated with the selected electronic publishers.
In one embodiment, in Step 975, for each publisher, geography, and category,
the maximum potential daily budget is calculated by multiplying a total daily
click or
impression inventory by an average cost per click or impression for each
publisher/category/geography. This generally sets the boundaries for the
maximum
budget that can be used for each publisher/category/geography. For instance,
for $100
campaign intervals, the optimal allocation percentage can be calculated by
allocating
clicks or impressions across each of the lowest cost lead generator publishers
for that
category/geography. By "lowest cost lead generators," this generally means
that if
publisher A can generate a lead for $5 and publisher B for $6, 100 percent of
the
budget amount within that campaign interval will go to publisher A, up to any
publisher maximuins determined for the particular implementation. This
allocation
can be made for every budget range to come up with the ideal allocation. In
one
embodiment, the campaign allocation engine 210 provides a premium for
publisher
diversity that reduces or eliminates the possibility of being dependent on
only one
publisher.
Again, the publisher allocation can be made for each designated publisher,
geography, category, and campaign budget range or range of campaign
objectives.
In Step 980, the calculated budget allocation of Step 975 is then applied to
the
marketing campaign. In one embodiment, this application includes weighting the
allocation across a plurality of geographies. For instance, the allocation can
be based
on the relative populations of designated geographic regions, with more
populated
geographies getting a higher percentage of the budget. In another embodiment,
the
allocation also takes into account demographics and/or psychographics
associated
with those geographic areas.
In Step 985 of FIG. 9B, the allocated budget can be reallocated when the
allocated budget is not within the minimum spend amount and maximum spend
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amount parameters, or where the publishers selected do not achieve the desired
campaign objectives as set for the advertiser, as described above. Often, this
will
involve removing one or more electronic publishers and reallocating the
allocated
budget among the remaining electronic publishers according to reallocation
rules.
Generally, these reallocation rules will include one or more of the allocation
rules
described above.
In FIGs. 2A and 2B, an optimization engine 215 works in conjunction with
campaign allocation engine 210 to optimize the allocated budget or reallocated
budget. This often includes updating the allocation rules, depending on
observed data
from marketing campaigns. The observed data often includes campaign event
information gathered by reporting engine 220, as described below. The campaign
event information generally includes information describing campaign events
such as
impressions, clicks, emails, phone calls, links to HTML pages, coupon
selection,
coupon redemption, sales, and store visits. The optimization engine 215
generally
attempts to determine a budget allocation that drives the most high valued
campaign
events for the least cost. In each particular marketing campaign, the campaign
events
generated will depend on the particular publishers and subject matter of the
advertisement. For instance, some advertisements may generate more phone
calls,
and other advertisers may generate more visits to web pages. Depending on the
nature of the advertiser's business, phone calls or web site visits may result
in higher
sales, all of which information can be used to further optimize the campaign
allocation.
FIG. 11 shows a method 1100 for optimizing a budget allocation performed by
optimization engine 215 according to one embodiment of the present invention.
In
step 1105, campaign event information, as described above, is identified. In
step
1110, optimization engine 215 calculates a cost per campaign event, by
publisher,
geography and category. Then, in step 1115, publisher parameters are obtained,
such
as average cost per click, number of available clicks, and number of competing
advei-tisers. In step 1120, the lowest cost publishers are determined based on
the
campaign event information identified in step 1105 and the calculated cost per
campaign event from step 1110. Then, in step 1125, the allocation rules are
optimized and the budget is re-allocated, as described herein.
There are several types of "campaign events," or "events" that are monitored
using embodiments of methods and apparatus of the present invention. Such
events
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are used to optimize campaign allocation and bidding methods, as described
above,
and are used as part of a reporting procedure described below. These events
can also
be used to trigger alarms if the marketing campaign is not achieving its
expected
results, resulting in an adjustment of budget allocations. or other
adjustments. The
events addressed include impressions, referring to the number of times an
advertisement has been displayed by a publisher, and advertisement
interactions such
as clicks, referring to the number of times an ad has been clicked by users.
Campaign
events also include lead information such as phone calls, emails, links to an
advertiser
web site or offer page, clicks on the advertiser web page or web site, and
coupon
selection and redemption. Often, lead information will include contact
information
received from a customer, IP addresses, and other information identifying
customers.
Campaign events also include purchase information and sales information
generated,
for instance, during an e-commerce transaction. Examples of campaign event
information include phone calls made using tracking numbers, as described
below,
emails sent using tracking emails, also described below. In some embodiments,
searches on an advertiser's site are also monitored as campaign events.
"Ad type" refers to the nature of the advertisement used in the marketing
campaign. Several advertisements can be used, including keywords, paid
inclusions,
referring to any advertiser whose site is submitted for listing on major
search engines
that offer paid inclusion, and generic and customized banners. Other ad types
include
directory listings and other sponsored listings, and classified ads.
Tracking phone numbers are provided with embodiments of methods and
apparatus of the present invention. Using these numbers, the source of a lead
can be
identified, or, at the very least, a counter can accumulate contacts to the
tracking
number. One or more tracking numbers can be procured for an advertiser,
depending
on the desired implementation. The tracking numbers are generally used to keep
track
of the number of calls made to that number. In one embodiment, a tracking
number
table maintained by advertising platform apparatus 120 includes the followilig
fields:
advertiser ID, campaign ID, target phone number, tracking phone number,
tracking
phone number type, e.g., local or toll-free, publisher ID, Geo ID and, in some
instances, the keyword used.
When a marketing campaign has been undertaken, and if the advertiser has an
email address, the advertising platform 120 can replace that email address
with a
tracking email. In this embodiment, the tracking email can be obtained for the
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advertiser. A table is maintained as described above for tracking emails used
by
various advertisers. In one embodiment, fields in the table include advertiser
ID,
campaign ID, target email address, tracking email address, publisher ID, Geo
ID and,
in some instances, the keyword used.
Methods and apparatus performed in accordance with embodiments of the
present invention include a reporting feature. After a marketing campaign has
begun,
campaign activity is reported to the advertiser. A centralized reporting
engine 220, as
shown in FIGs. 2A and 2B, is able to track and monitor customer activity
pertaining
to the marketing campaign for that advertiser. The report delivered by
reporting
engine 220 can be customized as desired by the advertiser. Generally,
reporting
engine 220 provides tracking of campaign events related to the marketing
campaign,
including: emails, phone calls, coupons, visits to web pages, web forms filled
out and
submitted, and other events described above.
FIG. 12 shows a method of tracking and reporting customer activity,
performed by reporting engine 220 in accordance with one embodiment of the
present
invention. In Step 1205, a date range is specified for the report. The
advertiser can
specify a "from" date and "to" date for the range. This specification can be
made by
the advertiser when setting up the campaign in step 310 of FIG. 3, or at any
later time
during the campaign. In an alternative embodiment, the date range is
controlled by
the online advertising platform.
In Step 1210 of FIG. 12, data describing the campaign status is retrieved for
delivery to the advertiser. In one embodiment, this data includes an amount
spent
number. The amount spent is preferably provided in the form of a total amount
spent
across all of the publishers, and also shows the amount spent for each
publisher. The
amount spent for each publisher will generally be the sum of any up front fees
plus
any per click charges multiplied by the number of clicks, a number provided by
the
publisher. For some publishers, the actual per click amount will be specified
in
reports from those publishers. For other publishers, the per click amounts are
determined prior to the campaign and are retrieved from memory.
In Step 1215 of FIG. 12, campaign event information is determined. Part or
all of the campaign event information is tracked and monitored using reporting
engine
220. Examples of campaign events are described above. In some embodiments, a
portion of the determined campaign event information, such as advertisement
interactions, are received from the publishers. In Step 1225, after all of the
data in
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Steps 1205-1220 is gathered, the data can be assembled into a report for the
advertiser. This report, in one embodiment, outputs all of the retrieved data
in a table
format for the advertiser. The report can be sent to the advertiser in email
form or in
another suitable form such as a printed mailing. In another embodiment the
advertiser
can access a server on which the advertising platform apparatus 120 is
situated, and
download the report. Reports can be provided to the advertiser as desired,
e.g., on a
daily, weekly or monthly basis.
In one embodiment, when the report is sent by email, an advertiser can click
on certain figures presented in the report, and the advertiser is linked to an
HTML
page including more detailed information for that figure. For instance, when
the
advertiser clicks on the phone calls figure, a popup window can provide
further call
details, including the number of calls received per individual publisher and
other
information such as caller ID, time of the call, call duration, and other
information.
Similar further details of email leads can be provided including date, time
and email
address of the interested customer.
Coupon information including the number of clicks for a specific campaign
offer, total number of prints, and registration of coupon offers can also be
provided.
In step 1230, the data gathered by reporting engine 220 can also be used to
optimize allocation rules used by campaign allocation engine 210. Such
updating can
be performed at various times using multiple marketing campaigns performed on
behalf of different advertisers to update the allocation rules for current and
future
marketing campaigns.
In FIG. 2, the advertising platform apparatus 120 further includes a reverse
proxy engine 225. The reverse proxy engine 225 performs a method of
dynamically
rendering an advertiser web page associated with the advertiser, as shown in
FIG.
15A, as a proxied web page, as shown in FIG. 15B. Through this proxied web
page,
customer interactions can be tracked. In one embodiment, shown in FIG. 14, the
proxied web page is stored on a storage medium such as database 240 local to
or
easily accessible by advertising platform apparatus 120. The proxied web page
can
also be situated on a database 1415 controlled by an advertiser 1405, or at a
central
data storage facility 1420 accessible over data network 125. Generally, the
proxied
web page is a version of the advertiser's home page or other advertisement web
page
retrieved and dynamically edited in real time with certain information, such
as contact
information, pricing information, images, and other data in the advertiser web
page
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strategically replaced. In one embodiment, an entire advertiser web site can
be
proxied, using essentially the same techniques for editing individual web
pages,
described herein.
FIG. 13 shows the method of rendering an advertiser web page as the proxied
web page, performed in accordance with one embodiment of the present
invention.
The method 1300 of FIG. 13 is described with reference to FIGs. 14 and 15A,
15B.
In Step 1304, the advertiser web page 1510 or web site is provided on an
accessible
storage medium, such as database 1415 as described above. In Step 1306, a
customer
request message from customer 1405 is received by reverse proxy engine 225 of
advertising platform 120. In some examples, the customer request message is
first
received through an advertisement displayed on an electronic publisher 145,
and
routed to advertising platform 120. Responsive to the customer request, the
advertiser
web page 1510 is retrieved by advertising platform 120 from where it is
ordinarily
stored. In step 1310, the reverse proxy engine 225 dynamically edits the
advertiser
web page 1510 of FIG. 15A to create a proxied web page 1520, shown in FIG.
15B.
In one example, as shown in Figs. 15A and 15B, the dynamic editing includes
filtering the content of the advertiser web page 1510. For instance, contact
information on that page can be identified using conventional pattern
recognition
techniques. Examples of such identified contact information include phone
numbers,
email addresses, images, and other numbers including fax numbers, cell phone
numbers, and any other means for contacting the advertiser. The numbers on the
advertiser web page are characterized herein as "target" numbers, referring to
the
actual number at which the advertiser can respond to a customer. The
identified
contact information is replaced with appropriate tracking numbers. These
tracking
numbers are intermediary numbers through which the customer interaction will
be
routed to gather information about the customer interaction. For instance, in
FIG.
15B, the "phone" number "Contact: ReachLocal.com" number shown on advertiser
web page 1510 of FIG. 15A has been replaced on the proxied web page 1520. The
email address "salesgreachlocal.com" has been replaced with a tracking email
link,
"send E-Mail to Sales," which generates a tracking email. In other examples,
the
dynamic editing includes replacing a price on the advertiser web page. For
instance,
the price can be associated with an item in inventory that is displayed only
to
customers accessing the page via an advertisement from the marketing campaign.
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Another example of dynamic editing the advertiser web page is inserting or
replacing
electronic coupons.
In one embodiment, a data collection engine is triggered every time the
tracking number shown on the proxied web page 1520 is used by customer 1405
and
other customers. The data collection engine, in one embodiment, includes a
counter
which is incremented every time that number is used. In another embodiment,
the
data collection engine collects additional information from the customer,
including
the customer's email address, phone number, other customer identification
information, date and time of the contact, and the duration of the contact.
The data
collection engine collects data for each item of contact information replaced,
including phone numbers, email addresses, and other contact information as
described
above.
In Step 1310 of FIG. 13, email substitutions and phone number substitutions
are made by simply replacing the identified contact information in the
advertiser web
page with tracking numbers in standard email and phone number formats. In
certain
instances, graphical images displayed on the advertiser web page may contain
phone
numbers and/or email addresses within. In these situations, an optical
character
recognition (OCR) operation is performed to identify those email addresses and
phone
numbers. Then the identified contact information can be replaced accordingly.
In one embodiment, the tracking numbers and data collection engine described
herein can be obtained through third party providers.
In Step 1320 of FIG. 13, the reverse proxy engine 225 of advertising platform
120 of FIG. 14 serves the proxied web page 1520 to a computer operated by
customer
1405 over data network 125. In some implementations, the customer receives the
proxied web page not knowing that the dynanZic editing described above has
taken
place. The editing is seamless, and provides the benefit of gathering
information for
the advertiser without interfering with the customer's experience.
In one implementation, reverse proxy engine 225 provides links referencing
the proxied web page to the various publishers, such as publisher 145 in FIG.
1, as
part of the advertising information. In this way, when the advertiser attempts
to
access the advertiser's web page through those publishers, the advertiser is
routed to
the proxied web page. Then, not knowing the target contact information, the
customer will contact the advertiser through the tracking numbers, enabling
the
counting and gathering of information regarding that interaction.
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Embodiments of the invention, including the methods, apparatus, platform,
engines and functions described herein, can be implemented in digital
electronic
circuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of
them.
Apparatus embodiments of the invention can be implemented in a computer
program
product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device for execution
by a
prograinmable processor; and method steps of the invention can be performed by
a
programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform
functions of
the invention by operating on input data and generating output. Embodiments of
the
invention can be implemented advantageously in one or more computer programs
that
are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable
processor coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data
and
instructions to, a data storage system, at least one input device, and at
least one output
device. Each computer program can be implemented in a high-level procedural or
object-oriented programining language, or in assembly or machine language if
desired; and in any case, the language can be a compiled or interpreted
language.
Suitable processors include, by way of example, both general and special
purpose
microprocessors. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data
from a
read-only memory and/or a random access memory. Generally, a computer will
include one or more mass storage devices for storing data files; such devices
include
magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-
optical
disks; and optical disks. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying
computer
program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory,
including by
way of example semiconductor memory devices, such as EPROM, EEPROM, and
flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable
disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM disks. Any of the foregoing can be
supplemented by, or incorporated in, ASICs (application-specific integrated
circuits).
A number of implementations of the invention have been described.
Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made
without
departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, other
embodiments
are within the scope of the following claims.
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