Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FLEXIBLE REVENUE SHARING AND REFERRAL BOUNTY
SYSTEM
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The subject matter of this application is generally related to online
advertising.
BACKGROUND
[0002] As the number of people using the Internet and the World Wide Web
("Web)"
continues to grow, advertisers have come to appreciate and utilize online
media as a
potentially powerful way to advertise their products and services. One
conventional
approach used by advertisers to advertise products and services on the Web is
to serve
advertisements ("ads") with content provided by publishers (e.g., CNN.com,
ESPN.com).
For example, advertisers may pay publishers when users click on ads placed on
Web
properties and/or purchase products and services from the advertiser as a
result of such clicks.
Such payments may be based on a "pay-per-click" model or some other metric or
model
agreed to by the advertisers and publishers. The complexities associated with
managing such
business arrangements have resulted in the emergence of online advertising
services, such as
the AdWordsTM and AdSenseTM programs offered by Google, Inc. (Mountain View,
California).
[0003] Recently, there has also been an emergence on the Web of a large number
of
Web properties dedicated to publishing user generated content ("UGC"), such as
MySpaceTM,
YouTubeTM, FaceBookTM, TwitterTM, OrkutTM, FriendsterTM, weblogs ("blogs"),
etc. These
Web properties have become attractive targets for advertisers due to their
growing popularity
with certain demographics. Also, distribution of media content from content
providers has
been a target for advertisers.
SUMMARY
[0004] An advertising system manager may establish a revenue sharing scheme
with
a network partner and/or a content partner as an incentive to sign up
publishers to participate
or otherwise facilitate the participation of existing publishers in one or
more ad campaigns.
The network partner may provide one or more hyperlinks, signs, videos, audio,
games or
other banners on a hosted web page to inform or encourage existing and
potential publishers
to participate in the one or more ad campaigns. The content partner may
provide media
content, either professionally or user generated, to be made available to
network partners,
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publishers and users. The advertising system manager may define various
components of the
revenue sharing scheme including details of the revenue sharing scheme and the
criteria for
offering the revenue sharing scheme to the network partner and/or content
partner.
Advertisers can provide monetary incentives to the owners/operators of the Web
properties
(hereinafter also referred to as "partners") to encourage partners to improve
the Web
properties and to grow their subscription base for the Web properties.
Additionally,
advertisers and partners can provide monetary incentives to users of the Web
properties
(hereinafter also referred to as "publishers") to provide and improve upon
UGC.
[0005] The advertising system manager, participating publisher, network
partner
and/or content partner also may collectively agree on a revenue sharing
policy, based on the
revenue generated from users viewing ads associated with one or more ad
campaigns (e.g.,
based on conversion rates). In some implementations, the partner may directly
negotiate with
the publisher with respect to the terms of the revenue sharing policy, or the
revenue share
may be automated based on a system set up by the advertising system manager.
The terms
may include a predetermined revenue sharing rate for the partner and the
publisher based on
the gross revenue received by the advertising system manager.
[0006] In some implementations, the method of sharing revenue in an online
advertising system includes: receiving input from a partner specifying a
revenue sharing
arrangement between the provider, one or more publishers, and the advertising
system
manager; receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue
sharing with the
provider; and invoking automated revenue sharing between the provider and the
publisher
based on the revenue sharing arrangement.
[0007] In another implementation, a method of sharing revenue in an online
advertising system includes: receiving input from an advertising system
manager specifying a
revenue sharing arrangement between the advertising system manager, one or
more
publishers who publish content on a web property, and a partner; receiving a
request from a
publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system
manager; and invoking
automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager, the partner
and the
publisher based on the revenue sharing arrangement..
[0008] In yet other implementations, a method of providing a referral bounty
in an
online advertising system includes: determining a current revenue sharing rate
and a revenue
threshold; disbursing revenue to be shared between a provider and a publisher
who publishes
on a web property hosted by the web property host based on the current revenue
sharing rate;
and determining a bounty based on the disbursed revenue and the revenue
threshold.
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[0009] The details of one or more embodiments of the invention are set forth
in the
accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and
advantages
of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from
the claims.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an online advertising
system.
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a process for referring
ads in
the online advertising system of FIG. 1.
[0012] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing an example of a process for sharing
revenue
between a partner and a publisher in the online advertising system shown in
FIG. 1.
[0013] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram showing a process for determining a bounty for
a
partner in the online advertising system of FIG. 1.
[0014] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example system for
implementing
the features described in reference to FIGS. 1-4.
[0015] Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Advertising System Overview
[0016] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an online advertising
system, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a process for
referring ads in
the online advertising system of FIG. 1.
[0017] Generally, the system 100 can facilitate the distribution and
processing of ads.
As shown, the system 100 includes one or more advertisers 102, an advertising
system
manager 104, one or more publishers 106, users 108, and partners 112. Each of
these entities
can be coupled to a network 110. The network 110 can facilitate wireless or
landline
communication between each entity. The network 110 may be all or a portion of
an
enterprise or secured network. While illustrated as a single network, the
network 110 may be
a continuous network logically divided into various sub-nets or virtual
networks without
departing from the scope of this disclosure, so long as at least a portion of
the network 110
may facilitate communications of ads 118 between the advertising system
manager 104, the
partners 112 and the publishers 106.
[0018] In some implementations, the network 110 encompasses any internal or
external network, networks, sub-network, or combination thereof operable to
facilitate
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communications between various computing components in system 100. The network
110
may communicate, for example, Internet Protocol (IP) packets, Frame Relay
frames,
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cells, voice, video, data, and other suitable
information
between network addresses. The network 110 may include one or more local area
networks
(LANs), radio access networks (RANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide
area
networks (WANs), all or a portion of the global computer network known as the
Internet,
and/or any other communication system or systems at one or more locations.
Advertiser
[0019] The advertiser 102 may establish an advertising program with the
advertising
system manager 104. An advertising program may include, for example,
information
concerning accounts, billing, campaigns, creatives, advertising formats,
targeting and the like.
For example, an advertiser's account may relate to information for a given
advertiser such as
a unique e-mail address, a password, billing information, context information
and the like. A
"campaign" or "ad campaign" refers to one or more groups of one or more ads,
and may
include a start date, an end date, budget information, geographical targeting
information, and
syndication information associated with the ads. For example, a fashion design
manufacturer
may have an advertising campaign for its clothing line, and a separate
advertising campaign
for its fragrance line. The campaign for its clothing line may have one or
more ad groups
(e.g., for different clothing types such as men and women, boys and girls and
infants and
toddlers), each containing one or more ads. An advertiser 102 may also be a
partner 112
and/or a publisher 106.
[0020] Each ad group may include individual price information (e.g., cost,
average
cost, or maximum cost (per impression, per selection, per conversion, etc.)).
For example,
the advertiser 102 may specify a maximum monetary value with the advertising
system
manager 104 as to how much the advertiser 102 is willing to pay per user click
or impression
per ad or ad group.
[0021] Each ad group also may include targeting criteria or restrictions.
Targeting
criteria (or restrictions) may be used to identify the target audience for a
particular ad
campaign of the advertiser 102. Examples of targeting criteria may include
day, geography,
language, behavioral segment, demographic group, frequency cap, domain,
keyword, an ad
slot attribute, system information, or any other suitable characteristic of
the users 108 and/or
publishers 106.
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[0022] The advertiser 102 can directly, or indirectly, enter, submit,
maintain, and
track ad 118 through the advertising system manager 104. The ad 118 may be
presented on a
web page 116 with content 114 authored by the publisher 106. The web page 116
can be
presented in a browser window 117.
[0023] The ad 118 may be in the form of a graphical ad, such as banner ad,
text only
ad, image ad, audio ad, video ad, ad combining one of more of any of such
components,
executable code, or any other media, content, or interactive advertisement and
the like. The
ad 118 may also include embedded information, such as links, meta-information,
and/or
machine executable instructions. The ad 118 also may have various intrinsic
features. Such
features may be specified by an application and/or by the advertiser 102,
often depending on
the type of ad. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features may include
a title line, ad
text, and an embedded link. In the case of an image ad, ad features may
include images, text
embedded links, etc.
[0024] The ad 118 may be served based on particular serving conditions or
constraints. For example, the advertiser 102 may target the serving of the ad
118 by
specifying that the ad 118 is to be served on weekdays, no lower than a
certain position on a
web page, to users in a certain geographic location and the like. As another
example, the
advertiser 102 may specify that the ad 118 is to be served if the content 119
with which the
ad 118 is to be served contains certain keywords or phrases. As yet another
example, the
advertiser 102 may specify that the ad 118 is to be served if the content 119
includes
particular topics or concepts, or falls under a particular cluster or
clusters, or some other
classification or classifications. As yet another example, a particular group
of publishers 106
who reside in a particular geographic location can serve the ad 118.
[0025] In some implementations, when the user 108 clicks the ad 118, the user
108 is
directed to a landing page 120 provided by the advertiser 102. The user 108
may then
perform a conversion event at the website (e.g., make a purchase, register,
etc.). The
conversion event generates conversion data, which is sent to the advertising
system manager
104 and stored in a conversion data repository 124 (e.g., MySQL database). In
this manner,
a conversion history can be accumulated and maintained for each ad or ad group
in an
advertiser's ad campaign. A system and method for tracking conversion data may
be found
in, for example, U.S. Co-Pending Patent Application Serial No. 10/653,899,
entitled
"Systems and Methods for Determining User Actions," filed Sept. 4, 2003, the
disclosure of
which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In other
implementations, user
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impressions of an ad may be tracked for cost-per-mille (CPM) revenue, or user
"clicks" on an
ad may be tracked in a cost-per-click (CPC) revenue model.
Advertising System Manager
[0026] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can provide
an
online environment with user interfaces for facilitating interaction between
the advertisers
102, partners 112 and publishers 106. The advertising system manager 104 may
be an ad
serving program run by an ad network service provider, which collaborates with
the
advertisers 102 to execute one or more ad campaigns. In some implementations,
the
publishers 106 may participate in one or more ad campaigns. In these
implementations, the
advertising system manager 104 may establish an incentive program with
publishers
interested in participating in the one or more campaigns. The incentive
program may include,
for example, compensating the publishers 106 in exchange for serving targeted
ads on the
their network properties (e.g., web pages). To increase the number of
participating publishers
106, the advertising system manager 104 also may provide incentives (e.g.,
revenue sharing)
to the partners 112 for referring publishers 106 to the ad campaigns.
[0027] The targeted ads may be administered by the advertising system manager
104,
and may generate revenue on either a cost-per-click, cost-per-thousand-
impressions, cost-per-
action or other basis as defined by the advertiser 102 and/or advertising
system manager 104.
Based on the gross revenue generated from the advertisers 102, the advertising
system
manager 104 may determine the compensation rules, and how the gross revenue is
distributed
among the ad campaign participants, as will be described in greater detail
below.
[0028] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 utilizes
search
technology to serve ads based on the web properties published by the
publishers 106. For
example, the advertising system manager 104 may search keywords and phrases in
a web
property to determine its type of content, and present one or more ads that
are relevant to the
content on the web property.
[0029] In other implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can
receive
and/or process ad requests from the publishers 106. The advertising system
manager 104
may select appropriate ads based on, for example, an ad type requested by a
publisher 106,
such as banner or video ads. In addition, the advertising system manager 104
may replace an
ad currently being displayed with another ad on a scheduled or random basis.
[0030] In general, the advertising system manager 104 may include
applications,
programs, modules, processes, or other software and hardware that can help
identify the
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context of each publisher's web property (or receive the context from each
publisher 106),
and that communicates relevant ads along with other data to be presented on
the web
property. The advertising system manager 104 may deliver relevant text and
image ads that
are precisely targeted to the publishers' web properties and the content
presented on those
properties.
[0031] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 also may
monitor the number of users 108 that have clicked on the ad(s) and/or records
each user's
subsequent action (e.g., purchasing an item, browsing through a catalog),
thereby further
refining context and the relevance (and placement) of each ad and ad
targeting. The
advertising system manager 104 may provide a management interface (not shown)
to the
publishers 106 (or partners 112) to help manage and keep track of advertising
revenue. The
management interface may allow the publishers 106 to access an associated
account to
retrieve data such as, without limitation, current compensation agreement
established with the
advertising system manager 104, revenue earned, site performance and other
data analysis.
[0032] The advertising system manager 104 may be coupled to an ad/content
repository 128. The advertising system manager 104 can function to receive an
ad request
from the publisher 106 and in response to the request, transmit and display an
ad 118
(optionally with content 119) from the ad/content repository 128 to be
presented in the
browser window 117. The advertising system manager 104 may include an ad
server (not
shown) operable to receive, transmit, process and store data associated with
ads. The ad
server can be implemented using computers other than servers, as well as a
server pool. For
example, the ad server may be any computer, electronic or processing device
such as, for
example, a blade server, general-purpose personal computer (PC), Macintosh ,
workstation,
Unix-based computer, or any other suitable device. In other words, the ad
server may include
computers other than general purpose computers as well as computers without
conventional
operating systems. The ad server may be adapted to execute any operating
system including
Linux, UNIX, Windows Server, or any other suitable operating system.
[0033] Generally, the ad server includes memory (e.g., cache) and a processor
(not
shown). Memory may be a local memory and include any memory or database module
and
may take the form of volatile or non-volatile memory including, without
limitation, magnetic
media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),
removable
media, or any other suitable local or remote memory component. The memory can
function
to store ad images and other electronic ads and video files. The memory may
also include
any other appropriate data such as VPN applications or services, firewall
policies, a security
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or access log, print or other reporting files, HTML files or templates, data
classes or object
interfaces, child software applications or sub-systems, and others.
[0034] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 also can
include a web crawler operable to crawl the web page 116. The web crawler can
crawl the
content repository 114 and add the content 114 to an index 128. Examples of
web crawlers
include open source crawlers written in Java , such as HeritrixTM,
WebSPHINXTM,
JSpiderTM, WebEaterTM, Java Web CrawlerTM, WebLechTM, ArachnidTM, etc. The web
page
116 can be crawled on a scheduled basis or in response to a trigger event, and
the indexed
content can be sorted and stored (e.g., in an index repository).
[0035] In some implementations, partners 112 and publishers 106 registered
with the
advertising system manager 104 may be able to access a secure web property to
obtain
information pertaining to their respective revenue shares (as will be
discussed in greater
detail below) using interactive web pages. Access to the advertising system
manager's web
property may be secure, i.e., the advertising system manager 104 may provide
secure access
using, for example, encryption, personal identification numbers (PINs), access
codes,
passwords, electronic signature authentication, security keys, and/or other
similar security
measures. Access to parts of another entity's account by a revenue sharer or a
merchant may
be limited or not allowed at all.
Partner
[0036] A partner 112 may be an online service provider that hosts one or more
web
properties or other network-accessible properties that host the content 119.
For example, the
web page 116 can be provided by an online service that provides the publisher
106 with a
personal space for sharing personal and professional content with interested
users/viewers.
As an example, a weblog (blog) site may provide each blogger with a personal
space for
authoring and publishing blogs.
[0037] The partner 112 may be, for example, a network partner such as a social
network or business network. Such networks may include but are not limited to
Orkut ,
Myspace , Friendster , YouTube and Facebook , gaming sites, gaming networks,
content sharing sites such as music and video sharing sites and the like.
Other types of online
networks, communities or personal web pages also may be used, such as job
hunting websites
(e.g., monster.com), school alumni websites, organizations of professionals,
Internet dating
sites, ratings sites (e.g., epinions.com), closed or proprietary networks, and
company internal
websites (e.g., Intranet). In some cases, partners 112 may require publishers
106 to establish
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a publisher account with the partners 112 in order to use one or more web
properties owned
by the partners 112.
[0038] A partner 112 may also be, for example, a content partner such as a
source of
video, music/audio, games, applications, and the like. Such content partners
may be media
broadcast networks, sports networks or organizations, music labels, movie
studios, television
production studios, specialized media content providers such as, for example,
how-to or
technical media providers, user-generated content directly from users or
shared via a network
partner such as YouTube , Facebook , and the like. The content partner, in one
embodiment, provides media content to be embedded in a publisher's 106 web
page 116 with
advertisements for particular advertisers 102 served from the advertising
system manager
104.
[0039] As discussed previously, the advertising system manager 104 may provide
incentives to the partner 112 for referring one or more publishers to
participate in one or more
ad campaigns. These incentives may be in a form of a revenue sharing and a
bounty bonus,
as will be discussed in greater detail below.
[0040] In some implementations, a user interface (not shown) may be provided
by the
partner 112 for the publisher 106 for managing the web page 116. The user
interface may
include an administrative space, which can include various links and/or other
user interface
elements for allowing the publisher 106 to administer and manage web page 116.
For
example, the publisher 106 can create or edit an associated profile, change
account settings,
add/edit photos, add/change videos, manage a calendar, manage a blog, manage
an address
book and the like. The user interface also can include one or more areas for
displaying
information and content, such as an "Announcement" space for posting
announcements, a
"Bulletin" space for posting bulletins, a "New Message" space for displaying
new emails or
Instant Messages, a "Friend" space for listing members of the publisher's
personal and
professional network, a "New People" space for introducing new people recently
added to the
publisher's personal and professional network and the like. A partner 112 may
also provide a
user interface (not shown) to allow associated publishers 106 to manage ad
settings and view
ad and earnings performance reports.
[0041] When the partner 112 is a content provider, the partner 112 can provide
a user
interface (not shown) for the publisher 106 to embed content from the partner
112 in the
publisher's 106 web property. Similarly, the advertising system manager 104
can provide a
user interface (not shown) for the publisher 106 to embed content from the
partner 112, or for
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the partner 112 to submit content for publishers 106 to make available through
the advertising
system manager.
[0042] In some implementations, the partner 112 can request one or more ads
from
the advertising system manager 104. In response to the request, one or more
ads (e.g., image
ads) are sent to the partner 112. The one or more ads can be presented with
the content 119
on the web page 116. In some implementations, the web page 116 can have a page
content
identifier (ID), which can be used by the advertising system manager 104 to
determine ad
context for targeting ads that the user 108 will be receptive to. In these
implementations, the
ad context can be determined using clustering technology and geographic
location data, such
as, for example, the technology described in U.S. Co-Pending Patent
Application Serial No.
11/539,109, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety. In
other implementations, the publisher 106 requests on or more ads from the
advertising system
manager 104, as described in more detail below.
Publisher
[0043] Generally, the publisher 106 is a content provider that provides
content 119
stored in the content repository 114 to the user 108. A publisher 106 can be a
user 108 and
vice-versa. The publisher 106 can add text, audio, videos and content of other
format to the
web page 116. In some implementations, the publisher 106 may participate in an
ad
campaign or campaigns by serving ads with the content 119. In these
implementations, the
publisher 106 and the advertiser 102 may be provided with code snippets that
can be included
in the web page 116 and landing page 120 for requesting ads and reporting
conversion
actions to the advertising system manager 104. In other implementations, the
partner 112
may be provided with code snippets from the advertising system manager 104. In
response,
the partner 112 may insert the code snippets into the web page 116 so as to
simplify the
process of display ads for the publishers 106. In some embodiments, the code
snippets
inserted into the web page 116 provide for embedded serving of display ads for
the publishers
106 along with embedded content 113 from the provider 112 to be embedded on
the web
page 116.
[0044] The publisher 106 also may authorize the advertising system manager 104
to
select one or more ads from the ad/content repository 126 and present the one
or more ads on
the web page 116. In some embodiments, the publisher 106 may also authorize
the
advertising system manager 104 to select one or more types of embedded content
113 from
partners 112 and present the embedded content 113 along with the one or more
ads on the
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web page 116, or the publisher 106 may directly select the embedded content
113 or the
partner 112 from which the embedded content 113 will be obtained. The
advertisements to
be displayed may be selected by a set of criteria set by the publisher 106, by
the partner 112,
or may be limited to advertisements matching criteria set by both the
publisher 106 and the
partner 112. Since the content 119 shown on the web page 116 can receive a
particular
degree of readership, the publisher 106 becomes part of the ad targeting
process. In some
implementations, each publisher 106 participating in an ad campaign needs to
meet certain
criteria (e.g., demographics, popularity ratings, etc.) specified by the
advertiser 102,
advertising system manager 104 and/or partner 112. Similarly, a partner 112
may require a
publisher 106 to meet certain requirements in order to display embedded
content 113.
[0045] As discussed above, the partner 112 may require the publisher 106 to
establish
a publisher account (e.g., a login account) with the partner 112 in order to
use the embedded
content 113 created by the partner 112 on the publisher's 106 web site. To
obtain a publisher
account, a non-registered publisher can enroll and register with a partner to
acquire
membership. Once registered, the non-registered publisher becomes a registered
publisher,
who may access an associated publisher account, and can login to the publisher
account to
access the embedded content 113.
[0046] The web page 116 can display both standard content 119 and one or more
ads
118, along with embedded content 113 from the one or more providers 112. The
ad 118 can
be presented in a particular location within the web page 116, which may be
referred to as an
ad slot. The ad slot can have a particular height and width dimension defined
by the
publisher 106 or the advertiser 102. The ad 118 inserted into an ad slot can
vary each time
the web page 116 is served to the user 108 or, alternatively, can have a
static association with
the web page 116. The ad slot can be created through a snippet of code such as
JavaScript,
and in one embodiment, the snippet can provide a location for both the ad 118
and embedded
content 113 from one or more partners 112.
[0047] In some implementations, the content 119 of the web page 116 may be a
file, a
combination of files, one or more files with embedded links to other files,
and so forth.
These files may be of any type, such as text, audio, image, video, or any
other appropriate
media form. Although content stored in the content repository 114 may be
offline, pertinent
information thereof may be available online. Such online content also may
include attributes,
topics, concepts, categories, keywords, relevancy information, types of ads
supported, and so
forth. For example, a publisher 106 may publish online content that contains
information
about an outdoor jazz music festival which includes the location of the
concerts, the time of
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the concerts, artists scheduled to appear at the festival and the like.
Similarly, the embedded
content 113 may be a file, a combination of files, one or more files with
embedded links to
other files, and so forth. These files may be of any type, such as text,
audio, image, video, or
any other appropriate media form. Although content stored in the content
repository 114 may
be offline, pertinent information thereof may be available online. Such online
content also
may include attributes, topics, concepts, categories, keywords, relevancy
information, types
of ads supported, and so forth. For example, a publisher 106 may publish
online content that
contains information about an outdoor jazz music festival which includes the
location of the
concerts, the time of the concerts, artists scheduled to appear at the
festival and the like.
[0048] In other implementations, content stored in the content repository 114
may
include structured data containing the content (words, pictures, etc.) and
some indication of
the meaning of that content or metadata (for example, email fields and
associated data,
HTML tags and associated data, etc.). For example, the web page 116 can
include content
and embedded information (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or
embedded
instructions (such as JavaScript, etc.).
[0049] The publisher 106 can create or modify the web page 116 through
conventional computing terminals such as a personal computer, a portable
computer, a
workstation, a computer terminal, a network computer, a display device (e.g.,
television), a
mainframe, a handled device or other data processing system or user device.
The publisher
106 may receive the web page 116 via the browser window 117 and by logging
onto an
associated publisher account. The web page 116 may be presented in a form of a
personal
web page, and may include additional hosted web pages that collectively
describe interests,
attributes or characteristics associated with the publisher 106.
[0050] In some implementations, the web page content 119 and/or embedded
content
113 may include, without limitation, articles, discussion threads, music,
video, games,
graphics, broadcast media, search results, web page listings, information
feeds and the like.
The publisher 106 may submit a request for ads to the advertising system
manager 104 that
target the content 119 on the web page 116. In some embodiments, the publisher
106 may
submit a request for embedded content 113, for which advertisements are
targeted and served
together. The ad request may include a number of ads desired or the type of
ads to be served.
The ad request may also include content request information. This information
may include
the content itself (e.g., page or other content document), a category
corresponding to the
content or the content request (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies,
arts-music, etc.),
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part or all of the content request, content age, content type (e.g., text,
graphics, video, audio,
mixed media, etc.), geo-location information, etc.
[0051] In response to the publisher's ad request, the advertising system
manager 104
sends the publisher 106 one or more ads for presentation on the web page 116
that may be
viewed by the user 108 (e.g., a browser or other content display system),
where in some
implementations, the ads may be sent with embedded content 113. In some
instances, the
publisher 106 may transmit additional information to the advertising system
manager 104 or
advertisers 102, including information describing how, when, and/or where the
requested ad
(or ads) is to be presented (e.g., in HTML, AJAX, ActiveXTM or JavaScriptTM),
such as where
a video database of shared video content that can be accessed by a client
using a web browser
may be provided, where the video hosting web site further comprises publishing
tools that
allow a content publisher to customize a player according to a variety of
parameters (e.g.,
player type, appearance, advertising options, etc.) and store the parameters
of the player in a
player database. The publisher may further associate the player with a
playlist of videos from
the video database or a selection of advertising preferences. The player may
be associated
with the publisher and may be further associated with a playlist of multimedia
content such as
audio and videos from the video database or a selection of advertising
preferences.
[0052] Additionally, a user interface may be provided for creating players
designed
for viewing video playlists embedded on a website. One embodiment may be a
player that
can be embedded into a web page, such as a publisher's web page, using an
embed code that
contains a player identifier associated with the specific player. The embedded
code, when
executed, may cause the identified video player to be displayed on the web
page according to
the customized parameters and playlists associated with the player. The player
may include a
viewing window and various controls and options that allow a user viewing the
web page to
navigate the playlist and play the videos. When a video is selected from the
playlist for
playback, the player may connect to the video hosting site and retrieves the
video from the
video database at the host site.
[0053] In one implementation, ads may be displayed along with the video
content
from the playlist according to advertisement preferences associated with, for
example, the
client, the player, the content, or the web site providing the content for the
player. In another
implementation, revenue generated from the ads may be shared between one or
more of the
video hosting site, the ad management site, the publisher of the custom
player, and the
original provider of the video content.
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[0054] As explained previously, when the user 108 clicks on the ad 118
displayed on
the web page 116, the user 108 is redirected to a landing page 120 provided by
the advertiser
102. In these implementations, when the user 108 performs a predefined
conversion action,
the publisher 106 may be compensated for the conversion. Generally, a
conversion is a
defined action in response to an ad's call to action. A conversion action can
be a sale, or it
could be a registration, download or entry into an advertiser's lead database,
depending on
the goal of the advertiser's ad campaign. Alternatively, the publisher can be
compensated
when a user clicks on an add in a cost-per-click (CPC) model, or per user ad
impression in a
cost-per-mille (CPM) model.
[0055] The user 108 and the advertiser 102, as well as the one or more
publishers
106, can provide usage information to the advertising system manager 104, such
as, for
example, whether or not a conversion or click-through related to an ad has
occurred. This
usage information can include measured or observed user behavior related to
ads that have
been served. The advertising system manager 104 performs financial
transactions, such as
crediting participating publishers and charging sponsoring advertisers based
on the usage
information.
[0056] In some implementations, the publisher 106 receives one or more code
snippets, each associated with a selected ad. Each code snippet can include a
signed or
encoded specification of the ad(s) determined by the publisher 106. For
example, for an ad
regarding MP3 music player, the publisher 106 may receive a code snippet, from
the
advertising system manager 104, associated with a selected ad, such as a
banner ad for the
MP3 music player. In some implementations, the code snippet includes a
specification
corresponding to the selected ad(s) that associate with a set of conversion
actions (e.g.,
purchasing the MP3 player, subscription to a mailing list) which may result
from interaction
with the ad by the user 108 (e.g., a click-through). In other implementations,
when ads that
are eligible for a particular set of conversion actions are known by the
advertising system
manager 104, the specification can be omitted from the code snippet. When a
conversion
occurs, the conversion action allows the advertising system manager 104 to
determine how
much the publisher 106 is credited resulting from showing the ad 118 on the
web page 116.
In some embodiments, credits are accounted for based on impressions, click-
through, or
playback of associated embedded content 113.
[0057] In some implementations, one or more code snippets can be added to the
web
page codes. For example, the publisher 106 may add the banner ad code snippet
to the web
page codes. In some implementations, the code snippet is a web script, such as
JavaScript .
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The execution of the code snippet results in a contact with the advertising
system manager
104 and the display of the ad 118, and in some embodiments, for embedded
display of
embedded content 113 as well. When the user 108 clicks on the displayed ad
118, the
advertising system manager 104 is contacted again, and the user 108 is
redirected to the
landing page 120. During this event, the user 108 can receive a signed browser
cookie from
the advertising system manager 104. In some implementations, tampering with
the contents
of the signed browser cookie invalidates conversion actions associated with
the cookie. The
cookie can include information, such as an identifier of the MP3 player banner
ad, an
identifier of the publisher 106, and the date/time the banner ad was selected
by the user 108.
The cookie can then be used together with information associated with
conversion actions
performed at the advertiser 102 by the user 108 to credit the publisher 106
and debit the
advertiser 102.
[0058] As an example, during operation, the user 108 can select a particular
ad
displayed on the publisher web page 116. The publisher code snippet directs
the user 108 to
the advertising system manager 104 from which a signed browser cookie is
retrieved. In
some embodiments, the selection of the ad is considered a credit towards the
publisher 106
and/or the partner 112. The user 108 is then directed to the landing page 120
provided by the
advertiser 102. In some embodiments, the user 108 performs a conversion action
at the
advertiser 102, such as purchasing a product or service, registering, joining
a mailing list, etc.
The advertiser code snippet can be included within a conversion confirmation
page script,
such as a script within a web page presented after the purchase. The
advertiser code snippet
contacts the advertising system manager 104 and reports the conversion type
identifier from
the advertiser code snippet as well as information from the cookie, such as a
publisher
identifier, an ad identifier, and a date/time of the ad impression and click.
The conversion
data (e.g., number and types of conversions) can be stored in the conversion
data repository
124, where it can be used by the advertising system manager 104 to improve ad
targeting
performance.
Conversion and Click-through Overview
[0059] Generally, when a user or viewer clicks on an ad (e.g., ad 118), the
embedded
hypertext link associated with the ad typically directs the viewer to the
advertiser's landing
page. This process, wherein the viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to
as a "click-
through" ("Click-through" is intended to cover any user selection). The ratio
of the number
of click-throughs to the number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of
times an ad is
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displayed) is commonly referred to as the "click-through rate," or CTR, of the
ad. A
"conversion" is said to occur when a user consummates a transaction related to
a previously
served ad. What constitutes a conversion may vary from case to case and can be
determined
in a variety of ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion occurs
when a user
clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's web page, and consummates a
purchase there
before leaving that web page. Many other definitions of what constitutes a
conversion are
possible. The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of impressions
of the ad (i.e.,
the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the
conversion rate.
[0060] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 may receive
revenue earning report for a particular product or service from the advertiser
102, and based
on the revenue earning report, the advertising system manager 104 may further
determine
metrics such as, without limitation, click-through rates (CTR), revenue per
thousand ads
(RPM), conversions per dollars spent (CPD) or other suitable metrics based, at
least in part,
on viewer actions associated with each participating publisher.
Revenue Sharing Process
[0061] The advertiser 102 may have an advertising program or campaign
established
with the advertising system manager 104. The advertising system manager 104
may facilitate
the advertising campaign by identifying one or more participating publishers,
and placing one
or more ads on participating publishers' web properties. The advertiser 102
can be charged a
fee for placement of the ads on either a cost-per-click, cost-per-thousand-
impressions, cost-
per-action or other basis, and the participating publishers can be credited
with a portion of the
fee.
[0062] In general, the fee received from the advertiser 102 is revenue. In
some
implementations, the advertising system manager 104 may establish a revenue
sharing
scheme with the partner 112 as an incentive to sign up additional publishers
to participate or
otherwise facilitate the participation of existing publishers in one or more
ad campaigns. For
example, the advertising system manager 104 may distribute 50% of the gross
revenue to the
partner 112 while retaining the remaining 50% of the gross revenue. In other
implementations, the revenue sharing scheme also may include the publisher
106, as will be
described in greater detail below.
[0063] The partner 112 may provide one or more pieces of embeddable content
113,
hyperlinks, signs or banners on the web page 116, or directly through the
partner's 112 web
presence, to inform or encourage existing and potential publishers to
participate in the one or
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more ad campaigns. In implementations in which hyperlinks are provided, the
hyperlinks can
direct potential publishers to a web page provided by the advertising system
manager 104.
The web page may provide directions, rules, policies or instructions as to how
a user may
participate in an ad campaign. The web page also may provide a user interface
through
which a user may establish a publisher account to become a publisher and
participate in the
ad campaign, and in particular, revenue sharing with the advertiser 102 and
partner 112.
[0064] The partner 112 also may increase its network of participating
publishers 106
by publicizing and offering potential publishers, for example, embeddable
content 113 for
inclusion on the publisher's web page 116, free web hosting, free email
accounts, free or
discounted premium access to publishing tools that are not normally accessible
to non-
participating publishers. In some implementations, the advertising system
manager 104 may
collect a separate fee from the advertiser 102 for managing the placement of
the ads and
targeting ads based on the publisher content.
[0065] The advertising system manager 104 may define various components of the
revenue sharing scheme including details of the revenue sharing scheme and the
criteria for
offering the revenue sharing scheme to the partner 112. Details of the revenue
sharing
scheme may include, for example, information describing the nature and
quantitative measure
of the compensation being offered, and the criteria may include, for example,
publishers 106
who publish a particular type of content or publishers 106 that reside in a
particular
geographic location.
[0066] The advertising system manager 104, the participating publisher 106 and
the
partner 112 also may collectively agree on a revenue sharing policy, based on
the revenue
generated from the users 108 viewing the ads (e.g., based on impressions,
click-through, or
conversion rates). In some implementations, the partner 112 may directly
negotiate with the
publisher 106 with respect to the terms of the revenue sharing policy. The
terms may include
a predetermined revenue sharing rate for the partner 112 and the publisher 106
based on the
gross revenue received by the advertising system manager 104. For example, if
the gross
revenue received from the advertising system manager 104 is $100 and 40% of
which is
retained for covering operational cost, a partner may incentivize a publisher
106 to participate
in an ad campaign by allocating 85% of the remaining 60% of the gross revenue
to the
publisher 106 as profit. The terms may be modified at any period to reflect a
higher or lesser
revenue sharing rate. Using the example given above, the terms may be modified
after 30
days by the partner 112 to allocate 95% (as opposed to 85%) of the remaining
60% of the
gross revenue to the publisher 106.
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[0067] In some implementations, a partner 112 may offer different revenue
sharing
levels (e.g., tiered levels) to participating publishers based on the quality
of publisher content,
popularity of associated web page (e.g., based on a number of user visits) or
class of
membership (e.g., Gold, Silver or Bronze that a participating publisher has
enrolled with a
partner). For example, participating publishers with Gold memberships may
receive a
revenue sharing rate of 60%, participating publishers with Silver memberships
may receive a
revenue sharing rate of 50%, and participating publishers with Gold
memberships may
receive a revenue sharing rate of 40%. As another example, a participating
publisher with the
most user visits may receive a revenue sharing rate of 80%, while other
participating
publishers receive a revenue sharing rate of 50%.
[0068] Of course, the revenue allotted to the partner 112 and the publisher
106 need
not be made a percentage of the gross revenue. Rather, the partner 112 may
receive a flat fee
from the advertising system manager 104 for each publisher referral, or the
publisher 106
may receive a flat fee from the advertising system manager 104 for each ad
presented or each
click-through. The partner 112 may also receive a portion of the revenue
generated from
cost-per-click, cost-per-action or cost-per-impression conversion as a result
of the publisher's
participation in an ad campaign running on the web page 116. In one
embodiment, the
partner 112 revenue share is further subdivided between the partner 112 and
further third
party creators and licesors of embedded content 113 provided by the partner
112.
[0069] In instances where the partner 112 has association with multiple
participating
publishers 106, the partner 112 may receive a percentage of revenue share from
each
publisher 106 according to the respective terms. The terms may be extended to
existing and
potential publishers 106. The revenue sharing policy may be specified on a per
partner-
publisher pair basis. Alternatively, the same revenue sharing policy may apply
to all
associated participating publishers 106. As an example, if a partner 112 has
three
participating publishers 106 (e.g., publisher "A", publisher "B" and publisher
"C"), and the
partner 112 has negotiated a 15% revenue sharing rate with publisher "A", then
the partner
112 also would receive the same revenue sharing rate from publisher "B" and
publisher "C".
[0070] In implementations in which the partner 112 receives a 15% revenue
sharing
rate from publisher "A" but declares a different revenue sharing rate with
publisher "B" and
publisher "C," the advertising system manager 104 can intervene to
automatically adjust the
revenue sharing rate with publisher "B" and publisher "C," so that the revenue
sharing rate is
identical with each publisher. In some implementations, the advertising system
manager 104
may track potential rate inconsistency based on payable events including cost-
per-impression,
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cost-per-click and cost-per-action events, and intervene by adjusting the
revenue payout to
the partner 112 so as to match the revenue rate specified with publisher "B"
and publisher
"C". Alternatively, the advertising system manager 104 may notify the partner
112 and
request a change be made until the revenue sharing scheme can become
effective.
[0071] In other instances, even if the revenue sharing rate specified between
the
partner 112 and each participating publisher 106 is consistent, the partner
112 can unfairly
manipulate the revenue sharing scheme by, for example, using the publisher
content 119 as
means to draw potential users, and dynamically switching out ads 118 shown on
the web
page 116 with ads associated with another ad campaign in which the partner 112
may
personally participate, thus reducing the percentage of gross revenue that the
publisher 106
could have received from the ad campaign in which the publisher 106 partakes.
[0072] More specifically and as discussed above, ads may be shown on the web
page
116 by inserting a code snippet with the content 119. This code snippet
generally contains a
publisher identification that determines the identity of the publisher 106,
and identifies which
publisher 106 should receive the revenue and impressions/click/conversions
credit for the ads
displayed on the web page 119. Typically, this publisher identification is
that of the
publisher 106 that owns and authors the content 119 on the web page 116. In a
two-way
revenue sharing scheme where the advertising system manager 104 and the
publisher 106
may have agreed to a revenue sharing rate, the advertising system manager 104
can credit a
proper publisher (as opposed to a different publisher) by referring to the
publisher
identification. In a three-way revenue sharing scheme involving the
advertising system
manager 104, the publisher 106 and the partner 112, the partner 112 receives
credit from the
advertising system manager 104 and forwards a portion of the credit to the
publisher 106
based on the publisher identification (e.g., as identified by the advertising
system manager).
However, since the partner 112 is placing the code snippet on the web page 119
hosted by the
partner 112, the partner 112 has the ability to replace the publisher
identification with that of
the partner's personal publisher identification. For example, the partner 112
may show own
ads with his own publication identification 20% of the time to receive 20%
more revenue
than that the publisher 106 would otherwise receive. This is referred to as ad
code rotation,
which enables callous partners to accrue revenue for monetizing the content
119 instead of
the publishers.
[0073] Thus, in some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 may
systematically determine the origination of each ad against publisher content
on a scheduled
or random basis, identify ads that are not associated with an ad campaign
participated by the
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publisher 106, and notify the publisher accordingly. The advertising system
manager 106
also can track potential ad code rotation by checking on a scheduled or random
basis if more
than one publisher identification appears in the code snippet at two different
instances of time
for the same web page (e.g., web page 116). If the advertising system manager
106
determines that more than one publisher identification appears in the code
snippet on a web
page at two different instances of time, then the partner associated with the
web page may be
sanctioned or penalized.
[0074] The advertising system manager 104 may implement a fee policy in which
a
portion of the gross revenue to be retained by the advertising system manager
104 is taken
out prior to disbursing the gross revenue to the partner 112 for distribution
to the publisher
106. As an example, if the gross revenue generated from an ad campaign is $100
and the
revenue sharing rate for the advertising system manager 104, partner 112 and
the publisher
106 is 40%, 15% and 85% respectively, then the advertising system manager 104
may retain
$40 before disbursing the remaining revenue of $60 to the partner 112, which
would receive
$9, and to the publisher 106, which would receive $5 1.
[0075] Other orders also are possible. For example, the advertising system
manager
104 may first disburse the gross revenue to the partner 112 and the publisher
106 in
accordance with the revenue share agreement between the partner 112 and the
publisher 106
prior to retaining the revenue share allotted to the advertising system
manager 104. The
advertising system manager 104 may subsequently deduct and retain a percentage
of revenue
from the portion disbursed to the partner 112 and a percentage of revenue from
the portion
disbursed to the publisher 106.
[0076] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 may deduct
a
different percentage of revenue from the partner 112 and the publisher 106.
For example, if
the gross revenue generated from an ad campaign is $100 and the revenue
sharing rate for the
partner and the publisher is 15% and 85% respectively, the advertising system
manager 104
may disburse $15 to the partner and $85 to the publisher. Then, the
advertising system
manager 104 may deduct 30% of the $15 (i.e., $4.50) disbursed to the partner
112, and 40%
of the $85 (i.e., $34) disbursed to the publisher 106 to cover operational
cost. This variable
rate allows the advertising system manager 104 to further incentivize and
encourage the
continuous participation of partners 112 or publishers 106 that are valuable
to the ad
campaign and revenue generation. For example, the partner 112 may have a large
group of
associated publishers each participating in the ad campaign. In this example,
the advertising
system manager 104 may reduce the percentage of revenue collected from the
partner 112
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(e.g., from 30% to 20%), so that a larger percentage of revenue can directly
pass onto the
partner 112 as a reward for the partner's performance, while maintaining the
percentage of
revenue collected from each of the publishers 106.
[0077] Similarly, the advertising system manager 104 may reduce the percentage
of
gross revenue collected from a participating publisher 106 (e.g., from 40% to
30% for a top
performer) while maintaining the percentage of revenue collected from a
partner 112, so that
a larger percentage of revenue can directly pass onto the publisher 106 as a
reward for its
increase in content readership and improved content.
[0078] The advertising system manager 104 may track financial, contractual,
service
and auditing issues on behalf of the advertiser 102, the partner 112 and the
publisher 106.
For example, the advertising system manager 104 may be primarily responsible
for debiting
the advertisers 102, receiving payments from the advertisers 102, determining
a gross
revenue, crediting the partners 112 and/or publishers 106 in accordance with
the revenue
sharing rates specified in the existing revenue sharing agreements. The
partner 112 may be
responsible for splitting a portion of the revenue received from the
advertising system
manager 104 with the publisher 106 according to the terms arranged between the
partner 112
and the publisher 106.
[0079] In other implementations, the publisher 106 and the advertising system
manager 104 may agree on a revenue sharing arrangement without the
participation of the
partner 112. For example, the publisher 106 may directly negotiate a revenue
sharing rate
with the advertising system manager 104 for participating in an ad campaign.
In these
implementations, the publisher 106 may sign up with the advertising system
manager 104 to
become a partner 112, and to host other publishers 106 or to provide its own
embeddable
content 113 to other publishers 106. In such implementations, the partner 112
may receive a
variable or flat fee (or rate) from the publisher 106 for managing the display
of ads and/or
embeddable content 113 on the web page 116.
[0080] Partners 112, in one implementation, may be capped at a maximum revenue
sharing rate by the advertising system manager 104, so as to discourage the
partners 112 from
taking all or a dominant portion of the revenue from content monetization of
the publishers'
network properties. For example, each partner 112 may be capped a maximum
revenue
sharing rate of 75 % by the advertising system manager 104 to prevent revenue
abuse. In
other implementation, other incentives may be applied, so as to allow the
possibility of
passing all of the gross revenue directly to the publishers 106, which can
potentially
encourage the improvement of content to obtain a higher rate of readership.
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[0081] In some implementations, a partner 112 may modify terms of an existing
revenue sharing agreement. As an example, a partner 112 may decide to modify a
revenue
sharing rate with associated publishers 106. The partner 112 may submit a
change of revenue
sharing rate to the advertising system manager 104 for confirmation. The
change may be
submitted through a user interface configured to facilitate communication
between the
partners 112 and the advertising system manager 104. Alternatively, the change
may be
submitted in the form of an electronic mail or message outside the user
interface.
[0082] In response to receiving a request to change a revenue sharing rate,
the
advertising system manager 104 may notify each associated publisher 106
regarding the rate
change request. For example, the advertising system manager 104 may notify all
associated
publishers 106 through electronic messaging (or associated account with the
advertising
system manager 104) that a revenue sharing rate for a corresponding partner
112 will be
adjusted from "15%" to "20%". In other implementations, the partner 112 may be
required
to directly notify all participating publishers 106 associated with the
partner 112 of the
modified terms.
[0083] In some implementations, the rate change becomes effective only after a
predetermined period so as to allow the participating publishers 106 an
opportunity to abide
and adapt to the new rate change. As an example, the modified terms of the
existing revenue
sharing agreement becomes effective after thirty days from the time of
receiving the request.
As another example, the modified terms of the existing revenue sharing
agreement becomes
effective after thirty days beginning from the day the new rate change is
communicated to the
participating publishers 106.
[0084] In response to the rate change request, a publisher 106 may be given an
option
to accept the new modified terms or alternatively, associate with a new
partner 112 that has a
lesser partner revenue sharing rate.
[0085] In some implementations, the terms of a revenue sharing agreement may
be
determined prior to forming the association between the prospective publisher
106 and
associated partner 112. For example, during the partner-publisher association
process, each
prospective publisher 106 may evaluate the association with the partner 112.
The evaluation
may be based on the revenue sharing rate the partner 112 has established with
other
participating publishers 106. Each prospective publisher 106 may compare the
revenue
sharing rate between partners 112 prior to forming an association with a
partner 112. In some
implementations, if a partner 112 has submitted a rate change request that has
yet to become
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effective, the prospective publisher 106 can be notified about the new rate
change and the
value related to the change.
[0086] When a partner 112 with multiple participating publishers 106 submits
frequent requests to change terms of an existing revenue sharing agreement,
the frequent
changes may lead to confusion among the participating publishers 106. Thus, in
some
implementations, the number of requests that the partner 112 can submit to the
advertising
system manager 104 may be limited. For example, the advertising system manager
104 may
permit only one request per month. In other implementations, the advertising
system
manager 104 may impose a probation period between requests. For example, the
probation
period may be ninety days between a previous request and a current request.
[0087] While the aforementioned implementations are described in terms of a
publisher 106 being associated with a single partner 112, the publisher 112
also may form
association with multiple partners 112. For example, publisher "A" may set up
a blog on
"blogger.com" and participate in revenue sharing scheme with "blogger.com" by
enabling
one or more ads to be shown on the blog. Concurrently, publisher "A" also may
have a
personal web space on "Myspace.com" where publisher "A" may establish a
personal profile
page that describes interests, attributes, characteristics, networks and
organizations associated
with publisher "A". Publisher "A" may participate in a different revenue
sharing scheme
with "Myspace.com" by enabling contextual ads to be shown in the personal
profile page for
viewers browsing the page. Similarly, a publisher 106 may embed content from
multiple
partners 112 with associated advertisements.
[0088] In some embodiments, the partner 112 may exclude come content 113 from
being used in revenue sharing, and/or the publisher 106 may exclude certain
partners 112 or
content 113 from appearing on the publisher 106 web site 116. The embedded
content 113
may be a single piece of content or may be a playlist of content that can be
played in an
ordered format.
Bounty Referral Program
[0089] In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 also may
implement a bounty referral program that awards partners 112 for signing up
new publishers
106 to participate in one or more ad campaigns managed by the advertising
system manager
104. The bounty program may be structured to be more favorable to partners 112
who
allocate a greater portion of their received revenue to participating
publishers 106. Offering a
higher revenue share to participating publishers 106 may encourage more
publishers to
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publish their content on partner web properties, while also promoting
publisher loyalty
among participating publishers by providing adequate compensation for
publishing.
[0090] The bounty referral program may offer a bounty bonus that may be
calculated
based on the revenue share allocated to each participating publisher 106 after
adjusting for
the partner's revenue share. The bounty bonus also may be determined based on
the gross
revenue prior to revenue deduction allotted to the advertising system manager
104 for ad
campaigns administered on the web page 116.
[0091] In some implementations, there may be a revenue threshold and a time
limit
during which the revenue threshold must be reached by the publisher 106 in
order that the
partner 112 be qualified to receive a bounty bonus. For example, if the
revenue threshold is
set at $10 and the time limit is set at a period of 180 days, then partner "A"
will be eligible to
receive a bounty bonus only when publisher "A" gains $10 in revenue within 180
days.
[0092] In some implementations, if a publisher 106 is associated with multiple
partners 112, then the revenue threshold (and time limit) may be specified
with respect to a
particular partner. As an example, if publisher "A" is associated with both
partner A and
partner B and assuming that the revenue threshold and time limit for partner
"A" and partner
"B" are respectively set at $10 within 180 days and $20 within 90 days, then
partner A may
be eligible for a bounty bonus only if publisher "A" gains $10 in earnings on
a web page
hosted by partner "A" within 180 days, and partner "B" may be eligible for a
bounty bonus
only if publisher "A" gains $20 in earnings on a web page hosted by partner
"B" within 90
days.
[0093] In some implementations, the bounty referral program may be established
as a
function of the shared revenue, the revenue sharing rate and a predetermined
revenue
threshold. A bounty bonus may be awarded to a partner 112 when a revenue of a
participating publisher 106 has reached a predetermined threshold. In some
implementation,
the amount of the bounty bonus to be disbursed to the partner 112 is equal to
the
predetermined revenue threshold. For example, if the predetermined revenue
threshold is set
at $10, then the partner 112 would receive a bounty bonus of $10 when the
publisher 112
revenue reaches $10.
[0094] A bounty bonus may be applied every time a predetermined revenue
threshold
is reached. For example, if a participating publisher 106 has a revenue of $30
where the
predetermined revenue threshold is set at $10, then the associated partner 112
would receive
a bounty bonus of $30 (3 * $10 for every $10 reached) under the bounty
referral program in
addition to the revenue received under the revenue sharing agreement.
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[0095] As an example, given partner "A" and publisher "A" referred by partner
"A"
who have respectively agreed to a 25% and 75% revenue sharing rate, and
partner "B" and
publisher "B" referred by partner "B" who have respectively agreed to a 50%
and 50%
revenue sharing rate, and assuming that a portion of the gross revenue that
remained daily
after the adjustment of the advertising system manager's revenue share (i.e.,
the net revenue)
is $l, under the condition of the revenue sharing agreement, in 10 days,
publisher "A" would
receive $7.50 ($1 * 10 days * 75% revenue sharing rate), and publisher "B"
would receive
$5.00 ($1 * 10 days * 50% revenue sharing rate). If the predetermined revenue
threshold is
set at $10, then partner "A" who refers publisher "A" to the ad campaign would
receive a
profit of $2.50 (e.g., $1 * 10 days * 25% revenue sharing rate) under the
revenue sharing
agreement, but would not receive a bounty bonus because the revenue received
by publisher
"A" did not reach the predetermined revenue threshold (i.e., $10). Similarly,
partner "B"
who refers publisher "B" to the ad campaign would only receive a profit of
$5.00 (e.g., $1 *
days * 50% revenue sharing rate) under the revenue sharing agreement, but
would not
receive a bounty bonus because the revenue received by publisher "B" did not
reach the
predetermined revenue threshold of $10.
[0096] However, using the same criteria applied in the previous example, in
fifteen
days, publisher "A" would receive $11.25 ($1 * 15 days * 75% revenue sharing
rate), while
publisher "B" would receive $7.50 ($1 * 15 days * 50% revenue sharing rate).
Because the
revenue of publisher "A" exceeded the required revenue threshold of $10, which
qualifies
partner "A" to receive a bounty bonus, partner "A" would receive $13.75 of
which $3.75 ($1
* 15 days * 25% revenue sharing rate) is the revenue received under the
revenue sharing
agreement, and $10 is the revenue received under the bounty referral program.
On the other
hand, because the revenue received by publisher "B" did not reach the
predetermined revenue
threshold of $10, partner "B" is not eligible to receive a bounty bonus.
[0097] As is apparent from the above examples, partner "A" initially has a
revenue
less than partner "B" (e.g., in 10 days). However, with the implementation of
the bounty
referral program, a partner 112 with a lower revenue sharing rate (e.g., 25%)
may benefit
from a greater revenue earning power than a partner 112 with a higher revenue
sharing rate
(e.g., 50%) in the longer terms (e.g., $13.75 in 15 days and $40 in 40 days
for partner "A"
compared to $7.50 in 15 days and $30 in 40 days for partner "B").
[0098] With the bounty referral program, allocating a high revenue sharing
rate to
each participating publisher 106 may allow a partner 112 to financially
benefit from receiving
a greater revenue in the long term, while attracting prospective publishers
106 and promoting
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publisher loyalty. The bounty referral program allows a partner 112 to
allocate a greater
share of revenue to participating publishers 106 without suffering from
diminished revenue,
allowing the partner 112 to flexibly structure a revenue scheme that fits a
particular business
profile.
[0099] As an example, if a partner's business model to allow publishers to
participate
in an ad campaign through the advertising system manager is to increase
business revenue,
then the partner may choose to allocate a low percentage of revenue to
participating
publishers. As another example, if a partner's business model is to draw and
attract
publishers that generate quality content, then the partner may flexibly keep
little or no
revenue share from the participating publishers.
[00100] In some implementations there may be more than one bounty threshold
with
corresponding bounty bonuses defined under each threshold. This creates a
tiered bounty
structure. For example, in a first tier, a partner may become eligible for a
bounty bonus of
$10 if a participating publisher gains $10 in revenue. In a second tier, the
partner may
become eligible for a bounty bonus of $250 if a publisher gains $100 in
revenue, thus
accumulating a total of $255 in bounty bonus for the partner based on the
tiered bounty
structure.
[00101] In some implementation, a partner may also be rewarded for enrolling a
number of publishers that reach one or more revenue thresholds as described
above. For
example, assuming that the revenue threshold is set at $100 and if twenty five
participating
publishers have gained $100 in net revenue (e.g., after adjusting for the
portion of revenue
share retained by the advertising system manager), then the partner may be
qualified to
receive an additional bounty bonus (e.g., a bounty bonus of $2000). There may
be a limit on
the number of such bonuses that can be issued to a partner in a given time
period. For
example, the additional bounty bonus based on the number of participating
publishers who
have reached a particular revenue threshold may be limited to one per year.
Alternatively,
there is no limit as to the number of such bonuses that can be issued to a
partner in a given
time period.
Exemplary Processes
[00102] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process for determining
revenue
sharing between a partner 112 and a publisher 106. The process 300 may be
performed, for
example, by the system 100, and for clarity of presentation, the description
that follows uses
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these as the basis of examples for describing the process 300. However,
another system, or
combination of systems, may be used to perform the process 300.
[00103] In the example shown, the process 300 begins with receiving a request
to
participate in revenue sharing from a partner (302). A partner may be an
online service
provider that hosts one or more web properties, or may be a source of online
content that can
be embedded along with advertisements to be provided to publishers. A web
property can be,
for example, an online service which provides a publisher with a personal
space for sharing
user generated content with interested users/viewers, a media company, a music
label, a
broadcast network, and the like.
[00104] In response to the request, a graphical user interface (GUI) may be
generated
(304). The GUI may be operable to allow the partner to interface with at least
an advertising
system manager for any suitable purpose, such as viewing advertisements.
Generally, a GUI
provides the particular user with an efficient and user-friendly presentation
of data provided
by or communicated within system 100. The GUI may comprise a plurality of
customizable
frames or views having interactive fields, pull-down lists, and buttons. In
some
implementations, if the partner has previously participated in the revenue
sharing scheme, the
GUI may be operable to display past revenue sharing rates in a user-friendly
form. The GUI
may also present a plurality of portals or dashboards.
[00105] The GUI can be configurable, supporting a combination of tables and
graphs
(bar, line, pie, status dials, etc.), and may be able to build real-time data,
including current
revenue obtained, current revenue rate and the like. It should be understood
that the term
graphical user interface may be used in the singular or in the plural to
describe one or more
graphical user interfaces and each of the displays of a particular graphical
user interface.
Indeed, reference to a GUI may indicate a reference to a front-end as well as
the particular
interface accessible via the advertisers, partners or publishers, as
appropriate. Therefore, the
GUI as discussed herein contemplates any graphical user interface, such as a
generic web
browser or touch screen, that processes information in system 100 and
efficiently presents the
results to the user.
[00106] In some implementations, if the partner is already participating in
the revenue
sharing scheme, then operation 302 may be omitted, and the partner may login
(e.g., via
usemame and password) to access the user interface. The login may occur, for
example, via a
web page and the login process may use encryption, such as secure Hypertext
Transfer
Protocol (HTTPS).
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[00107] The process 300 also includes receiving input from the partner
specifying a
revenue sharing rate (306). For example, a partner may specify a revenue
sharing rate of
50%, in which the partner would receive 50% of the gross revenue, or 50% of
the remaining
revenue after deducting operating expenses (e.g., operated expenses incurred
by the
advertising system manager). In some implementations, receiving input from the
partner
specifying a revenue sharing rate may include modifying the previous revenue
sharing rate.
[00108] The process 300 proceeds with receiving a request from a publisher
associated
with the partner to participate in the revenue sharing scheme (308). The
publisher may be a
content provider that provides content to viewers/users through a web property
hosted by the
partner, or it may be a publisher that wishes to embed content from the
provider on the
publisher's own web property. In some implementations, receiving a request
from a
publisher includes receiving a request from the publisher through a partner's
web property.
For example, the publisher may click on a hyperlink displayed on the web
property provided
by the partner, which may direct the publisher to a web page provided by the
advertising
system manager. The publisher may then establish an account to participate in
the revenue
sharing scheme.
[00109] The process 300 then confirms the revenue sharing rate specified by
the
partner with the publisher (310). In some implementations, confirming the
revenue sharing
rate may include displaying revenue sharing rates of other partners, so as to
allow the
publisher to compare rates between various participating partners. In other
implementations,
confirming the revenue sharing rate may include receiving additional
information from the
publisher associated with, for example, the type of content that the publisher
provides to the
viewers/users. The publisher may also be provided with a user interface where
the publisher
can, at any time, log in and view the revenue share rate set by various
partners with whom the
publisher is associated.
[00110] Next, the process 300 invokes automated revenue sharing between the
partner
and the publisher (312). In some implementations, invoking automated revenue
sharing may
include determining when a previous revenue sharing rate, if any, had taken
effect. If the
previous revenue sharing rate had taken effect less than a desired period of
time, then
invoking automated revenue sharing may include invoking the revenue sharing
after the
desired period is exceeded. As an example, if the desired period is 90 days
and the current
revenue sharing rate was last modified 30 days ago, then process 300 would
only invoke the
automated revenue sharing after 60 days.
[00111] In other implementations, invoking automated revenue sharing may
include
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determining the frequency at which the revenue sharing rate is modified in a
given period. In
these implementations, if the frequency in a given period exceeds a
predetermined ratio, then
invoking automated revenue sharing may include invoking the revenue sharing
only after the
given period has expired. For example, if the predetermined ratio is modified
twice in 30
days, and it is determined that the current proposed modification to the
revenue sharing rate is
the third modification in 15 days, then process 300 would invoke the automated
revenue
sharing after 15 days.
[00112] Operations 302-312 in process 300 may be performed in the order
listed, in
parallel (e.g., by the same or a different process, substantially or otherwise
non-serially), or in
reverse order. For example, in some implementations, receiving a request to
participate in
revenue sharing from a publisher (308) may be performed prior to receiving
input from a
partner specifying revenue sharing rate (306). In other implementations,
receiving a request
to participate in revenue sharing from a publisher (308) may be performed
prior to receiving
a request from a partner to participate in revenue sharing (302).
[00113] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process 400 for determining a
bounty for a partner. Similar to process 300, the process 400 may be
performed, for example,
by the system 100, and for clarity of presentation, the description that
follows uses these as
the basis of examples for describing the process 400. However, another system,
or
combination of systems, may be used to perform the process 400.
[00114] As shown, the process 400 begins with receiving gross revenue report
from
advertiser(s) (402). In some implementations, the gross revenue report may
include
information including but not limited to: click-through rates, revenue per
thousand ads,
conversions per dollars spent and other conversion data associated with
transactions related to
served ad(s), etc. In some implementations, the advertising system manager may
be able to
generate such a report based upon data that flows through the online
advertising system.
[00115] The process 400 may include determining the current revenue sharing
rate and
a revenue threshold (404). In some implementations, the process may determine
the current
revenue sharing rate between a partner and a publisher based on input received
in process 300
(e.g., from operation 306). The revenue threshold may be defined, for example,
by the
advertising system manager 104. A bounty may be distributed to the partner
when the
publisher's earning has reached the revenue threshold.
[00116] In some implementations, the revenue threshold is determined based on
the
revenue sharing rate. The revenue threshold can be established proportionally
with the
revenue sharing rate specified by the partner. As an example, lowering the
revenue sharing
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rate distributed to the partner (e.g., from 20% to 10%) would lower the
revenue threshold
(e.g., from $20 to $10), allowing the publisher to reach the revenue threshold
in a shorter
period.
[00117] The process 400 further includes determining revenue to be disbursed
between
the partner and the publisher (406) and calculating (e.g., automatically) a
bounty based on the
revenue sharing rate and the revenue threshold (408). In some implementations,
the bounty is
calculated from the publisher revenue after adjusting for the partner's
revenue share. In these
implementations, calculating a bounty may include comparing the publisher
revenue against
the predetermined revenue threshold. If it is determined that the publisher
revenue is less
than the predetermined revenue threshold, then a bounty will not be
distributed to the partner.
For example, if the net revenue is $10, the revenue threshold is set at $20,
and the revenue
sharing rate between the partner and the publisher is set at a ratio of 90% to
10%, then the
partner would not be qualified to receive a bounty, because the publisher
revenue of $10 did
not exceed the revenue threshold. As another example, using the same criteria
with the
exception that the revenue sharing rate between the partner and the publisher
is set at a ratio
of 20% to 80%, then the partner would be eligible to receive a bounty, because
the publisher
revenue of $80 exceeded the revenue threshold.
[00118] In some implementations, the bounty is calculated based on the gross
revenue
before operation costs are deducted. Exemplary operation costs may include,
without
limitation, the revenue share to be disbursed to the advertising system
manager. In these
implementations, the revenue threshold is compared against the remaining
revenue share after
adjusting for the partner's revenue share and the operation cost. As an
example, if the gross
revenue is $100, the revenue sharing rate between the partner and the
publisher is set at a
ratio of 60% to 40% (i.e., the publisher would receive $40) and the operation
cost is $20, then
the remaining $20 (i.e., subtracting the operation cost from the publisher
revenue) is
compared against the revenue threshold. A bounty bonus may then be
subsequently awarded
to the partner when the remaining revenue share (after adjusting for the
partner's revenue
share and the operation cost) has met the predetermined revenue threshold.
Generic Computer System
[00119] FIG 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a generic computer
system
500. The system 500 can be used for the operations described in association
with the method
300 according to one implementation. For example, the system 500 may be
included in
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devices or systems owned or operated by any of the advertisers 102, the
advertising system
manager 104, and the publishers 106.
[00120] The system 500 includes a processor 510, a memory 520, a storage
device
530, and an input/output device 540. Each of the components 510, 520, 530, and
540 are
interconnected using a system bus 550. The processor 510 is capable of
processing
instructions for execution within the system 500. In some implementations, the
processor
510 is a single-threaded processor. In other implementations, the processor
510 is a multi-
threaded processor. The processor 510 is capable of processing instructions
stored in the
memory 520 or on the storage device 530 to display graphical information for a
user interface
on the input/output device 540.
[00121] The memory 520 stores information within the system 500. In some
implementations, the memory 520 is a computer-readable medium. In other
implementations, the memory 520 is a volatile memory unit. In yet other
implementations,
the memory 520 is a non-volatile memory unit.
[00122] The storage device 530 is capable of providing mass storage for the
system
500. In some implementations, the storage device 530 is a computer-readable
medium. In
various different implementations, the storage device 530 may be a floppy disk
device, a hard
disk device, an optical disk device, or a tape device.
[00123] The input/output device 540 provides input/output operations for the
system
500. In some implementations, the input/output device 540 includes a keyboard
and/or
pointing device. In other implementations, the input/output device 540
includes a display
unit for displaying graphical user interfaces.
[00124] The features described can be implemented in digital electronic
circuitry, or in
computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them. The
apparatus can be
implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in an information
carrier,
e.g., in a machine-readable storage device or in a propagated signal, for
execution by a
programmable processor; and method steps can be performed by a programmable
processor
executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the described
implementations by
operating on input data and generating output. The described features 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. A computer program is a set of
instructions that
can be used, directly or indirectly, in a computer to perform a certain
activity or bring about a
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certain result. A computer program can be written in any form of programming
language,
including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed in any
form, including as
a stand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unit
suitable for use in
a computing environment.
[00125] Suitable processors for the execution of a program of instructions
include, by
way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors, and the sole
processor or
one of multiple processors of any kind of computer. Generally, a processor
will receive
instructions and data from a read-only memory or a random access memory or
both. The
essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions
and one or more
memories for storing instructions and data. Generally, a computer will also
include, or be
operatively coupled to communicate with, 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 and DVD-ROM disks. The processor and the memory can
be
supplemented by, or incorporated in, ASICs (application-specific integrated
circuits).
[00126] To provide for interaction with a user, the features can be
implemented on a
computer having a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD
(liquid crystal
display) monitor for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a
pointing device
such as a mouse or a trackball by which the user can provide input to the
computer.
[00127] The features can be implemented in a computer system that includes a
back-
end component, such as a data server, or that includes a middleware component,
such as an
application server or an Internet server, or that includes a front-end
component, such as a
client computer having a graphical user interface or an Internet browser, or
any combination
of them. The components of the system can be connected by any form or medium
of digital
data communication such as a communication network. Examples of communication
networks include, e.g., a LAN, a WAN, and the computers and networks forming
the Internet.
[00128] The computer system can include clients and servers. A client and
server are
generally remote from each other and typically interact through a network. The
relationship
of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the
respective
computers and having a client-server relationship to each other.
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[00129] A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will
be
understood that various modifications may be made. For example, elements of
one or more
implementations may be combined, deleted, modified, or supplemented to form
further
implementations. As yet another example, the logic flows depicted in the
figures do not
require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable
results. In
addition, other steps may be provided, or steps may be eliminated, from the
described flows,
and other components may be added to, or removed from, the described systems.
Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following
claims.
[00130] What is claimed is:
33
