U.S. patent number 5,948,061 [Application Number 08/738,634] was granted by the patent office on 1999-09-07 for method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over networks.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Double Click, Inc.. Invention is credited to Dwight Allen Merriman, Kevin Joseph O'Connor.
United States Patent |
5,948,061 |
Merriman , et al. |
September 7, 1999 |
**Please see images for:
( Certificate of Correction ) ** |
Method of delivery, targeting, and measuring advertising over
networks
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for targeting the delivery of
advertisements over a network such as the Internet are disclosed.
Statistics are compiled on individual users and networks and the
use of the advertisements is tracked to permit targeting of the
advertisements of individual users. In response to requests from
affiliated sites, an advertising server transmits to people
accessing the page of a site an appropriate one of the
advertisement based upon profiling of users and networks.
Inventors: |
Merriman; Dwight Allen (New
York, NY), O'Connor; Kevin Joseph (New York, NY) |
Assignee: |
Double Click, Inc. (New York,
NY)
|
Family
ID: |
24968825 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/738,634 |
Filed: |
October 29, 1996 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
709/219; 715/234;
715/205; 705/14.53; 705/14.73 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
30/0264 (20130101); G06Q 30/0277 (20130101); G06Q
30/02 (20130101); G06Q 30/0255 (20130101); G06Q
30/0251 (20130101); G06Q 30/0269 (20130101); G06Q
30/0225 (20130101); G06Q 30/0243 (20130101); G06Q
30/0257 (20130101); G06Q 30/0261 (20130101); G06Q
30/0254 (20130101); G06Q 30/0272 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06Q
30/00 (20060101); G06F 017/30 (); G06F
151/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;395/200.36,200.33,200.47,200.48,200.49 ;705/26,10,14,27,1
;707/10,501,513 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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0 749 081 |
|
Dec 1996 |
|
EP |
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WO 9721183 |
|
Jun 1997 |
|
WO |
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Other References
Booker, Ellis "Seeing a Gap, A Palo Alto Startup Will Debut
Advertising Server for the Net", Web Week, v.2 iss2. Availabe
online at http://www.interntworld.com, Feb. 1996. .
Metcalfe, Bob "From the Ether", InfoWorld, v.18 iss 3. Available at
http://www.infoworld.com, Aug. 1996. .
NetGravity AdSerer 2.0 Annoucement. Available at
http://www.netgravity.com, Oct. 1996. .
"Internet access: Internet marketing revolution begins in the US
this Sep." (Hyper Net offering), EDGE: Work-Group Computing Report,
v7 n316, Jun. 1996. .
Kohda Y et al: Ubiquitous advertising on the WWW: Merging
Advertising on the Browser, Computer Networks and ISDN Systems,
vol. 28, No. 11, May 1996, pp. 1493-1499..
|
Primary Examiner: Dinh; Dung C.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Jacobson; Allan
Claims
We claim:
1. A network comprising:
a user node having a browser program coupled to said network, said
user node providing requests for information on said network;
a content provider affiliate node having a respective affiliate web
site responsive to requests for information from said user node to
provide media content, advertising space for display of advertising
content and a link message to said user node;
an advertiser node having an advertiser web site including
advertising content, said advertiser node responsive to a request
to provide said advertising content; and
an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said user
node based on said link message to select an advertiser node as a
selected advertiser node, and identify said advertiser node as said
selected advertiser node to said user node,
whereby said advertising content from said selected advertiser node
is displayed at said user node.
2. A network in accordance with claim 1, wherein said advertisement
server node selects said advertiser node based on the number of
times said advertising content has been previously displayed at
said user node.
3. A network in accordance with claim 1, wherein said advertisement
server node selects said advertiser node based on the
characteristics of said user.
4. A network in accordance with claim 3, wherein said advertisement
server node selects said advertiser node based on at least one of
the characteristics of said user selected from the group consisting
of user ID, IP address, user cookie, user login code, user digital
certificate, geographic location, time zone, country, domain type,
Internet service provider, organization type, employer, industry
type, company size, number of employees, types of advertisements
previously viewed and types of advertisements previously
clicked.
5. A network in accordance with claim 1, wherein said link message
is an HTML tag.
6. A network in accordance with claim 1, wherein said link message
is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used to
redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
7. In a network having a user node including a browser program
coupled to said network, said user node providing requests for
information on said network, a content provider affiliate node
having a respective affiliate web site responsive to requests for
information from said user node to provide media content,
advertising space for display of advertising content and a link
message to said user node, a plurality of advertiser nodes, each of
said plurality of advertiser nodes having a respective advertiser
web site including respective advertising content, each of said
advertiser nodes responsive to a respective request to provide
respective advertising content, a network node comprising:
an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said user
node based on said link message to select an advertiser node as a
selected advertiser node, and identify said advertiser node as said
selected advertiser node to said user node, whereby said
advertising content from said selected advertiser node is displayed
at said user node.
8. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 7, wherein
said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node based
on the number of times said advertising content has been previously
displayed at said user node.
9. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 7, wherein
said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node based
on the characteristics of said user.
10. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 9,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node
based on at least one of the characteristics of said user selected
from the group consisting of user ID, IP address, user cookie, user
login code, user digital certificate, geographic location, time
zone, country, domain type, Internet service provider, organization
type, employer, industry type, company size, number of employees,
types of advertisements previously viewed and types of
advertisements previously clicked.
11. A network node in accordance with claim 7, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
12. A network node in accordance with claim 7, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
13. In a network having a user node including a browser program
coupled to said network, said user node providing requests for
information on said network, an advertiser node having an
advertiser web site including advertising content, said advertiser
node responsive to a request to provide said advertising content,
and an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said
user node to select an advertiser node as a selected advertiser
node, and identify said advertiser node as said selected advertiser
node to said user node, wherein said advertising content from said
selected advertiser node is displayed at said user node, a network
node comprising:
a content provider affiliate node having a respective affiliate web
site responsive to requests for information from said user node to
provide media content and advertising space for display of
advertising content, said content provider affiliate web site
further providing a link message to said user node identifying the
IP address of said advertisement server node to said user node for
providing advertising content for said advertising space.
14. A network node in accordance with claim 13, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
15. A network node in accordance with claim 13, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing said IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
16. A network comprising:
a user node having a browser program coupled to said network, said
user node providing requests for information on said network;
a content provider affiliate node having a respective affiliate web
site responsive to requests for information from said user node to
provide media content, advertising space for display of advertising
content and a link message to said user node; and
an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said user
node based on said link message to select an advertising banner for
said advertising space, and to reply to said request from said user
node by identifying said advertising banner to said user node,
whereby said advertising banner from said advertisement server node
is displayed at said user node in said advertising space.
17. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 16,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node
based on the number of times said advertising content has been
previously displayed at said user node.
18. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 16,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node
based on the characteristics of said user.
19. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 18,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertiser node
based on at least one of the characteristics of said user selected
from the group consisting of user ID, IP address, user cookie, user
login code, user digital certificate, geographic location, time
zone, country, domain type, Internet service provider, organization
type, employer, industry type, company size, number of employees,
types of advertisements previously viewed and types of
advertisements previously clicked.
20. A network in accordance with claim 16, further including:
wherein said advertisement server node is responsive to a request
from said user node to identify an advertiser web site
corresponding to said advertising banner; and
an advertiser node having an advertiser web site including
advertising content corresponding to said advertising banner, said
advertiser node responsive to a request to provide said advertising
content corresponding to the selection of said advertising banner
by said user,
whereby said advertising content from said advertiser node is
displayed at said user node.
21. A network in accordance with claim 16, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
22. A network in accordance with claim 16, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
23. In a network comprising a user node having a browser program
coupled to said network, said user node providing requests for
information on said network, a content provider affiliate node
having a respective affiliate web site responsive to requests for
information from said user node to provide media content,
advertising space for display of advertising content and a link
message to said user node, a network node comprising:
an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said user
node based on said link message to select an advertising banner for
said advertising space, and to reply to said request from said user
node by identifying said advertising banner to said user node,
wherein said advertising banner from said advertisement server node
is displayed at said user node in said advertising space.
24. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 23,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on the number of times said advertising content has
been previously displayed at said user node.
25. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 23,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on the characteristics of said user.
26. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 25,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on at least one of the characteristics of said user
selected from the group consisting of user ID, IP address, user
cookie, user login code, user digital certificate, geographic
location, time zone, country, domain type, Internet service
provider, organization type, employer, industry type, company size,
number of employees, types of advertisements previously viewed and
types of advertisements previously clicked.
27. A network node in accordance with claim 23, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
28. A network node in accordance with claim 23, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
29. In a network comprising a user node having a browser program
coupled to said network, said user node providing requests for
information on said network, an advertisement server node
responsive to a request from said user node to select an
advertising banner for said advertising space, and to reply to said
request from said user node by identifying said advertising banner
to said user node, a network node comprising:
a content provider affiliate node having a respective affiliate web
site responsive to requests for information from said user node to
provide media content and advertising space for display of
advertising content, said content provider affiliate web site
further providing a link message to said user node identifying the
IP address of said advertisement server node to said user node for
providing an advertising banner for said advertising space.
30. A network node in accordance with claim 29, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
31. A network node in accordance with claim 29, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing said IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
32. In a network comprising a user node having a browser program
coupled to said network, said user node providing requests for
information on said network, a content provider affiliate node
having a respective affiliate web site responsive to requests for
information from said user node to provide media content,
advertising space for display of advertising content and a link
message to said user node, and an advertiser node having an
advertiser web site including advertising content corresponding to
said advertising banner, said advertiser node responsive to a
request to provide said advertising content corresponding to the
selection of said advertising banner by said user, a network node
comprising:
an advertisement server node responsive to a request from said user
node based on said link message to select an advertising banner for
said advertising space, and to reply to said request from said user
node by identifying said advertising banner to said user node,
wherein said advertisement server node is responsive to a request
from said user node to identify an advertiser web site
corresponding to said advertising banner, whereby said advertising
banner from said advertisement server node is displayed at said
user node in said advertising space, and whereby said advertising
content from said selected advertiser node is displayed at said
user node.
33. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 32,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on the number of times said advertising content has
been previously displayed at said user node.
34. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 32,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on the characteristics of said user.
35. An advertisement server node in accordance with claim 34,
wherein said advertisement server node selects said advertising
banner based on at least one of the characteristics of said user
selected from the group consisting of user ID, IP address, user
cookie, user login code, user digital certificate, geographic
location, time zone, country, domain type, Internet service
provider, organization type, employer, industry type, company size,
number of employees, types of advertisements previously viewed and
types of advertisements previously clicked.
36. A network method in accordance with claim 35, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertising banner based on
the characteristics of said user.
37. A network method in accordance with claim 36, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertising banner based on
at least one of the characteristics of said user selected from the
group consisting of user ID, IP address, user cookie, user login
code, user digital certificate, geographic location, time zone,
country, domain type, Internet service provider, organization type,
employer, industry type, company size, number of employees, types
of advertisements previously viewed and types of advertisements
previously clicked.
38. A network method in accordance with claim 35, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertising banner based on
the number of times said advertising content has been previously
displayed at said user node.
39. A method in accordance with claim 37, said method further
comprising:
sending a request from said user node to said advertising server
web site responsive to selection of said advertising banner at said
user node;
sending a reply from said advertising server web site to said user
node identifying said advertiser web site corresponding to said
advertising banner;
sending a request from said user node to said advertising web site
to provide said advertising content corresponding to said
advertising banner by said user;
sending a reply from said advertiser web site to said user node;
and
displaying said advertising content at said user node.
40. A network node in accordance with claim 32, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
41. A network node in accordance with claim 32, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
42. In a network including a user node having a browser program
coupled to said network, a content provider affiliate node having a
respective affiliate web site containing media content, advertising
space for display of advertising content and an advertisement
server node having an advertising server web site, a method for
delivery of advertising to said user node, said method
comprising:
sending a request for information from said user node to said
affiliate web site requesting information;
sending a reply from said affiliate web site responsive to said
request for information from said user node, said reply containing
media content, advertising space for display of advertising content
and a link message to said user node;
sending a request from said user node based on said link message to
said advertising server web site to provide an advertising banner
for said advertising space;
selecting, at said advertising server web site, an advertising
banner;
sending a reply from said advertising server web site identifying
said advertising banner to said user node; and
displaying said advertising banner in said advertising space at
said user node.
43. A network method in accordance with claim 42, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
44. A network method in accordance with claim 42, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
45. In a network including a user node having a browser program
coupled to said network, a content provider affiliate node having a
respective affiliate web site containing media content and
advertising space for display of advertising content, an
advertisement server node, and an advertiser node having an
advertiser web site including advertising content, a method for
delivery of advertising content to said user node said method
comprising:
sending a request for information from said user node to said
affiliate web site requesting information;
sending a reply from said affiliate web site, responsive to said
request for information from said user node, containing media
content, advertising space for display of advertising content and a
link message to said user node;
sending a request based on said link message from said user node to
said advertisement server node to select an advertiser node;
selecting, at said advertisement server node, an advertiser
node;
sending a reply from said advertisement server node to said user
node identifying said selected advertiser node;
sending a request from said user node to said advertiser node to
provide said advertising content to said user;
sending a reply from said advertiser web site to said user node
containing said advertising content; and
displaying said advertising content at said user node.
46. A network method in accordance with claim 45, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertiser node based on the
number of times said advertising content has been previously
displayed at said user node.
47. A network method in accordance with claim 45, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertiser node based on the
characteristics of said user.
48. A network method in accordance with claim 47, wherein said
advertisement server node selects said advertiser node based on at
least one of the characteristics of said user selected from the
group consisting of user ID, IP address, user cookie, user login
code, user digital certificate, geographic location, time zone,
country, domain type, Internet service provider, organization type,
employer, industry type, company size, number of employees, types
of advertisements previously viewed and types of advertisements
previously clicked.
49. A network method in accordance with claim 45, wherein said link
message is an HTML tag.
50. A network method in accordance with claim 45, wherein said link
message is an HTTP redirect message containing an IP address used
to redirect said user node to said advertisement server node.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Area of the Art
This invention relates to methods of delivery of advertisements and
measuring responses to those delivered advertisements and in
particular relates to the targeting of advertisements delivered
over networks such as the Internet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In advertising, it is considered highly desirable to target
advertisements to the appropriate potential customer base, rather
than to broadcast advertisements in general. It has long been known
that, for example, advertisements for computers should generally
not appear in magazines on gardening and, conversely,
advertisements for gardening tools should not appear in magazines
on computers. Similarly, advertisers have generally targeted their
advertisements on television to programs appropriate for the
desired customer base.
It has also long been known that an advertisement that is repeated
too often will eventually become ignored by consumers. Therefore,
an advertiser typically wishes to eliminate duplication and reach
as many individuals in the advertiser's target group as
possible.
The recent development of on-line networks, such as America
On-Line, Compuserve, and the Internet, has led to "on-line"
advertising. For example, on the Internet, often such on-line
advertisements will appear on a web page, such as a banner on the
top or the bottom of the page. When the user views a web page using
a browser such as Internet Explorer 3 or Netscape 3, the banner
appears at the appropriate location and the user may then try to
find out more information regarding the advertisement by selecting
the advertisement (clicking through on that banner) through the use
of the mouse or other pointing device. This will cause a HTTP
message to be generated by the browser using the information
encapsulated in association with the banner to send a request for
an object with a given URL address to a different appropriate web
site to access, for example, the advertiser's home page.
Nonetheless, such advertising has had, so far, a poor rate of
response because it is untargeted advertising. Thus, someone who is
totally uninterested in computers other than they happen to be on
the Internet, may continually see advertisements for computers. On
the other hand, someone who is interested in computers may
continually see advertisements for gardening tools when browsing
through a particular web site. Thus it would be highly desirable to
have a method of targeting the advertising to the appropriate
user.
In addition, if a user of such computer networks is continuously
exposed to the same advertisement, the response rate to the
advertisement will generally decline. Therefore, it is highly
desirable to have a system that controls the frequency of exposure
of advertisements to particular users. In addition, it is also
important for the advertisers to track response to the
advertisements and to acquire as much information about those
people responding to the advertisements for targeting those same
people at later dates.
Therefore, it is a first object of this invention to provide
targeting of advertising over networks such as the Internet. It is
a second object of this invention to provide control over frequency
of exposure to users for advertisements appearing on web pages over
time. It is a third object of the invention to provide the
capability to gather information about recipients of the
advertisement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objects of the invention are achieved by the
disclosed system and methods. Information about networks and
subnetworks is routinely collected. In addition, information about
individual users is also gathered when users select (click on)
different advertisements. Also, data is tracked on how often a
given advertisement has been displayed, how often a given user has
seen a given advertisement, and other information regarding the
user and the frequency of the display of the advertisement.
To effect such a capability, an advertising server process is
provided as a node on the network. The various advertisements are
stored on the network of the server and preferably on the server.
When, for example, a user using a web browser accesses a web page
that is affiliated with the advertising server process, the
affiliated page's encoding includes an embedded reference to an
object provided by the advertising server process. That causes the
user's browser to contact the advertising server process to provide
the advertising image or information that will appear on the
accessed web page as displayed by the user's browser. Using the
address information and/or other information passed by the browser
for the user, including the page being accessed by the user, the
advertising server process determines an appropriate advertisement
to select for the particular user. In addition, the advertising
server process will use information such as the number of times the
user has seen various advertisements, how often the advertisement
has been seen by any user and the start and stop date for the
various advertisements to select which advertisement to transmit to
the user's web page for display.
If the user decides to respond to the advertisement selected by the
web server by clicking on the advertisement, the advertising server
process logs that fact and to have more information about the given
user. A derive profile process is used for compiling information on
TCP/IP networks for use by the advertising server process. By
compiling the information on networks and user selections, the
advertising server process is able to compile information that can
be used for targeting advertising.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1 is diagram for explaining a first embodiment of the
invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram explaining the processes performed in the
preferred embodiments.
FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C are diagrams showing the basic structure of
some of the databases kept by the advertising server.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The basic architecture of the network 10 comprises at least one
affiliate web site 12, an advertisement (ad) server web site 19 and
one or more individual advertiser's web sites 18. Affiliates are
one or more entities that generally for a fee contract with the
entity providing the advertisement server permit third party
advertisements to be displayed on their web sites. When a user
using a browser accesses or "visits" a web site of an affiliate, an
advertisement provided by the advertisement server 19 will be
superimposed on the display of the affiliate's web page displayed
by the user's browser. Examples of appropriate affiliates include
locator services, service providers, and entities that have popular
web sites such as museums, movie studios, etc.
The basic operation of the system is as follows in the preferred
embodiment. When a user browsing on the Internet accesses an
affiliate's web site 12, the user's browser generates an HTTP
message 20 to get the information for the desired web page. The
affiliate's web site in response to the message 20 transmits one or
more messages back 22 containing the information to be displayed by
the user's browser. In addition, an advertising server process 19
will provide additional information comprising one or more objects
such as banner advertisements to be displayed with the information
provided from the affiliate web site. Normally, the computers
supporting the browser, the affiliate web site and the advertising
server process will be at entirely different nodes on the Internet.
Upon clicking through or otherwise selecting the advertisement
object, which may be an image such as an advertisement banner, an
icon, or a video or an audio clip, the browser ends up being
connected to the advertiser's server or web site 18 for that
advertisement object.
In FIG. 1, a user operates a web browser, such as Netscape or
Microsoft Internet Explorer, on a computer or PDA or other Internet
capable device 16 to generate through the hypertext transfer
protocol (HTTP) 14 a request 20 to any one of preferably a
plurality of affiliate web sites 12. The affiliate web site sends
one or more messages back 22 using the same protocol. Those
messages 22 preferably contain all of the information available at
the particular web site 12 for the requested page to be displayed
by the user's browser 16 except for one or more advertising objects
such as banner advertisements. These objects preferably do not
reside on the affiliate's web server. Instead, the affiliate's web
server sends back a link including an IP address for a node running
an advertiser server process 19 as well as information about the
page on which the advertisement will be displayed. The link by way
of example may be a hypertext markup language (HTML) <img>
tag, referring to, for example, an inline image such as a banner.
The user's browser 16 then transmits a message 23 using the
received IP address to access such an object indicated by the HTML
tag from the advertisement server 19. Included in each message 23
typically to the advertising server 19 are: (i) the user's IP
address, (ii) a cookie if the browser 16 is cookie enabled and
stores cookie information, (iii) a substring key indicating the
page in which the advertisement to be provided from the server is
to be embedded, and (iv) MIME header information indicating the
browser type and version, the operating system of the computer on
which the browser is operating and the proxy server type. Upon
receiving the request in the message 23, the advertising server
process 19 determines which advertisement or other object to
provide to user's browser and transmits the messages 24 containing
the object such as a banner advertisement to the user's browser 16
using the HTTP protocol. Preferably contained within the HTTP
message is a unique identifier for the advertiser's web page
appropriate for the advertisement. That advertisement object is
then displayed on the image created by the web user's browser as a
composite of the received affiliate's web page plus the object
transmitted back by the advertising web server.
As part of the "click through" process, when the user clicks on the
banner or other advertising object displayed by the user's browser
16, the user's browser again transmits a message to the ad server.
The ad server notes the address of the computer of the browser (or
any other identifier such as a cookie or a digital signature) that
generated the message 23 and transmits back the URL of the
advertiser's web page so that the user's web browser 16 generates a
message 26 to contact the advertiser's web site. 18. The ad server
process 19 also notes that a "click through" for an advertisement
has occurred and updates the various databases in the manner
described below. In the above scenario for the click through
process, the ad server process must remember which advertisement
was sent to the user's browser in order to know where to redirect
the user's browser.
While in the above embodiments, the user is a computer on an IP
network using a browser, the affiliate web sites are web pages of
affiliates located somewhere on the Internet and the ad server is a
particular node on the Internet, other setups are also possible.
The affiliates may be ISP's or may be actual dedicated web servers
and the users may be an entire network instead of an individual
browsing on a single computer with a browser.
FIG. 2 shows the ad server architecture. The ad server, which may
comprise one or more servers uses a database 54 that will be
described below and performs reporting processes 59, management
processes 58, derivation of profile processes 52 and advertisement
processes 19. The derive profile process 52 is how the
advertisement server gathers information about individual users or
TCP/IP networks for individual users. Advertisements, which may be
advertisement banners are stored within the ad server process 19 as
part of the advertising server process 19 and are periodically
updated and refreshed. The advertisement server process 19 is used
for responding to requests from advertisements provided by the
user's as described above. The management process 58 is used for
updating the various advertisements and overall control of the
advertising server process 19 and also permits the advertisers to
interface with the database to obtain up to the date reports on the
placement of the advertisements. The report process 59 is used for
generating online reports about the success rate of the
advertisement and statistics on the users that are viewing and
clicking through on various advertisements and also updating the
counters in the database that store how often an advertisement has
been displayed.
The basic database structure is shown in FIG. 3. For each user
identified by the system as shown in FIG. 3A, a user
identification, IP address, domain type, time zone, location of the
user, standard industrial code for the user's network, the
particular advertisements seen and the number of times each such
advertisement is seen, the advertisements that were selected or
"clicked on" and the pages on which the various users'
advertisements were seen is collected. By using the information
such as which advertisements a user has expressed interest in and
which pages the user was viewing when the user clicked through
along with other information, targeted Internet advertising is
possible.
FIG. 3B shows a database structure for the advertisements. Included
in the information for an advertisement are an identifier for the
advertisement, the start date for the advertisement being carried,
the last date the advertisement is to be carried, the total number
of people who have viewed the advertisements, the target or the
minimum number of times the advertisement is to be viewed,
acceptable viewers by their web site's SICS (Standard Industry
Codes), clicked through and pages that the advertisements are seen
on.
Also, as noted above, to enhance the process of identifying
information about various users, information on domains or networks
is also tracked. This information includes the domain name and type
(e.g., military, government, commerce, foreign countries), the IP
address, the standard industrial code, the time zone and the
address as shown in FIG. 3C. This information can be used in
developing information about users. Through the use of these three
databases and other appropriate databases that may be kept, the
various processes of the advertising server process 19 are
performed.
Advertising Server Processes 19
In response to an incoming message to the advertising server
process 19, the advertising server processes 19 first attempts to
identify the user in FIG. 2. This can be accomplished by at least
one of two means. First, any incoming request for an image or a
multimedia object is examined to determined the IP address of the
requesting browser. The advertising server then notes whether a
cookie was received in the MIME heading of the request. From these
two pieces of information, a user identification is determined. If
a cookie was detected, then the cookie contains the user's
identification number that can be accessed in the database. If the
user's browser is cookie enabled but no cookie is detected, then
the request is from a new user so a user identification must be
assigned to the user and that user's new identification number will
be transmitted back to the users browser along with a write cookie
instruction that causes the browser to write a cookie containing
that unique identification number on the user's local drive for
future accesses to affiliate sites. The cookie instruction is
transmitted back with the advertisement messages 24. Alternatively,
instead of using cookies, digital signatures or certificates or log
ins uniquely identifying the user accessing the affiliate page may
be used.
If the user's browser does not support cookies, the advertising
server process looks up the user's IP address in a table that
stores identification numbers that correspond to IP addresses for
the users who have previously contacted the advertising server
process. If the IP address is not found in the table, then the user
is a new user and is assigned an unused identification number.
Also, for each new user, that user's identification number will be
marked for further processing under the derive profile process 52
described below. Also, if the domain for the new user has not
previously been processed in the domain profile process, it may not
be possible to target the advertisement for the new user and rather
the new user should be shown a generic advertisement. Also, for new
users, a promotional advertisement may be shown to get the new user
to provide information about him or herself and his or her
employer.
If the user is an existing user, the ad server 19 obtains from a
database all of the information known about the user including the
user's geographic location, the domain type (commercial
educational, governmental, the Internet service provided), the
organization type where the user works (for example a SIC code),
the company size, the number of employees in that company, the
particular types of advertisements that the user has clicked on by
SIC or other appropriate coding and the number of times that the
user has been exposed to each advertisement currently in the system
as described in FIG. 3A. Also, the relative time of day for the
user is calculated based upon either the user's country code or the
user's IP access provider or the location of their domain.
Each advertisement along with a table of the targeting profile
criteria for the advertisement and other data regarding the
advertisement currently available is stored in a database such as
shown in FIG. 3B. The actual advertising object, which may be a
banner image in a GIF or JPEG file format, an icon for an audio or
video clip or some other object is kept as part of the advertising
server process. This information may include targeted consumers by
SIC, country, organization type and type of advertisements
previously selected by the user. For any of the advertisements
currently provided for which there is a match (for example there
may be several advertisements targeted at people interested in
computers), the next step is to determine which of the
advertisements for which there is a match should be selected.
The preferred embodiment also includes determining which
advertising object should be selected if two or more advertising
object have criteria matching the user. selecting from the matched
advertisements by determining how often the particular user has
been exposed to the given advertisement. For each user, data is
kept about the number of times that a user has seen a given
advertisement based upon the user ID. For each advertisement where
the user matches the criteria, if the number of times that the user
has seen the advertisement is less than a predetermined threshold,
the advertisement is retained as one of the possible matches. If
the number of times that the user has seen a given advertisement
exceeds the threshold, the advertisement is discarded as a possible
candidate for transmitting back to the user.
From the advertisements for which the user matches the criteria and
for which the user has seen the advertisement less than the
threshold, any of number of algorithms may be used to select the
particular advertisement to transmit back to the user. In an
embodiment, the formula used is based upon a satisfaction index
(SI) according to the following formula: ##EQU1## Where: n: =the
number of times the particular advertisement has been viewed by
anyone
N: the number of times the advertisement is to be see by anyone
end-start: the total number of days that the advertisement is
scheduled to run
now-start: the number of days that the advertisement has run to
date
The satisfaction index (SI) is 1.0 when the advertisement is on
schedule. If the advertisement is running behind schedule (i.e.,
the current rate of display means that the advertisement will not
be viewed the targeted number of times by the end date so that the
SI is less than 1.0) while if the SI is greater than 1.0, the
advertisement is running ahead of schedule. Therefore, the
advertisement that is to be selected for viewing is the one that
has a matched profile and has the smallest SI. Upon selecting the
advertisement, the selected advertisement object is then
transmitted to the user's browser over the Internet by transmitting
the GIF stored in RAM in one or more messages.
After delivery of the advertisement to the user, additional
processing needs to be done both for tracking the exposure of the
advertisement and for having more information about the user.
First, the system stores the fact that the advertisement was sent
to the user by storing that information in the database based upon
the user ID. This information is used for processing the user's
response to the advertisement when the user "clicks" on the
advertisement. Also, the advertising processor updates the
advertisements satisfaction index and logs the advertisement
delivery for providing reports. Also, if the advertisement that has
been sent has a limit on the number of times that the advertisement
can be sent, the count of the number of times that the
advertisement has been transmitted is incremented. This limit can
be the overall limit for the number of times that the advertisement
is viewed and/or the limit that any specific user can view the
advertisement. If the limit on the number of times the
advertisement can be sent is reached, then the particular
advertisement is removed from the list of those that can be
transmitted. In addition, even if an advertisement has not been
transmitted recently, the SI is updated to reflect the passage of
time.
If the user then decides that he wants to respond to the
advertisement and then clicks on the advertisement, the
advertisement server 19 receives an HTTP request 23 for a click
through which it will recognize by receiving the same IP address
(and optionally, the user ID specified by the cookie, digital
signature or certificate or log in identification) in the request
from the same affiliate's web page within a predetermined period.
Since the advertisement server previously recorded which
advertisement was sent to that IP address, it sends the redirect
message causing the user's browser to receive the URL for the
advertiser's web site based upon data stored in the server. In
addition, the server logs that the advertisement was clicked
through, which user selected the advertisement based upon the IP
address, and the page on which the advertisement was seen based
upon the click through. This information can then be logged in
later reporting processes 59.
As an alternative to using a satisfaction index, the selection of
the particular advertisement object to be sent back to the viewer's
browser by the advertising server process 19 can be made by
different criteria. For example, models can be created to maximize
the likelihood of a click through. Such models for maximizing the
likelihood of a click through may be based upon empirically
gathered information about either types of advertisements or
individual advertisements actually on the system correlated to the
compiled information on a user or the user's network and the
specific page through which the user is accessing the advertising
server process 19.
Derivative Profile Process 52
In addition, as part of the profiling process for gathering
information about users and IP addresses needs to be done. First,
appropriate "networks" need to be identified based upon the TCP/IP
network address of the user. Periodically, the derive profiles
process searches the user database for the address of additional
users that have addresses for unknown networks, indicating that
they are new users. Then the server does a reverse domain name
search to locate the domain name of the user. The server also
queries Internet Whols databases to find information about the
network, which will often include the domain name.
Alternatively, a reverse form of look up can be used independent of
people accessing the network. When a domain is discovered, the
server will check common DNS names for the name, such as those
starting with "www" and "ftp". These resolve to IP addresses in
most cases. From the IP addresses, the network number can be
extracted and if the network does not yet have a domain name
associated with the network number or address, the new domain
associated with the network. A reverse domain name look up (A Whois
lookup) will then usually provide the name, address and phone
number of the organization, thereby providing the geographic
location and the time zone of the network. Once the domain name is
acquired, the server will determine whether the domain is an
educational, military, governmental network and for non-U.S. based
networks what country the network is located in through the
extension.
However, it should be noted that some networks cover broad
geographic areas and that further checking needs to be done to
ensure that the data may be inaccurate. This can be done by
performing a trace route operation to trace the network topology
back to the network being examined. If the last two or three nodes
on the trace show as being from a given region, the chances are
high that the specific user on a network is located in that
geographic area. Thus, reverse traces can be used to confirm
location with a database for geographic locations. By checking
telephone directories and other sources, the specific location for
such users may be found by looking up the locations where the owner
of the domain name has facilities and using the one closest to the
outcome of the trace back step If the information for a given user
is different than the location of the domain based upon the trace
back, it is this address and location information that is then
used.
Further for each domain that is found, a determination must be made
as to whether the domain is an Internet Service Provider (ISP). A
list of domains that are ISP's is compiled manually. For any user
having a domain name of an ISP, the user is presumed to be an
individual and so only information relating to that individual are
used for the profiling process.
Reporting Process
The reporting process uses standard database techniques for
generating any desired reports. For example, reports showing the
number of viewings and click throughs of various advertisements may
be generated along with reports showing the click through rates
relative to the matching criteria. Also, reports on the SI can be
readily generated.
In addition to using the domain profiling process and logging
advertisement clicked on by individual users and the pages being
accessed by users of affiliate web sites, in addition surveying may
be used. Further, for those survey respondents who are responding
for non-ISP users discussed above, the results of the survey can be
attributed to others on the same network. This provides further
information for targeting the display of the advertisements.
Of course, those of skill in the field will understand that the
disclosed techniques need not just be confined to Internet
advertising but will work on other communication networks and
private on line services such as CompuServe and America On Line. In
addition, while specific user and domain profile information and
matching criteria are discussed, it will be obvious to those of
ordinary skill in the field that the specific type of user and
domain name information profiled and used as matching criteria may
include other or different criteria. In addition, while the
specific examples are for IP networks, the same concepts can be
applied to virtual LAN's such that a VLAN is the equivalent of a
domain or on IPX based protocols or other network protocols.
Still further, rather than using cookies or IP addresses or other
network addresses to identify the users, digital signatures or
certificates may be used. In addition, a log in technique may be
used whereby when users first access an affiliated web site, the
user is assigned through a log in procedure a unique identifier and
a log in name. When the user subsequently accesses either the same
or a different affiliated web site, the user logs in using the
unique identifier, thereby ensuring that users can be identified
notwithstanding proxy servers or different users using the same
computer.
Still further, those of ordinary skill in the field will also
understand that while the advertising server, the affiliate web
site and the advertiser's web site are described as being in
different geographic locations, that is not required. Still
further, while the advertising server process, reporting process,
derive profile process and management process are described as
being implemented on one computer platform performing all of the
above described functions, it is readily understood by those of
skill that any or all of these functions may be implemented on one
or more different computers and further that these processes may be
performed at different nodes on the network.
* * * * *
References