Taxonomy-based method and system for targeted advertising
A method for filling an impression slot of a web page with a targeted advertisement comprises determining a target context topic associated with the web page's content and a most relevant behavior segment associated with prior browsing behavior of the user, and providing an ad related to the target context topic and/or the most relevant behavior segment. A topical taxonomy is used to ascertain specificity of the target context topic and most relevant behavior segment to allow highly targeted ads to be given priority for filling open impression slots.
1 . A method of filling an impression slot of a web page displayed by a client computer system, the web page having a context topic associated with content of the web page and the client computer system having a behavior segment dependent upon at least one cookie stored by the client computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
a) providing a plurality of advertisements, the plurality of advertisements including a pool of advertisements wherein at least one of the advertisements in the pool is related to the context topic and at least one other of the advertisements in the pool is related to the behavior segment; and
b) serving an advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements for display in the impression slot.
2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the impression slot is one of a plurality of impression slots on the web page, the plurality of impression slots being ordered by prominence on the web page, and one or more of the plurality of advertisements having greatest topical specificity are given priority for display in a most prominent available impression slot.
3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein topical specificity of an advertisement is determined by a classification level of a related context topic or related behavior segment in a topical taxonomy.
4 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more advertisements having greatest topical specificity are themselves ranked by a secondary criterion, whereby a top-ranked advertisement is selected for display in the most prominent available impression slot.
5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the secondary criterion is an indicator of monetary yield attributed to an advertisement.
6 . A method of filling an impression slot of a web page displayed by a client computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
a) determining a target context topic associated with content of the web page;
b) determining a most relevant behavior segment associated with at least one other web page visited by the client computer system;
c) providing an advertisement related to the target context topic, the most relevant behavior segment, or both the target context topic and most relevant behavior segment; and
d) serving the advertisement for display in the impression slot.
7 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of determining the most relevant behavior segment includes reading a cookie stored on the client computer system.
8 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of providing an advertisement includes grouping advertisements into a pool, wherein at least one of the advertisements in the pool is related to the target context topic and at least one other of the advertisements in the pool is related to the most relevant behavior segment.
9 . A system for filling an impression slot of a web page displayed by a client computer system, the system comprising:
a computer system having stored thereon
programming code for determining a target context topic associated with content of the web page;
programming code for determining a most relevant behavior segment associated with at least one other web page visited by the client computer system;
programming code for providing an advertisement related to the target context topic, the most relevant behavior segment, or both the target context topic and most relevant behavior segment; and
programming code for serving the advertisement for display in the impression slot.
10 . The system according to claim 9 , wherein the programming code for determining a most relevant behavior segment includes programming code for reading a cookie stored on the client computer system.
11 . The system according to claim 6 , wherein the programming code for providing an advertisement includes programming code for grouping advertisements into a pool, wherein at least one of the advertisements in the pool is related to the target context topic and at least one other of the advertisements in the pool is related to the most relevant behavior segment.