Granted Patent B2

US 8,554,617 · App. 12/130,987 · Granted Oct 8, 2013

Abstract

Claims (49)

1. A method, comprising:

providing, using a computing device, an advertisement of a first advertiser for presentation to a customer, the advertisement including a reference configured to request a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer, wherein the advertisement is not paused at a time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

pausing, using the computing device, the advertisement of the first advertiser after the time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

receiving, using the computing device, a request made via the reference included in the advertisement for a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer;

determining, using the computing device, the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at a time of the request; and

in response to determining the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at the time of the request, presenting, using the computing device, an option to make an alternative connection for the customer based on the determined status.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the request is made via the customer initiating a telephonic connection using the reference included in the advertisement.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the reference included in the advertisement is selected from the list: a telephone number of a connection server with an extension, a telephone number of the connection server without an extension, a session initiation protocol uniform resource identifier, a user identifier of the connection server in an instant messaging network, and a user identifier of the connection server in a Voice over Internet Protocol application.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement includes a link to a connection server; and when the link is selected, the reference included in the advertisement is transmitted to the connection sever to request the connection server to initiate a call to the customer to provide a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting the option to make an alternative connection additionally comprises:

determining an alternative time based on a schedule of the first advertiser;

presenting an option to arrange a callback from the first advertiser to the customer at the determined alternative time.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first advertiser is charged an advertisement fee in response to a connection established between the first advertiser and the customer; and wherein the alternative time is determined further based on a budget of the first advertiser.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting the option to make an alternative connection comprises:

presenting an option to connect the customer to a second advertiser.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

responsive to a selection of the option to connect the customer to the second advertiser, establishing a connection between the customer and the second advertiser; and

charging the second advertiser an advertisement fee in response to establishing the connection between the customer and the second advertiser.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused in response to a performance of the advertisement being below a threshold.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

determining a ratio between a number of presentations of the advertisement of the first advertiser and a number of requests telephonic connections to the first advertiser resulting from the number of presentations of the advertisement of the first advertiser; and

evaluating the performance of the advertisement based on the determined ratio.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused in response to a budget limit for the advertisement of the first advertiser being reached.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

identifying an advertisement of a second advertiser based on the advertisement of the first advertiser.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the advertisement of the second advertiser is identified based on matching category of advertisements and geographic service area of advertisements.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

connecting the customer to an interactive voice response system to identify the second advertiser.

15. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

presenting a further option to connect the customer to the first advertiser even when the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at the time of the request; and

responsive to a selection of the further option to connect the customer to the first advertiser, establishing a connection between the customer and the first advertiser without charging the first advertiser an advertisement fee.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused in response to a request from the first advertiser.

17. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium, storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing the advertisement of the first advertiser for presentation to a customer, the advertisement including a reference to request a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer, wherein the advertisement is not paused at a time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

pausing the advertisement of the first advertiser after the time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

receiving a request made via the reference included in the advertisement for a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer;

determining the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at a time of the request; and

in response to determining the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at the time of the request, presenting, using the computing device, an option to make an alternative connection for the customer based on the determined status.

18. A system, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory to:

provide the advertisement of the first advertiser for presentation to a customer, the advertisement including a reference configured to request a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer, wherein the advertisement is not paused at a time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

pause the advertisement of the first advertiser after the time that the advertisement is presented to the customer;

receive a request made via the reference included in the advertisement for a telephonic connection between the first advertiser and the customer;

determine the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at a time of the request; and

in response to determining the advertisement of the first advertiser is paused at the time of the request, present an option to make an alternative connection for the customer.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting the option to make an alternative connection comprises:

presenting a list comprising a plurality of list entries, each list entry relating to a respective one advertiser of a plurality of second advertisers and presenting a respective option to connect the customer to the respective advertiser.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the plurality of list entries are ranked based on respective bid prices for each of the plurality of list entries.

Assignments (37)