Web and mobile device advertising
View Patent ↗Techniques and systems for selecting advertisements for dissemination over a network are disclosed. In one embodiment, an advertisement service stores information indicative of offers from merchants, including information indicating an amount of revenue that the offering merchant would be willing to share with the advertisement service if a consumer consummates a transaction with the merchant based on the good or service advertised in the offer. The service computes predicted conversion rates for these offers, and uses the predicted conversion rates and the revenue sharing information to select an advertisement for dissemination according to which advertisement is expected to generate the greatest amount of revenue for the advertisement service. The predicted conversion rate can be based on various features, including physical location of the consumer, the consumer's preferences on a third-party information sharing service, amount of discount reflected in the offer, the customer service rating of the merchant, etc.
1. A method, comprising:
storing, by a computer system, information indicative of a bid from a merchant device;
retrieving, by the computer system, a plurality of bids, wherein the plurality of bids comprises the bid from the merchant device, and wherein each of the plurality of bids comprises a respective offer for a percentage of sales revenues from consummated transactions that originated from displaying a first advertisement corresponding to a respective bid of the plurality of bids;
computing, by the computer system, a respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids, wherein the respective predicted conversion rate is associated with a consumer device and a composite score of at least one pre-selected attribute, wherein the composite score is determined through a sum of values associated with each of the at least one pre-selected attributes;
computing, by the computer system, a respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of bids, wherein the respective predicted revenue is based at least in part on the respective predicted conversion rate and the respective offer of each of the plurality of bids;
ranking, by the computer system, the plurality of bids using the respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of bids;
selecting, by the computer system, a second advertisement to display at the consumer device, based at least in part on the ranking, wherein the second advertisement is associated with a selected bid of the plurality of bids;
receiving, by the computer system, one or more characteristics related to presenting the second advertisement in a web page at a web browser of the consumer device;
displaying, by the computer system, based at least in part on the one or more characteristics, the second advertisement and a selectable visually perceptible element in a first layer overlaid upon the web page, the selectable visually perceptible element representative of a request for a product associated with the second advertisement;
receiving, by the computer system, an indication of selection of the selectable visually perceptible element;
displaying, by the computer system, a plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements in a second layer overlaid upon the web page, at least one of the plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements permits the consumer device to complete a purchase of the product without redirection to a different web page; and
displaying, by the computer system, a second selectable visually perceptible element in a third layer overlaid upon the web page, the second selectable visually perceptible element permits the consumer device to share the second advertisement, wherein the second advertisement is available to a recipient of the share for a predetermined period of time.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of bids is determined by multiplying the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids and the respective offer of each of the plurality of bids.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein selecting the second advertisement further comprises:
identifying a sub-set of bids from the plurality of bids, wherein each of the sub-set of bids is greater than a threshold; and
selecting the advertisement corresponding to a bid with a highest associated predicted revenue.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on a current physical location of the consumer device.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on a current time of day or a current day of the week.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on distance between the consumer device and a respective merchant device corresponding to a respective bid of the plurality of bids.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on a user preference for a type of merchant.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on preferences of a second consumer device linked to the consumer device via a third-party information sharing service.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on an amount of discount specified by a respective bid of the plurality of bids.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of bids is computed based at least in part on a customer service rating of a merchant corresponding to a respective bid of the plurality of bids.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the second advertisement comprises identifying a second bid from the plurality of bids having a highest predicted revenue, the method further comprising:
computing a defined amount of revenue to be shared by the merchant device with an advertisement service, wherein the defined amount of revenue is less than the predicted revenue associated with the second advertisement.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising reducing the defined amount of revenue based at least in part on information in a third bid of the plurality of bids having a next-highest predicted revenue.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that are executable by a computer system to:
determine a respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of a plurality of bids, wherein the respective predicted conversion rate is associated with a consumer device and a composite score of at least one pre-selected attribute, wherein the composite score is determined through a sum of values associated with each of the at least one pre-selected attributes, and wherein each of the plurality of bids comprises a respective offer for a percentage of sales revenues from consummated transactions that originated from displaying a first advertisement corresponding to a respective bid of the plurality of bids;
determine a respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of bids, wherein the respective predicted revenue is based at least in part on the respective predicted conversion rate and the respective offer of each of the plurality of bids;
determine a ranking of the plurality of bids using the respective predicted revenue associated with each of the plurality of bids;
select a second advertisement to be displayed at the consumer device based at least in part on the ranking, the advertisement associated with a selected bid of the plurality of bids;
receive one or more characteristics related to presenting the second advertisement in a web page at a web browser of the consumer device;
display, based at least in part on the one or more characteristics, the second advertisement and a selectable visually perceptible element in a first layer overlaid upon the web page, wherein the selectable visually perceptible element representative of a request for a product associated with the second advertisement;
receive an indication of selection of the selectable visually perceptible element;
display a plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements in a second layer overlaid upon the web page, at least one of the plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements permits the consumer device to complete a purchase of the product without redirection to a different web page; and
display a second selectable visually perceptible element in a third layer overlaid upon the web page, the second selectable visually perceptible element permits the consumer device to share the second advertisement, wherein the second advertisement is available to a recipient of the share for a predetermined period of time.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the program instructions are executable to determine the respective predicted conversion rate based at least in part on information representative of historical purchase/no-purchase decisions made by users of an advertisement service.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the advertisement is selected from a plurality of advertisements stored by the computer system, and wherein the program instructions are executable to select the advertisement associated with a bid of the plurality of bids having a highest predicted revenue to display at the consumer device.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the program instructions are executable to reduce an amount of actual revenue to be shared with the advertisement service by a merchant device associated with the bid of the plurality of bids based at least in part on an amount of predicted revenue for a second advertisement of the plurality of advertisements associated with a second bid of the plurality of bids having a next-highest predicted revenue.
17. A computer system, comprising:
one or more processors;
memory storing program instructions executable by the one or more processors to:
determine a respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of a plurality of merchant offers, the respective predicted conversion rate associated with a consumer device and a composite score of at least one pre-selected attribute, wherein the composite score is determined through a sum of values associated with each of the at least one pre-selected attributes, wherein a first merchant offer of the plurality of merchant offers is indicative of a percentage of sales revenue from consummated transactions that originated from displaying at a consumer device a first advertisement corresponding to the first merchant offer;
determine a respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of merchant offers, wherein the respective predicted revenue is based at least in part on the respective predicted conversion rate and the respective merchant offer of each of the plurality of merchant offers;
determine a ranking of the plurality of merchant offers using the respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of merchant offers;
select a second advertisement corresponding to a second merchant offer of the plurality of merchant offers based at least in part on the ranking of the plurality of merchant offers;
receive one or more characteristics related to presenting the advertisement in a web page at a web browser of the consumer device;
display, based at least in part on the one or more characteristics, the second advertisement and a selectable visually perceptible element in a first layer overlaid upon the web page, the selectable visually perceptible element representative of a request for a product associated with the second advertisement;
receive an indication of selection of the selectable visually perceptible element;
display a plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements in a second layer overlaid upon the web page, at least one of the plurality of selectable visually perceptible elements permits the consumer device to complete a purchase without redirection to a different web page; and
display a second selectable visually perceptible element in a third layer overlaid upon the web page, the second selectable visually perceptible element permits the consumer device to share the second advertisement, wherein the second advertisement is available to a recipient of the share for a predetermined period of time.
18. The computer system of claim 17 , wherein the respective predicted revenue of each of the plurality of merchant offers is determined by multiplying the respective predicted conversion rate corresponding to each of the plurality of merchant offers and a respective merchant offer of the plurality of merchant offers.