Targeting of digital content to geographic regions

1. A computer-implemented method executed using one or more computers, the method comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computers and from a user device, a targeting request to target a piece of digital content to users in a target geographic region, wherein the targeting request includes one or more Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target geographic region;

obtaining, by the one or more computers, a targeting accuracy for the target geographic region, the targeting accuracy for a geographic region representing an accuracy with which a data processing system can determine whether a computing device is located in the geographic region;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that each include:

(i) the target geographic region, and

(ii) at least one other geographic region that is determined to be similar to the target geographic region based at least on an analysis of data associated with the Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target region;

selecting, by the one or more computers, a particular group of geographic regions from among the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that has a combined targeting accuracy greater than the targeting accuracy for the target geographic region; and

providing, by the one or more computer and for presentation on the user device, a targeting interface that:

(i) displays data indicating the particular group of geographic regions that was selected from the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions, and

(ii) adds the at least one other geographic region, that is included in the particular group of geographic regions, to the target geographic region to which the piece of digital content is to be targeted, upon selection of the particular group of geographic regions by user input at the user device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions comprises:

obtaining data representing one or more pre-computed clusters of geographic regions;

identifying, from among the one or more pre-computed clusters of geographic regions, a first cluster that includes the target geographic region; and

identifying the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions from geographic regions that are included within the first cluster.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

determining a combined targeting accuracy for each of the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that are included within the first cluster.

4. A computer-implemented method executed by one or more computers, the method comprising:

determining, by the one or more computers, a respective similarity value for each of a plurality of pairs of geographic regions, wherein each similarity value represents an aggregate targeting accuracy for a corresponding pair of geographic regions based on targeting accuracies of Internet Protocol address blocks that geo-locate to the geographic regions of the pair;

generating, by the one or more computers, a plurality of clusters of geographic regions based on the plurality of similarity values, wherein each geographic region in a cluster has a respective pair-wise similarity value with each other geographic region in the cluster that is greater than a threshold;

receiving, by the one or more computers and from a user device, a targeting request to target a piece of digital content to users in a target geographic region, wherein the targeting request includes one or more Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target geographic region;

obtaining, by the one or more computers, a targeting accuracy for the target geographic region, the targeting accuracy for a geographic region representing an accuracy with which a data processing system can determine whether a computing device is located in the geographic region;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a particular cluster, from among the plurality of clusters of the geographic region, that:

(i) includes the target geographic region,

(ii) includes at least one other geographic region that is determined to be similar to the target geographic region based at least on the data associated with the Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target region, and

(iii) has a combined targeting accuracy greater than the target targeting accuracy for the target geographic region;

providing, by the one or more computers and for presentation on the user device, a targeting interface that:

(i) displays data indicating the particular cluster of geographic regions, and

(ii) adds the at least one other geographic region to the target geographic region to which the piece of digital content is to be targeted upon selection of the particular cluster of geographic regions by user input at the user device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the respective similarity value for each of a plurality of pairs of geographic regions further comprises adjusting each similarity value based on a geographic distance between the geographic regions of the corresponding pair.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein adjusting each similarity value comprises dividing the similarity value by the distance between the geographic regions of the corresponding pair.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein generating a plurality of clusters of geographic regions based on the similarity values further comprises:

constructing, based on the determined plurality of similarity values for the plurality of pairs of geographic regions, a geographic region similarity graph; and

generating the plurality of clusters of geographic regions from the geographic region similarity graph.

8. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more computers and from a user device, a targeting request to target a piece of digital content to users in a target geographic region, wherein the targeting request includes one or more Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target geographic region;

obtaining, by the one or more computers, a targeting accuracy for the target geographic region, the targeting accuracy for a geographic region representing an accuracy with which a data processing system can determine whether a computing device is located in the geographic region;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that each include:

(i) the target geographic region, and

(ii) at least one other geographic region that is determined to be similar to the target geographic region based at least on an analysis of data associated with the Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target region;

selecting, by the one or more computers, a particular group of geographic regions from among the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that has a combined targeting accuracy greater than the targeting accuracy for the target geographic region; and

providing, by the one or more computers and for presentation on the user device, a targeting interface that:

(i) displays data indicating the particular group of geographic regions that was selected from the plurality of candidate groups of geographic regions, and

(ii) adds the at least one other geographic region to the target geographic region to which the piece of digital content is to be targeted upon selection of the particular group of geographic regions by user input at the user device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein identifying the plurality of one or more groups of candidate geographic regions comprises:

obtaining data representing one or more pre-computed clusters of geographic regions;

identifying, from among the one or more pre-computed clusters of geographic regions, a first clusters that includes the target geographic region; and

identifying the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions from geographic regions that are included within the first cluster.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining a combined targeting accuracy for each of the plurality of groups of candidate geographic regions that are included within the first cluster.

11. A system comprising:

one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

determining, by the one or more computers, a respective similarity value for each of a plurality of pairs of geographic regions, wherein each similarity value represents an aggregate targeting accuracy for a corresponding pair of geographic regions based on targeting accuracies of Internet Protocol address blocks that geo-locate to the geographic regions of the pair;

generating, by the one or more computers, a plurality of clusters of geographic regions based on the plurality of similarity values, wherein each geographic region in a cluster has a respective pair-wise similarity value with each other geographic region in the cluster that is greater than a threshold;

receiving, by the one or more computers and form a user device, a targeting request to target a piece of digital content to users in a target geographic region, wherein the targeting request includes one or more Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target geographic region;

obtaining, by the one or more computers, a targeting accuracy for the target geographic region, the targeting accuracy for a geographic region representing an accuracy with which a data processing system can determine whether a computing device is located in the geographic region;

identifying, by the one or more computers, a particular cluster, from among the plurality of clusters of the geographic regions, that:

(i) includes the target geographic region,

(ii) includes at least one other geographic region that is determined to be similar to the target geographic region based at least on the data associated with the Internet Protocol blocks corresponding to the target region, and

(iii) has a combined targeting accuracy greater than the targeting accuracy for the target geographic region;

providing, by the one or more computers and for presentation on the user device, a targeting interface that:

(i) displays data indicating the particular cluster of geographic regions, and

(ii) adds the at least one other geographic region to the target geographic region to which the piece of digital content is to be targeted upon selection of the particular cluster of geographic regions by user input at the user device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining the respective similarity value for each of a plurality of pairs of geographic regions further comprises adjusting each similarity value based on a geographic distance between the geographic regions of the corresponding pair.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein adjusting each similarity value comprises dividing the similarity value by the distance between the geographic regions of the corresponding pair.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein generating a plurality of clusters of geographic regions based on the similarity values further comprises:

constructing, based on the determined plurality of similarity values for the plurality of pairs of geographic regions, a geographic region similarity graph; and

generating the plurality of clusters of geographic regions form the geographic region similarity graph.