CN107004204A - Systems and methods for providing and managing third-party content with calling capabilities - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for implementing an online content item campaign with selective call functionality, which may include: the processor determines an instance presentation frequency of the third-party content item for presentation with the call icon based on resources of the third-party content provider. The processor may provide a first instance of the content item for presentation with the call icon in accordance with the instance presentation frequency. The call bridge device may receive a call from the client computing device upon actuation of the call icon, direct the call to a phone number of the third-party content provider, and determine a parameter of the call. The processor may adjust the instance presentation frequency based on the parameter of the call and provide an instance of the content item for presentation with the call icon by a client computing device according to the adjusted instance presentation frequency.

Description

Systems and methods for providing and managing third-party content with calling capabilities

Cross References to Related Applications

This application claims a US Patent of Invention entitled "System and Method for Providing and Managing Third Party Content with Call Functionality" filed on October 9, 2015 Priority to Application No. 14/879,999, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Background technique

In a computerized content delivery network, first-party content providers may provide information for public presentation as resources, such as web pages, documents, applications, and/or other resources. Additional third-party content may also be provided by the third-party content provider for presentation on the user device along with the first-party content provided by the first-party content provider. Thus, a user viewing a resource may have access to first-party content that is the subject of the resource as well as third-party content that may or may not be related to the subject of the resource.

Contents of the invention

At least one aspect relates to a method of implementing an online content item activity with selective call functionality in a computer network environment. The method may include the data processing system receiving a third-party content item via a computer network from a computing device associated with a third-party content provider, and determining, based on an information resource associated with the third-party content provider, an item for use with a call icon. A first instance presentation frequency of the third-party content item presented. The method may include the data processing system providing the first instance of the third party content item for presentation with the call icon based on the first instance presentation frequency. The method may also include the call bridge device receiving a call from the client computing device via the computer system in response to actuating the call icon, directing the call to a phone number associated with the third party content provider, and determining parameters of the call. The parameters of the call are accessible by the data processing system. The method may further include: the data processing system adjusting the first instance presentation frequency to a second instance presentation frequency based on a parameter of the call; and in response to adjusting the first instance presentation frequency, providing an instance for use by the client according to the second instance presentation frequency A second instance of the third-party content item displayed by the computing device with the call icon as part of an online content item placement campaign.

At least one aspect relates to a data processing system for implementing online content item activity with selective call functionality. The data processing system can include at least one processor, a memory storing computer code instructions, and a call bridge device communicatively coupled to the at least one processor. The computer code instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the data processing system to: determine a first instance presentation frequency for a third-party content item presented with a call icon based on information resources associated with a third-party content provider. A third-party content item is associated with a third-party content provider. The data processing system may provide, via the communications network, the first instance of the third-party content item for presentation with the call icon according to the first instance presentation frequency. The call bridge device may receive a call from the client computing device via the communication network and direct the call to a phone number associated with the third party content provider in response to actuating the call icon. The call bridge device can also determine the parameters of the call. The parameters of the call are accessible by at least one processor. The data processing system may adjust the first instance presentation frequency to a second instance presentation frequency based on a parameter of the call; and in response to adjusting the first instance presentation frequency, provide an instance for use by the client computing device with the call icon according to the second instance presentation frequency. A second instance of the third-party content item displayed together as part of an online content item placement campaign.

Description of drawings

This summary is illustrative only and not restrictive. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the devices or processes described herein, only defined by the claims, will become apparent from the detailed description set forth herein and taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.

1 is a block diagram of a computer system for online content delivery.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a computer system capable of providing and managing third-party content items with call functionality.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method capable of providing and managing a third-party content item with a calling function.

4 is a block diagram of a computer system that may be used to implement one or more of the apparatuses described in this disclosure.

It is to be appreciated that some or all of the drawings are schematic representations for purposes of illustration. The drawings are provided to illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention, and should be expressly understood not to limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

detailed description

Various concepts related to methods, devices and systems for providing information about computer networks and implementations of the methods, devices and systems are described in more detail below. The various concepts introduced above and discussed in greater detail below can be implemented in any of a variety of ways, as the described concepts are not limited to any particular manner of implementation. The detailed description and applications are provided primarily for purposes of illustration.

Third-party content providers, when providing third-party content to be displayed on user devices (ie, client devices), attempt to entice users of client devices to take actions in favor of the third-party content providers. User actions in response to displayed third-party content items may include purchasing product items, purchasing services, making donations (such as donations to non-profit organizations or political campaigns), visiting websites, or combinations thereof. For online third-party content items, the corresponding success rate of attracting users (e.g., conversion rate) depends on various factors, such as the first-party information resource (e.g., a web page, online application, or game platform) on which the third-party content is presented, the third-party The type and content of the content item, the user being presented with the third party content, and the timing and frequency with which the third party content item is presented.

An online third party content item with call functionality, such as including or additionally including a content item displayed with a call extension (call extension) or a call icon, allows a phone call to be pushed from a user device to a third party content provider. A third-party content provider may manually generate a corresponding third-party content item with a call icon. For example, a third-party content provider may create a call extension or call-only third-party content item that has a call icon for calling a business phone number associated with the third-party content provider. Call-extended or call-only third-party content items may also include hours of operation for the business associated with the third-party content provider. The online content delivery system may provide call extensions or call-only third-party content items for display on user devices. A user device displaying a third-party content item may actuate a call icon to initiate a call with the third-party content provider.

In many cases, third-party content items with calling capabilities may be more effective in engaging users than third-party content items without calling capabilities. This advantage also creates technical challenges for third-party content providers and online content delivery systems. For example, manually creating call-extension or call-only third-party content items may not be trivial for many third-party content providers, such as small businesses that lack technical expertise and are short on resources. Additionally, when providing third-party content items with call functionality, it may be desirable to manage (or monitor) the amount of calls generated in response to actuating a call icon displayed with (or within) the third-party content item . In particular, third-party content providers expect that the volume of calls generated will not significantly exceed available resources (such as employees, telephone lines, or a combination thereof) for handling calls received from user devices. From a technical point of view, it is particularly desirable to reduce the average call delay associated with calls initiated by third party content items with call functionality to save available resources.

Furthermore, it may be desirable to monitor parameters of calls generated in response to actuation of a call icon displayed with (or within) a third-party content item to assess the success rate of such content item. Evaluating the success rate of the content item may include determining a score of the call-enabled content item that caused the user device to initiate a call and determining a score of the generated calls that resulted in a conversion. In order to avoid fragmented and complex solutions for managing delivery of third party content items with call functionality to user devices, it is desirable for a single entity to monitor content items and initiate calls accordingly, such data processing systems delivering content items to user devices device.

In the present disclosure, systems and methods for providing and managing third-party content items with call functionality allow a content delivery system to automatically determine whether a third-party content provider would benefit from calling a feature based on the content of the third-party content provider's web page. to the corresponding content item. For example, a content delivery system may evaluate the quality of a web page or check whether a web page includes a business phone number. The content delivery system may retrieve the first phone number associated with the third-party content provider from the webpage and attach (or associate the third-party content provider's content item with) a call icon to the third-party content provider's content item. ). A call icon can be associated with a second phone number associated with the content delivery system. The content delivery system may determine a first instance presentation frequency at which to provide the content item for presentation with the call icon. For example, the content item delivery system may determine the percentage of bids associated with the content item to be offered for presentation with the call icon (in the event of a successful bid). The content delivery system may provide the first instance of the content item including the call icon for presentation on the first user device according to the first instance presentation frequency.

Upon actuation of a call icon on the first user device, the content delivery system receives the call and directs the received call to the third party content provider's phone number. That is, actuating a call icon on the user device results in a call being initiated to the third party content provider's communication device, such as a call forwarding/bridging device. The call forwarding/bridging device may direct received calls to the third party content provider's phone number (such as a phone number retrieved from a web page). The content delivery system may monitor one or more parameters of the call, such as whether (the third-party content provider) answers the call, the duration of the call, the geographic location of the user device originating the call, or a combination thereof. The content delivery system may also record information indicating the content item that caused the call to be initiated, keywords used to select the content item to be presented on the user device, or a combination thereof. A content delivery system may collect such information for multiple instances of a content item. In some implementations, the content delivery system may also receive feedback information from the third-party content provider indicating whether the call resulted in a conversion.

Based on the collected information, the content delivery system may adjust the first instance presentation frequency of the content item to the second instance presentation frequency of the content item including the call icon. For example, if a greater number of originating calls are not answered by a third-party content provider, the content delivery system may reduce the instance rate (or percentage) of content items to be provided for presentation with the call icon. In some implementations, the content delivery system may adjust this ratio based on keywords. In particular, the content delivery system can categorize the conversion rate for originating calls based on keywords used to select respective instances of content items. The content delivery system may more often attach call icons to instances of content items selected based on well-performing keywords (e.g., corresponding to previously initiated calls with high conversion rates), while reducing the use of The frequency of the call icon for the selected instance of the keyword. The content delivery system may provide the instance of the content item including the call icon for presentation according to the second instance presentation frequency. As used herein, the frequency of presentation of instances with call functionality (such as to be presented with a call icon) may refer to a percentage or fraction of total instances of a content item or a repetition rate, such as a call icon per given time interval. The number of instances of the function. The frequency of presentation of instances with call functionality may indicate instances of third party content items to be presented (or to participate in a bidding auction) according to the call functionality.

1 is a block diagram of a computer system 100 for online content delivery. Computer system 100 includes network 101 , third party content provider 102 , content item management system 104 , third party content server 106 , user device 108 , resource server 110 and content item selection system 112 . Computer system 100 may be configured to automatically manage and control the provision of third party content items with call functionality for display on user device 108 . Computer system 100 may be configured to automatically attach a call icon to a third-party content item, for example, based on the content of an information resource associated with the third-party content provider. The information resource may be a landing page of a third-party content provider identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and hosted on the resource server 110 .

Computer system 100 may use at least one computer network, such as network 101 . The network 101 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a telephone network such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), wireless links, an intranet, the Internet, or combinations thereof.

Third party content provider system 102 may include one or more communication devices, such as telephone devices, fax machines, or other communication devices, or one or more computing devices operated by an advertiser or any other content provider. Computing device(s) may include data processors and may be connected to content item management system 104 , third party content server 106 , user device 108 , resource server 110 , and content item selection system 112 by using network 101 . Third party content provider system 102 may also be in communication with content item management system 104 or user device 108 . Third party content provider system 102 may create or provide content items to content item management system 104 such as text, images, video, web pages, or any other content item. The third-party content may be associated with contact information that the user device 108 uses to contact the third-party content provider system 102 . The content item management system 104 may store content items in a third party content server 106 . Contact information may include phone numbers, mailing addresses, email addresses, fax numbers, video chat handles, instant messaging handles, social media profiles, payment information, bank routing numbers, or provide information for interacting with third-party content providers any other contact information. In some implementations, contact information associated with a third-party content item may be displayed with or embedded within the content item when the content item is displayed to the user device 108, so that the user of the user device 108 may Contact information to contact third-party content providers. For example, the third party content providing system 102 may provide a sales phone number along with an advertisement displayed to the user on the user device 108 so that the user may call the third party content provider through the sales phone number. In some implementations, the content item management system may attach a call icon, such as a click-to-call icon, to the content item. A user device 108 receiving a content item having a call icon may initiate a call towards the third party content provider by actuating the corresponding call icon. In some implementations, calls initiated by the user device 108 may be routed via the content item management system 104 or a communication device associated with the content item management system 104 . Third-party content provider system 102 may also provide URLs associated with content items. The URL may refer to an information resource stored on the resource server 110, such as a web page, a landing page, an online application, or a gaming platform.

In some implementations, the third-party content provider system 102 may interface with the content item management system 104 to manage the selection and provision of content items through the content item selection system 112 . For example, the third-party content provider system 102 may set value or selection criteria (such as keywords) via the user interface, which may include one or more content item conditions or constraints regarding the service of the content item. The third party content provider system 102 may designate the selection and provision of content items and content items to user devices 108 having device identifiers associated with a certain geographic location or region, a certain language, a certain operating system, a certain web browser, etc. /or a collection of content items. In some implementations, the third-party content provider system 102 may specify that when information resources such as web pages, documents, applications, etc. contain content items that match or are related to certain keywords, phrases, etc., select and serve content items or content A collection of items. In some implementations, the third-party content provider system 102 may specify that a content item or collection of content items be selected and served along with search results associated with one or more keywords. The third party content provider system 102 may set a single bid value for multiple content items, set a value for a subset of content items, or set a value for each content item. The third-party content provider system 102 can also set the type of value, such as based on whether the user clicks on the bid of the third-party content item, based on whether the user clicks on the third-party content item by actuating (or within the third-party content item). A call icon to initiate a call, an offer based on whether a user performs a particular action (such as conducting a transaction) based on the presentation of a third-party content item, an offer based on whether a third-party content item is selected and offered, or other types of offers.

Content item management system 104 may be a data processing system. The content item management system 104 may include at least one logical device, such as a computing device having a memory device, one or more processors, and at least one communication interface with, for example, a third party content provider system 102, via the network 101, The third party content server 106, user device 108, resource server 110, and content item selection system 112 are in communication. The one or more processors may execute instructions stored in the memory device to perform one or more operations described herein. In other words, one or more data processors and memory devices of the content item management system 104 may form a processing module. Content item management system 104 may be combined with third-party content server 106, content item selection system 112, or resource server 110 in one or more computing devices. For example, a content item selection module may be part of the content item management system 104 . A processor may include a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc., or a combination thereof. Memory may include, but is not limited to, electronic, optical, magnetic, or any other storage or transmission device capable of providing program instructions to a processor. Memory can include floppy disks, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disks, memory chips, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable Read memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, optical media, or any other suitable memory from which a processor can read instructions. Instructions may include code from any suitable computer programming language, such as but not limited to C, C++, C#, HTML, XML, and Visual The processor may process instructions and output data to enable extraction of contact information from resources referenced by URLs provided by the third party content provider system 102 . The processor may also process instructions to receive data via the network 101 and provide data from the content item management system 104 to the third party content provider system 102 . In addition to processing circuitry, content item management system 104 may include one or more databases configured to store data. The data storage device may be connected to the content item management system 104 through the network 101 .

In operation, the content item management system 104 receives content items from third-party content provider systems 102 associated with respective third-party content providers. In some implementations, the content item does not include calling capabilities. The content item management system 104 may access and analyze the information resources of the third party content provider to determine whether to add calling functionality to an instance of the content item. The content item management system 104 may access the information resource by using a corresponding URL extracted from the information resource or provided by a third-party content provider. The content item management system 104 may add the calling functionality to the content item at a first instance presentation frequency, such as a fraction or a percentage, when the content item is provided for presentation to the user device 108 . The content item management system 104 may monitor one or more parameters of a call initiated in response to displaying the call-enabled content item, and update the first frequency of presentation to the second frequency of presentation based on the parameters of the call.

Third-party content server 106 may include a computing device, such as a server, configured to store third-party content items. Third party content server 106 may directly or indirectly provide third party content items to content item management system 104 , user device 108 , resource server 110 , content item selection system 112 , or other computing device via network 101 . The third-party content server 106 may be a computer server (eg, a file transfer protocol (FTP) server, file sharing server, web server, etc.), a combination of servers (eg, a data center, a cloud computing platform, etc.). In some implementations, the third-party content server 106 may be capable of storing third-party content provider data, user profile data, content item data, accounting data, auction data, or , or any other type of data used by another component of the computing system 100. Third party content server 106 may include any type of non-volatile memory, media, or storage device. For example, third-party content server 106 may include semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, etc.), magnetic disks (e.g., built-in hard disks, removable disks, etc.), magneto-optical disks, or CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks . In some implementations, the third-party content server 106 is local to the content item management system 104 , the content item selection system 112 , or the resource server 110 . In some implementations, the third-party content server 106 is a remote data storage device connected to the content item management system 104 or the content item selection system 112 via the network 101 . In some implementations, the third-party content server 106 is a data storage server or part of a system capable of receiving and responding to queries from the content item management system 104 or the content item selection system 112 . In some cases, third party content server 106 may be integrated into content item management system 104 or content item selection system 112 . In some cases, third-party content items may be stored in a database of the content item management system 104 or the content item selection system 112 . In some implementations, the third-party content provider system 102 or the management system 104 may store new content items in the third-party content server 106 or delete old content items. In some implementations, the user device 108 , the resource server 110 , and the content item selection system 112 may request content items stored in the third party server 106 .

The content items stored in the third party content server 106 may be in any format that can be presented on the display of the user device 108, eg, graphics, text, images, audio, video, etc. Content items may also include combinations or hybrids of these formats. A content item can be a banner content item, an interstitial content item, a pop-up content item, a rich media content item, a mixed content item, content items, cross-origin iframe content items, etc. Content items may also include embedded information, such as hyperlinks, metadata, links, machine-executable instructions, comments, and the like.

Third-party content server 106 may have multiple third-party content items, eg, from different third-party content providers. In some implementations, the third-party content provider system 102 , resource server 110 , or user device 108 may communicate with a plurality of third-party content servers 106 and content item selection system 112 . The resource server 110 may alternate between multiple third-party content servers 106 or use a third-party content server 106 for a particular content item slot of a web page.

User devices 108 may include any number or type of user-operable electronic devices. For example, user devices 108 may include desktop computers, laptop computers, smart phones, wearable devices, smart watches, tablet computers, personal digital assistants, set-top boxes for televisions, smart televisions, game console devices, mobile communication devices , remote workstation, client terminal, entertainment console, or any other device configured to communicate with other devices via the network 101. Some user devices may be used to dial an advertiser's phone number, locate an address, or use payment information to transfer money. User device 108 may be capable of receiving resources from resource server 110 or third-party content items from content item selection system 112 , third-party content server 106 , or resource server 110 . User device 108 may be any form of electronic device including a data processor and memory. The memory may store machine instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to request resources, load resources, and request content items. The memory may also store data to enable rendering of one or more resource content items, etc., on the computing device. A processor may include a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc., or a combination thereof. Memory may include, but is not limited to, electronic, optical, magnetic, or any other storage or transmission device capable of providing program instructions to a processor. Memory can include floppy disks, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disks, memory chips, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable Read memory (EEPROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, optical media, or any other suitable memory from which a processor can read instructions. Instructions may include code from any suitable computer programming language, such as but not limited to C, C++, C#, HTML, visual and XML.

User device 108 may execute software applications (eg, web browsers, video games, chat programs, mobile applications, or other applications) to request and retrieve resources and content from other computing devices over network 101 . Such an application may be configured to retrieve resources and first-party content from the resource server 110 . The first party content may include text, images, animation, video, or audio information. In some cases, the applications running on user device 108 may themselves be first-party content (eg, games, media players, etc.). The first party content may contain third party content or require a user device to request third party content from a third party content server. User device 108 may include user interface elements (e.g., electronic display, speakers, keyboard, mouse, microphone, printer, etc.) for presenting content to the user, receiving user input, or facilitating user interaction with the electronic content (e.g., clicking content item, hover over a content item, etc.).

In some implementations, the user device 108 includes an application (eg, a web browser, resource renderer, etc.) for converting electronic content into a user-understandable format (eg, a visual, audio, image, etc. format). For example, user device 108 may execute a web browser application that provides a browser window on a display of the user device. A web browser application that provides a browser window may receive a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), such as a web address, from an input device (e.g., a pointing device, keyboard, touch screen, or another form of input device) or from a memory element. Enter to operate. In response, one or more processors of user device 108 executing instructions from the web browser application may request data from another device connected to network 101 (eg, resource server 110 ) referenced by the URL address. The computing device receiving the request may then provide the webpage data or other data to user device 108 , which causes the visual indicia to be displayed by a display of user device 108 . Accordingly, the browser window displays the retrieved first-party content, such as web pages from various websites, to facilitate user interaction with the first-party content. User device 108 may act as a user agent for allowing users to view HTML-encoded content. Third party content may be displayed along with first party content. Third Party Content may or may not be related to the subject matter of First Party Content. Third-party content may be provided to user devices 108 and resource servers 110 through third-party content servers 106 . User device 108 may include a processor capable of processing embedded information (eg, meta information embedded in a hyperlink, etc.) and executing embedded instructions. Embedded instructions may include computer readable instructions (e.g., software code, Wait).

In one illustrative example, user device 108 using a web browser may browse web pages provided by web page publishers. The publisher of the web page can be a first party content provider and the web page can be the first party content. The web pages may be provided by resource server 110 . User device 108 loads a web page that contains third-party content items, such as advertisements. In some implementations, the resource server 110 may receive an advertisement from an advertisement server and provide the advertisement to the user device 108 along with the web page. The advertisement server may be a third-party content server 106 . For example, a webpage publisher may provide search engine results and may provide advertisements along with the search results. In other implementations, a web page may contain links that directly or indirectly refer to an advertising (ad) server. For example, when a web browser on a user device loads a web page, the user device requests and receives an advertisement from an advertisement server. An advertisement server receives advertisements from advertisers. Advertisers may be third party content providers 106 . Advertisers may create or provide information to generate advertisements. The advertisement may link to a landing page, which may be another web page or resource. Links may be provided by advertisers. The advertisement may also include the advertiser's contact information or a call icon to call the advertiser or a business associated with the advertiser.

In some implementations, the user device 108 is capable of detecting interactions with the distributed content items. Interaction with a content item may include displaying the content item, hovering over the content item, clicking on the content item, viewing source information for the content item, actuating a call icon for the content item, or any other type of communication between the user device 108 and the content item. interaction. Interaction with a content item does not require explicit action by the user with respect to the particular content item. In some implementations, an impression (eg, display or presentation of a content item) may qualify as an interaction. Criteria for defining which user actions (e.g., active or passive user actions) qualify as interactions may be provided by the content item selection system 112 or by the content item management system 104 on an individual basis (e.g., for each content item). to make sure.

User device 108 may generate various user actions. For example, user device 108 may generate a user action in response to a detected interaction with a content item. A user action may include a number of attributes including a content identifier (eg, a content ID or a signature element), a device identifier, a referring URL identifier, a timestamp, or any other attribute that describes the interaction. User devices 108 may generate user actions, such as resource viewing, online shopping, searching for submitted queries, and the like. The user device 108 may transmit the user action to the click server, the content item management system 104, or a separate accounting system.

In some implementations, the system 100 may further include a click server. In some implementations, the click-through server may be part of the content item selection system 112 , the content item management system 104 , or another server connected to the network 101 . In some implementations, the click server may be a separate server connected to the network 101 . The click server receives requests from the user device 108 as the user interacts with the content items received by the user device 108 from the content item selection system 112 . For example, a user may participate in a content item by selecting contact information provided with the content item. The click server may receive the request and update the performance metrics stored in the content item management system 104 or the third party content server 106 . For example, a metric may be user participation in an advertisement. Performance metrics may be stored in third-party content server 106 in a manner associated with provided third-party content items. The click server may redirect user device 108 to a resource stored in resource server 110 , where the resource may be a landing page identified by a URL provided by third party content provider system 102 .

To the extent that the systems discussed herein collect or may use personal information about the user, the user may be provided the opportunity to control whether the program or feature collects user information (e.g., about the user's social networks, social actions or activities, occupation, user's preferences, or information about the user's current location), or control whether and/or how to receive content items that may be more relevant to the user from the content server. Additionally, certain data may be processed in one or more ways (eg, by the content item selection system 112 ) prior to being stored or used such that personally identifiable information is removed. For example, the user's identity may be processed so that personally identifiable information cannot be determined for the user, or the user's geographic location may be generalized (such as to a city, ZIP code, or state level) where location information is obtained, such that The exact location of the user could not be determined. Accordingly, the user may control how the content item selection system 112 collects (eg, by application, by the user device 108, etc.) and uses information.

Resource server 110 may include multiple computing devices. A computing device may be a server configured to host resources, such as web pages or other resources (eg, articles, review threads, music, video, graphics, search results, information feeds, etc.). The resource server 110 may be a computer server (eg, a file transfer protocol (FTP) server, a file sharing server, a web server, etc.) or a combination of servers (eg, a data center, a cloud computing platform, etc.). One resource server 110 may provide resource data or other content (e.g., text documents, PDF files, and other forms of electronic documents) to user devices 108, and another resource server 110 may provide URLs provided by third-party content providers. The referenced resource is provided along with the content item. For example, one resource server may host a publisher webpage or a search engine, and another resource server may host a resource, such as a landing page referenced by an advertiser; in some instances, one resource server 110 may host two resources. The first party content provider may provide the first party content to the resource server 110 . Resource server 110 may request third-party content from third-party content server 106 and transmit the received third-party content to user device 108 along with the first-party content. In one embodiment, user device 108 may access resource server 110 via network 101 to request data to enable presentation of resources of resource server 110 . In one embodiment, the content item management system 104 may access another resource server 110 via the network 101 to request the resource referenced by the URL provided by the third-party content provider system 102 .

The resources provided by resource server 110 may include any type of information or data structure that may be provided over network 101 . In some implementations, a resource can be identified by a resource address (eg, URL) associated with the resource server 110 . Resources may include web pages (e.g., HTML web pages, PHP web pages, etc.), word processing documents, Portable Document Format (PDF) documents, images, videos, programming elements, interactive content, streaming video/audio sources, or other types of electronic information. The resources provided by the resource server 110 may be web pages, local resources, intranet resources, Internet resources, or other network resources. In some implementations, the resource includes one or more web pages to which the user device 108 is directed when the user device 108 interacts with third-party content items provided by the content item selection system 112 (e.g., via Embedded hyperlinks to point to). Resources may contain references, such as hyperlinks, to other resources or web pages. For example, first party content may contain links to other first party content within the same URL domain or subdomain. In another example, third-party content items may contain references to other resources or web pages.

Content item selection system 112 may include at least one logical device, such as a computing device having a data processor, to communicate with third party content provider system 102, content item management system 104, third party content server 106, user device 108 via network 101, for example, , or the resource server 110 communicates. In some implementations, the content item selection system 112 may include a third-party content server 106 . Content item selection system 112 may include a server, such as an advertisement server or otherwise.

In one implementation, content item selection system 112 may receive a request for a content item via network 101 . The received request may be sent from resource server 110 , user device 108 , or any other computing device in system 100 . Resource server 110 may be owned or operated by a first party content provider. Resource server 110 or resources may include instructions for one or more content item selection systems 112 to provide third-party content items with one or more resources of a first-party content provider on resource server 110 . In one embodiment, resources may include web pages. For example, user device 108 may be a computing device (represented by a device identifier) operated by a user, e.g., that when accessing a resource of resource server 110 may make a request to content item selection system 112 about a choice to be presented with the resource. A request for a content item. A content item request may include information about the requesting device (e.g., web browser type, operating system type, one or more previous resource requests from the requesting device, one or more previous content item, language setting for the requesting device, geographic location of the requesting device, date at the requesting device, day of the week at the requesting device, day of the month at the requesting device, day of the year at the requesting device, etc.) and resource information (e.g., the URL of the requested resource, one or more keywords associated with the requested resource, the text of the content of the resource, the title of the resource, the category, type of resource, etc.). Information received by content item selection system 112 may include a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) cookie containing a device identifier (eg, a random number) representing user device 108 . In some implementations, device information or resource information may be appended to the content item request URL (eg, contentitem.item/page/contentitem?devid=abc123&devnfo=A34r0). In some implementations, device information or resource information may be encoded before being appended to the content item request URL. The requesting device information or resource information may be used by the content item selection system 112 to select a third party content item to be served with the requested resource and presented on the display of the user device 108 .

In some instances, the request for a content item may be part of a web page or other resource (such as, for example, an application) that includes one or more content item slots in which the selected and selected Third Party Content Items Offered. Code that defines a content item slot for a web page or other resource (for example, HTML, etc.) may include instructions to request third-party content items from the content item selection system 112 for presentation with the web page. In some implementations, the code may include an image request with a content item request URL (eg, /page/contentitem?devid=abc123&devnfo=A34r0) that may include one or more parameters. In some implementations, such parameters may be encoded strings such as "devid=abc123" or "devnfo=A34r0".

Content item selection system 112 may be controlled by a third-party content provider utilizing content item management system 104 or otherwise in selecting and serving third-party content items for presentation with requested resources via the Internet or other network affected by it. For example, a third-party content provider may specify selection criteria (such as keywords) and corresponding bid values to use in selecting third-party content items. The content item selection system 112 may utilize value in an auction to select and offer content items for presentation with assets. For example, a third-party content provider may place a bid in an auction that corresponds to an agreement to pay a certain amount if a user interacts with the provider's content item (e.g., the provider agrees that if the user clicks on the provider's content item, then Pay $3). In other examples, a third-party content provider 102 may place a bid in an auction that corresponds to an agreement to pay an amount if a content item is selected and served (e.g., the provider agrees to $0.005 is paid or the provider agrees to pay $0.05 each time a content item is selected or clicked). In some examples, the content item selection system 112 uses the content item interaction data to determine the performance of content items of third-party content providers. For example, users may be more likely to click on third-party content items on certain web pages than other content. Thus, for high-performance web pages, categories of web pages, or other criteria, the auction bids for placing third-party content items may be higher; and for low-performance web pages, categories of web pages, or other criteria, the bids may be lower.

In some examples, content item selection system 112 may determine one or more performance metrics for third-party content items, and content item management system 104 may provide such performance metrics to third-party content provider 102 via a user interface. For example, performance metrics may include cost per impression (CPI) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM), where an impression may be counted each time a content item is selected to be offered for presentation with an asset. In some instances, the performance metric may include a click-through rate (CTR), which is defined as the number of clicks on a content item divided by the number of impressions. In some instances, performance metrics can include cost per engagement (CPE), where engagement can be counted when a user interacts with a content item in a specified manner. Participation may be sharing a link to a content item on a social networking site, submitting an email address, participating in a survey, or watching a video to completion. Other performance metrics may also be used, such as cost per action (CPA) (where an action may be a click on a content item or a link therein, a purchase of a product, a referral to a content item, etc.), conversion rate (CVR), Cost per entry (CPC) (counted when a content item is clicked), cost per sale (CPS), cost per lead signup (CPL), effective CPM (eCPM), or other performance metrics. Various performance metrics may be measured before, during, or after content item selection, content item presentation, user click, or user engagement. In some implementations, performance metrics can be measured by the hit server.

Based on a number of influencing factors, such as predicted click-through rate (pCTR), predicted conversion rate (pCVR), bids associated with the content item, etc., the content item selection system 112 may select third-party content items to serve with the asset. Such influencing factors may be used to generate a value, such as a score, that the content item selection system 112 may compare to other scores of other content items through an auction.

During an auction for a content item slot for a resource, such as a web page, the content item selection system 112 may utilize a number of different types of bid values specified by the third party content provider 102 for individual third party content items. For example, an auction may include: bids based on whether a user clicks on a third-party content item, bids based on whether a user performs a specific action based on the presentation of a third-party content item, bids based on whether a third-party content item is selected and offered, or other types of bid. For example, a bid based on whether a third-party content item is selected and offered may be a lower bid (eg, $0.005), while a bid based on whether a user performs a particular action may be a higher bid (eg, $5). In some instances, bids may be adjusted to account for probabilities associated with the type of bid or for other reasons. For example, the probability that a user performs a particular action may be low, such as 0.2%, while the probability of being selected and offered a third-party content item may be 100% (e.g., if the selected and offered content item is selected during the auction then it happens, so no bid adjustments). Thus, based on the bid value and the probability or another correction value, a value such as a score or normalized value can be generated for use in the auction. In the previous example, the value or score of the bid based on whether the third-party content item was selected and offered could be $0.005*1.00=0.005, and the value or branch of the bid based on whether the user performed a specific action could be $5*0.002= 0.01. In order to maximize the revenue generated, the content item selection system 112 may select the third-party content item with the highest value from the auction. In the foregoing example, content item selection system 112 may select a content item associated with a bid based on whether the user performed a particular action due to a higher value or score associated with the bid.

Once a third-party content item is selected by content item selection system 112 , data enabling presentation of the third-party content item on a display of user device 108 may be provided to user device 108 by using network 101 . A user on user device 108 may select or click on the provided third-party content item. In some instances, a URL associated with a third-party content item may refer to another resource, such as a web page or landing page. In other examples, the URL may refer back to content item selection system 112 , third party content server 106 , or content item management system 104 . One or more metrics are updated, such as click-throughs or engagements, and the user device is redirected to a resource, such as a web page or landing page, that has been provided by the third-party content provider 102 along with the third-party content item.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a computer system 200 capable of providing and managing third-party content items with call functionality. Briefly, communication system 200 includes network 101, user devices 108, computer server 204, call bridge device 214, and communication devices 202a or 202b (also individually or collectively referred to as be the communication device(s) 202). Computer server 204 and call bridge device 214 may be associated with content item management system 104 shown in FIG. 1 .

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , computer server 204 may be a computer server of content item management system 104 , among others. In general, computer server 204 may be associated with a content delivery system capable of delivering third-party content to user device 108 . The content delivery system may be a data processing system including content item management system 104 and content item selection system 112 . Computer server 204 may obtain content items associated with respective third-party content providers. Computer server 204 may obtain content items from third-party content server 106 or directly from third-party content provider system 102 . In some implementations, the content item does not include calling functionality. In some implementations, computer server 204 may obtain multiple versions of a content item. For example, computer server 204 may obtain at least one version of the content item with call functionality and at least one other version of the content item without call functionality.

In some implementations, computer server 204 may analyze content associated with third-party content providers' information resources, such as websites, to determine instance presentation frequencies. For example, computer server 204 may parse and analyze a resource's Document Object Model (DOM) tree, a resource's Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), a resource's loaded text, or a resource's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to determine a resource's web page (such as mobile web pages), whether the resource includes the phone number of a third-party content provider, the amount or quality of the content of the resource, or other characteristics of the site. In some implementations, the computer server 204 may examine other information associated with the resource including the number of visits to the resource (such as information stored in the resource server 110), user interaction history associated with the resource (such as download and navigation action) or other information indicating online history information for the resource.

In some implementations, the computer server 204 can determine the salient phone number by calculating a prominence score for each phone number that appears in the content of the information resource. The computer server 204 may calculate a prominence score for a given phone number (or contact information in general) based on one or more factors including the number of times the phone number appears in the resource, the Number of additional phone numbers, font characteristics of the phone number (such as font size, font style, font color, underline style, or any other effect such as flashing, contrast, or animation effects), location of the phone number within the resource, proximity within the resource The content of the phone number (such as graphics, images, text, audio or video), or a combination thereof. In some implementations, the computer server 204 may select one or more phone numbers with the highest prominence scores as phone numbers for contacting the third-party content provider.

Using the information associated with the information resource, the computer server 204 can determine that adding calling functionality to the third-party content item improves the content item's performance (such as conversion rate). For example, prominent phone numbers (i.e., phone numbers with high prominence scores) are present in the content of the resource, the quality of the resource or its frequency of presentation is poor (such as a mobile page), low online activity is associated with the resource, or Any combination of these can indicate that the added calling functionality is most likely to improve the performance of the content item. In some implementations, the computer server 204 may consider other information provided by the third-party content provider (such as an indication of the type of business, size of business, location of the business, or third-party content provider) when determining whether to provide a content item to present with the call function. or whether they subscribe to services that automatically add calling functionality to content items).

The computer server 204 may generate the call extension 10 upon determining that the added call functionality will most likely improve the performance of the content item and is suitable for the third party content provider. Call extension 10 may include a call icon 15 and computer-executable instructions (not shown in FIG. 2 ) for initiating a call to a phone number when call icon 15 is actuated. In some implementations, the computer server 2204 may assign a telephone number associated with a data processing system, such as a content delivery system including the content item management system 104 and the content item selection system 112 . In particular, a telephone number may be associated with call bridge device 214 and actuation of call icon 15 will result in initiation of a call towards call bridge device 214 . The call bridge device 214 may forward the originating call to the third party content provider's phone number retrieved from the information resource. The forwarded call can be answered at the communication device 202 associated with the third party content provider. The communication device 202 may be a telephone device, mobile phone, tablet computer, computer device including a VoIP application, or other electronic device capable of initiating voice calls. In some implementations, computer server 204 may assign a static phone number of call bridge device 214 to call icon 15 . Static assignment of phone numbers may include assigning a single phone number to multiple instances of a content item or to various content items. In some implementations, computer server 204 may dynamically assign a phone number associated with call bridge device 214 to call icon 15 . The dynamic assignment of phone numbers allows for determining content items or instances thereof based on the phone number assigned to the call bridge device 214 of the call icon 15 . For example, assignment of a phone number associated with call bridge device 214 may include: whenever an instance of a content item with call functionality is provided for presentation, a call bridge device 214 may be assigned a phone number from a list of phone numbers associated with call bridge device 214. Dynamically select phone numbers.

In some implementations, call extension 10 may also include links to information resources of third-party content providers. In some implementations, the computer server 204 may generate a first content item extension including only the call icon 15, a second content item extension including the call icon 15 and the resource link 14, a third content item extension including only the resource link 14, or any combination thereof. In some implementations, a call extension 10 may be provided for presentation with a content item. In some implementations, a call extension 10 may be inserted within a content item. For example, generating call extension 10 may include modifying the content item to insert call icon 10 therein. In some implementations, modifying a content item may include: deleting or inserting a resource link 14 . In some implementations, modifying the content item may include generating multiple versions of the content item with and without the call icon or with and without the resource link 14 .

Computer server 204 may determine an initial instance presentation frequency (such as a percentage, ratio, or frequency ratio) of a content item to be provided for presentation with a call function, such as with call icon 10 . An example presentation frequency may include a percentage, rate, or frequency of bids for selection of a content item presented with a call function. For example, computer server 204 may initially determine that 50% of bids associated with a content item (or a certain number of bids per day) are bids for presenting the content item with a call function. In some implementations, an instance presentation frequency may include a percentage, ratio, or instance frequency of content items to be provided for presentation. For example, computer server 204 may initially determine that 50% of the winning bids associated with the content item (or a certain number of winning bids per day) will result in the content item being presented with the call function. In some implementations, the initial instance presentation frequency may be equal to a default value once the computer server 204 determines that calling a function will improve the performance of the content item. In some implementations, computer server 204 may determine the initial instance presentation frequency based on information associated with or obtained from the third-party content provider's information resources, such as the type or size of the business. For example, for a business with a fairly large sales force or a taxi service business, the computer server 204 may allocate a relatively large instance presentation frequency (such as greater than 50%) of the content items to be provided for presentation with the call function.

In some implementations, the computer server 204 may determine that an instance presentation frequency of a content item includes a call function, a second instance presentation frequency includes an information resource link 14 , and a third instance presentation frequency includes an information resource link 14 and a call function. In some embodiments, the computer device 204 may assign a different (multiple) location for different geographic locations of the calling user device 108, different keywords used to select content items, different days, or different times of day. Initial instance rendering frequency. For example, if the information resource includes specific operating hours, then the computer server 204 provides the content item to be presented with the call function only during the specified operating hours.

The computer server 204 may provide an instance of the content item to present with the call function according to the determined instance presentation frequency(s). For example, if the determined instance frequency(s) of presentation indicates that the content item is presented with the call function in 50% of the winning bids, then the computer server 204 may provide the content item for presentation with the call icon 10 every other winning bid. Likewise, if the determined instance frequency(s) of presentation indicate that the content item is only provided for presentation with the call function during certain operating hours (or times), then the computer server 204 will not provide the call icon beyond the specified operating period to render. When having (or including) a content item with call extension 10 on display user device 108, user device 108 may actuate call icon 15 to initiate a voice call to contact a third party content provider. Computer-executable instructions associated with call extension 10 may cause user device 108 to initiate a call (when call icon 15 is actuated ). Actuation of call icon 10 by user device 108 may include clicking call icon 15 , tapping call icon 15 , hovering over call icon 15 , or more generally selecting call icon 15 .

The call bridge device 214 may receive the initiated call and direct it to the third party content provider's phone number (such as a phone number retrieved from a web page). The call can be a video call or a voice call. The forwarded call can be answered at the third party content provider's communication device 202 by a human or an automated agent. Call bridge device 214 may record (or monitor) one or more parameters of the transferred call, such as delay time (i.e., wait time until the call is answered or user device 108 hangs up), an indication of whether the call was answered , the duration of the call, the geographic location of the user device 108 making the call (such as using the corresponding IP address, area code, or Global Positioning Service (GPS) information), the time and date of the call, the phone number associated with the call bridge device 214 An indication of the number used to initiate the call, or a combination thereof. Call bridge device 214 may be communicatively coupled to computer server 204 and may send one or more parameters of the recorded call to computer server 204 . Call bridge device 214 may include a session border controller (SBC) device configured to control signaling and media flows involved in setting up, executing, bridging, and tearing down telephone calls or other interactive media communications. The SBC device may maintain (or have access to) a data structure that maps phone numbers assigned to call icons 15 to phone numbers of third party content providers. The SBC device may include (or be coupled to) one or more hardware switches for directing calls received from user device 108 to communication device 202 .

Computer server 204 may obtain one or more parameters of the call from call bridge device 214 . The computer server 204 may store one or more of the call in association with at least one of an identifier of the content item, an identifier of the content item instance that caused the origination of the call, and an identifier of a keyword based on which the content item instance was selected for presentation. Indication of multiple parameters. Computer server 204 may also obtain, from the third-party content provider, conversion information for calls that are forwarded to a phone number associated with the third-party content provider. For example, third-party content provider system 102 may send an indication indicating whether the forwarded call resulted in a transaction between the user of user device 108 and the third-party content provider. The computer server may store the indication of the conversion information in association with at least one of an identifier of the content item, an identifier of the content item instance that caused the initiation of the call, and an identifier based on which the content item instance was selected for presentation. In some implementations, computer server 204 may be configured to collect and store information indicative of one or more parameters, call transition data, other information associated with a content item of a plurality of instances of the content item. For example, computer server 204 may be configured to record statistical data indicative of at least one of statistical parameters including a call initiation rate (such as the rate of presented instances of a content item that result in a call initiation on user device 108), call Success rate (such as the rate of calls that get answered), call average delay (the average time between call origination and the time the same call is answered), and call conversion rate (such as the rate of calls that result in a conversion). Computer server 204 may be configured to record statistical parameters in association with user device location, day or date of week, time of day, and keywords used to select content item instances. In some implementations, the computer server may also monitor conversion rates associated with links to informational resources associated with third-party content providers (such as conversion rates per click on informational resource links). In some implementations, the statistical parameter(s) may be calculated based on data collected over a given period of time, such as the last three or six months.

The determined instance presentation frequency(s) of the content item to be presented with the call function may be updated based on one or more of the call parameter(s), call transition information, recorded statistical parameters, or a combination thereof. For example, if call latency (or its average value) is high or call success rate (or its average value) is low, computer server 204 may adjust the initial instance presentation frequency to a second instance presentation frequency that is less than the initial presentation frequency. However, if the call delay (or its average value) is low or the call success rate (or its average value) is high, then the computer server 204 may adjust the initial instance presentation frequency to a second instance presentation frequency greater than the initial presentation frequency. In some implementations, this adjustment may be applied to (multiple) times associated with a given time period (such as a time of day or date) when call latency is high (or low) or when success rates are low (or high). ) presents the frequency. If computer server 204 determines that calls associated with a given keyword (such as a keyword used to select a content item) have a higher conversion rate than calls associated with one or more other keywords, then computer server 204 may Increase the occurrence frequency of instances associated with the keyword. Computer server 204 may, for example, adjust the ranking of keywords associated with the content item, change the list of keywords associated with the content item based on the conversion rate of calls associated with the one or more keywords (e.g., by delete keywords), or change the subset of keywords to which calling capabilities will be added. Likewise, if the computer server 204 determines that calls associated with a given geographic location (such as the geographic location associated with the user device 108 making the call) have a higher conversion rate than calls associated with one or more other geographic locations , then computer server 204 may increase the instance presentation frequency associated with the geographic location. In instances where computer server 204 determines that instances of content items that include call functionality perform significantly better than instances that are presented with links to information resources, computer server 204 may increase the frequency of presentation of instances that are presented with call icon 10 while decreasing the frequency of presentation with links to information resources. The instance presentation frequency at which links to information resources are presented together. In some implementations, a number of factors may be considered when deciding whether to adjust the frequency of presentation of instances of a content item.

In some implementations, the process of monitoring call parameters and adjusting the frequency of presentation of one or more instances of a content item may be a continuous (or iterative) process. In some implementations, the process of monitoring call parameters and adjusting the frequency of presentation of one or more instances of a content item may be repeated until a value for the frequency of presentation of each instance that satisfies certain conditions is achieved. These conditions may include low call latency (such as compared to a corresponding threshold), a high success rate (such as compared to a corresponding threshold), a significantly increased conversion rate, or a combination thereof.

The computer server 204 may provide instances of the content item with (or without) calling functionality based on the adjusted instance presentation frequency of the content item. For example, if the frequency of instances of a content item presented with a call function associated with a given keyword increases, computer server 204 may provide more information about the content item when the content item is selected for presentation based on the keyword. instance to present with the call function. When a content item is selected for presentation based on the keyword, computer server 204 may provide fewer instances of the content item for presentation without the call function.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method 300 capable of providing and managing third party content items with call functionality. Briefly, method 300 includes: obtaining a third-party content item associated with a third-party content provider (act 310); analyzing the content of an information resource associated with the third-party content provider (act 320); analysis of the content of the resource to determine a first instance presentation frequency of a third party content item to be presented with the call icon (act 330); displayed on the user device (act 340). Method 300 also includes: receiving a call from the user device in response to actuating the call icon (act 350); directing the call to a phone number associated with the third party content provider (act 360); determining parameters associated with the call (act 360); 370); based on the parameters of the call, adjusting the first instance presentation frequency to a second instance presentation frequency (act 380); and according to the second instance presentation frequency, providing a second instance of a third-party content item that includes the call function to appear at the second instance Rendered on the user device (act 390).

Method 300 may be performed by a data processing system including at least one processor and call bridge device 214, such as content item management system 104 or a content delivery system. Method 300 may be performed as described above with respect to FIG. 2 . Specifically, method 300 may include the data processing system obtaining a third-party content item associated with a third-party content provider (act 310). Data processing system may retrieve third-party content items from third-party content server 106 or may receive third-party content items directly from third-party content system 102 .

Method 300 may include the data processing system analyzing content of an information resource, such as a website, associated with a third-party content provider (act 320). The data processing system may parse and analyze Document Object Model (DOM) trees, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), loaded text of information resources, or Optical Character Recognition (OCR). As described above with respect to FIG. 2 , based at least in part on an analysis of the content of the information resource, the data processing system determines a first instance presentation frequency (such as presentation frequency, ratio, percentage) of the third-party content item to be presented with the call icon. or frequency) (act 330). An example presentation frequency may include a percentage, rate, or frequency of bids for selection of a content item presented with a call function. For example, the data processing system may initially determine that 50% of the bids associated with the content item (or a certain number of bids per day) are bids for presenting the content item with the call function. In some implementations, an instance presentation frequency may include a percentage, ratio, or instance frequency of content items to be provided for presentation. For example, the data processing system may initially determine that 50% of the winning bids associated with the content item (or a certain number of winning bids per day) will result in the content item being presented with the call function. In some implementations, the initial instance presentation frequency may be equal to a default value once the data processing system determines that invoking the function will improve the performance of the content item. In some implementations, the data processing system may determine the initial instance presentation frequency based on information associated with or obtained from the third-party content provider's information resources, such as the type or size of the business. For example, for a business with a fairly large sales force or a taxi service business, the data processing system may assign a relatively large instance presentation frequency (such as greater than 50%) of the content items to be provided for presentation with the call function.

Method 300 may include the data processing system providing a first instance of a third party content item including a call icon for presentation on the first user device according to the first instance presentation frequency (act 340). The data processing system may also provide instances of the third party content item for presentation without the call icon 10 according to the first instance presentation frequency. Providing the first instance of the content item for presentation with the call function according to the first instance presentation frequency may include generating a call extension that includes the call icon 10 . The data processing system may provide call extensions for presentation with (or within) the content item. Generating the call extension may include dynamically assigning to call icon 10 a telephone number among a plurality of telephone numbers associated with the data processing system.

Method 300 may also include call bridge device 214 receiving a call from the first user device in response to actuating the call icon (act 350) and directing the call to a phone number associated with the third party content provider (act 360). As discussed with respect to FIG. 2 , the call icon may assign a phone number associated with call bridge 214 such that when a call is initiated, for example, by the first user device, the call is received through call bridge 214 . In some implementations, call bridge 214 may be configured to maintain a data structure that maps phone numbers assigned to call icons 10 to phone numbers of third-party content providers (such as from phone number retrieved from the information resource of ). Call bridger 214, eg, based on the maintained data structure, forwards the received call to a phone number associated with the third party content provider.

Method 300 may also include call bridge 214 determining (or monitoring) at least one parameter associated with the call (act 370) and providing such parameter(s) to at least one processor. At least one parameter of the call may include call delay time (i.e., wait time until the call is answered or the user device 108 hangs up), an indication of whether the call is answered, the duration of the call, the geographic location of the user device 108 making the call (eg, using the corresponding IP address, area code, or Global Positioning Service (GPS) information), the time and date of the call, an indication that the phone number associated with the call bridge device 214 was used to initiate the call, or a combination thereof. The data processing system may obtain the call parameter(s) from the call bridge device 214 and related to the identification of the content item, type of user device, geographic location, keywords and other characteristics for selecting the first content item instance to present to store (multiple) such parameters (or corresponding statistical values). The data processing system may also obtain, from the third-party content provider, conversion information for calls that are forwarded to a phone number associated with the third-party content provider. The data processing system may store an indication of the conversion information in association with an identification of the content item, a type of user device, a geographic location, keywords used to select a first content item instance to present, and other characteristics.

Method 300 may include the data processing system adjusting the first instance presentation frequency to the second instance presentation frequency based on the parameters of the call (act 380). Adjusting the first instance presentation frequency may include, for example, adjusting the initial instance presentation frequency to a second instance less than the initial instance presentation frequency if the call delay (or its average value) is high or the call success rate (or its average value) is low frequency of presentation. In some implementations, this adjustment may apply to the presentation frequency(s) associated with a given time period (such as a time of day or date) when call latency is high or when success rates are low. Adjusting the first instance presentation frequency may include adjusting an instance presentation frequency associated with a given keyword, a given geographic location, a given time period, or a given type of user device. In some implementations, upon determining that an instance of a content item that includes a call function performs significantly better than an instance presented with a link to an information resource, the data processing system may increase the presentation frequency of the instance presented with the call icon 10 while decreasing Instance presentation frequency to present with links to informational resources. In some implementations, a number of factors may be considered when deciding whether to adjust the frequency of presentation of instances of a content item.

In some implementations, the data processing system may identify a keyword among a list of keywords associated with the third-party content item for selecting an instance of the third-party content item to present, and based on parameters of the call, update the Word-associated performance metrics. For example, if the call resulted in a conversion, the data processing system may update the conversion rate associated with the keyword used to select the first instance of the content item. Likewise, the data processing system may update the call origination rate, call success rate, or average call delay associated with the keyword used to select the first instance of the content item. In some implementations, the data processing system may update the instance presentation frequency of the third-party content item to be presented with the call icon in association with the keyword used to select the first instance of the content item.

Method 300 may include the data processing system providing one or more instances of the third party content item including the call icon for presentation on the user device according to the second instance presentation frequency (act 390). In some implementations, the data processing system provides the instance of the third party content item for presentation without a call icon based on the second instance presentation frequency.

4 is a block diagram of a computer system 400 that may be used to implement user device 108, computer server 204, data processing system 110, third party content server 106, resource server 110, content item management system 104, content item identification system 112 or a device associated with any of the systems described herein. Computer system 400 includes a bus 405 or other communication component for communicating information, and a processor 410 coupled to bus 405 for processing information. Computer system 400 may also include one or more processors 410 coupled to the bus for processing information. Computer system 400 may also include main memory 415 , such as RAM or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus 405 for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 410 . Main memory 415 may also be used to store location information, temporary variables, or other intermediate information during execution of instructions by processor 410 . Computer system 400 may further include a ROM 420 or other static storage device coupled to bus 405 for storing static information and instructions for processor 410 . A storage device 425 , such as a solid state device, magnetic disk, or optical disk, is coupled to bus 405 for persistent storage of information and instructions. Computer system 400 may include, but is not limited to, digital computers such as laptops, desktops, workstations, personal digital assistants, servers, blade servers, mainframes, cellular telephones, smartphones, mobile computing devices (e.g., notebooks, e-readers), device, etc.) etc.

Computer system 400 may be coupled via bus 405 to a display 435, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), thin film transistor LCD (TFT), organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, LED display, electronic paper display, plasma display panel (PDP), or for Other displays that display information to the user, etc. An input device 430 such as a keyboard including alphanumeric and other keys may be coupled to bus 405 for communicating information and command selections to processor 410 . In another implementation, the input device 430 may be integrated with the display 435, such as in a touch screen display. Input device 430 may include cursor controls, such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 410 and for controlling movement of a cursor on display 435 .

According to various embodiments, the processes or methods described herein may be performed by computer system 400 in response to an arrangement for processor 410 to execute instructions contained within main memory 415 . Such instructions may be read into main memory 415 from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 425 . Execution of the arrangement of instructions contained in main memory 415 causes computer system 400 to perform the illustrative process or method ACT described herein. One or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement may also be employed to execute the instructions contained in main memory 415 . In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement the illustrative embodiments. Thus, embodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

Although an implementation of computer system 400 has been described in FIG. 4, implementations of the subject matter and functional operations described in this specification can also be implemented in other types of digital electronic circuitry, or in software, firmware, or hardware Included in the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents, or in a combination of one or more of them.

Embodiments of the subject matter and operations described in this specification can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, or in computer software, firmware, or hardware embodied in tangible media, including the structures disclosed in this specification and their structural equivalents in, or in a combination of one or more of them. The subject matter described in this specification can be implemented as one or more computer programs, for example, one or more modules of computer program instructions encoded on one or more computer storage media for execution by data processing equipment or to control the Operation of Data Processing Equipment. Alternatively or in addition, the program instructions may be encoded on an artificially generated propagated signal, such as a machine-generated electrical, optical or electromagnetic signal, which is generated to encode information for transmission to a suitable receiver device for The data processing device executes. A computer storage medium may be, or be included in, a computer readable storage device, a computer readable storage substrate, a random or serial access memory array or device, or a combination of one or more of them. Moreover, while a computer storage medium is not a propagated signal, a computer storage medium can be a source or destination of computer instructions encoded in an artificially generated propagated signal. The computer storage medium may also be, or be included in, one or more separate physical components or media (eg, multiple CDs, magnetic disks, or other storage devices). Thus, computer storage media are both tangible and non-transitory.

The operations described in this specification may be performed by a data processing apparatus on data stored on one or more computer-readable storage devices or received from other sources.

The terms "data processing equipment", "computing means", or "processing circuitry" include all kinds of equipment, apparatus and machines for processing data, including, for example, programmable processors, computers, a system on a chip, or multiple systems on a chip, The frequency at which the processor is programmed, or a combination of the preceding. A device may include application-specific logic circuitry, such as an FPGA or an ASIC. In addition to hardware, a device may also include code that creates an execution environment for the computer program in question, for example, making up processor firmware, protocol stacks, database management systems, operating systems, cross-platform runtime environments, virtual machines, or A combination of one or more codes. Devices and execution environments can implement various computing model infrastructures, such as web services, distributed computing, and grid computing infrastructures.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, software application, script or code) may be written in any form of coding language, including compiled or interpreted languages, declarative or procedural languages, and it may be deployed in any form, including as a stand-alone program Or as a module, component, subroutine, object, or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computer program can, but does not have to, correspond to a file in a file system. A program may be stored in a portion of a file that holds other programs or data (for example, one or more scripts stored in a markup language document), either in a single file dedicated to the program in question, or in multiple coordinated files (for example, a file that stores the presentation frequency of one or more modules, subroutines, or code). A computer program can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computers that are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites and interconnected by a communication network.

Processors suitable for the execution of a computer program include, for example, general purpose microprocessors, special purpose microprocessors, and any one or more processors of any kind of digital computer. Generally, a processor will receive instructions and data from a read only memory or a random access memory or both. The essential elements of a computer are a processor for performing actions in accordance with instructions and one or more memory devices for storing instructions and data. In general, a computer also includes one or more mass storage devices for storing data, such as magnetic or magneto-optical disks, or optical disks, or is operatively coupled thereto to receive data therefrom or to transmit data thereto or Do both. However, a computer need not have such a device. In addition, a computer may be embedded in another device, such as a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile audio or video player, game console, Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, or portable storage device (such as a general purpose serial bus (USB) flash drives), to name a few. Means suitable for storing computer program instructions and data include all forms of non-volatile memory, media, and memory devices, including, for example, semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memory devices), magnetic disks (e.g., internal hard disk or removable disk), magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM disk and DVD-ROM disk. The processor and memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in, special purpose logic circuitry.

In order to provide interaction with the user, implementations of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented on a computer having: a display device, such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) or LCD monitor, for displaying information to the user; and a keyboard and pointing device, such as a mouse or a trackball, through which a user can provide input to the computer. Other kinds of means may also be used to provide interaction with the user; for example, the feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback, such as visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; and input from the user may be received in any form , which can include sound, speech, or tactile input.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions specific to particular implementations. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate implementations can also be implemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single implementation can also be implemented in multiple implementations separately or in any suitable subcombination. Furthermore, although features may have been described above as functioning in certain combinations, and were even originally claimed to be so, one or more features from a claimed combination may in some cases be omitted from the combination, and Claimed combinations may be used in subcombinations or variations of subcombinations.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the figures in a particular order, this should not be construed as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown, or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed to achieve the desired result. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing can be beneficial. Furthermore, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products embodied in tangible media.

References to "or" may be considered inclusive, whereby any term described using "or" may indicate any of a single, more than one, and all of the described terms.

Thus, certain embodiments of the subject matter have been described. Other implementations are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In some implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be beneficial.

The claims should not be read as limited to the described order or elements unless stated to that effect. It should be understood that various changes in form and content may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. All embodiments that come within the spirit and scope of the following claims and their equivalents are hereby claimed.

Claims (22)

1. a kind of method for the online content activity implemented in computer network environment with selective calling function, bag Include：

By data handling system, via computer network, received from the computing device associated with third party content supplier Third party content；

By the data handling system, based on the information resources associated with the third party content supplier, it is determined that being used for First example frequence of exposure of the third party content presented together with call icon；

By the data handling system, according to the first example frequence of exposure, there is provided for together with the call icon First example of the third party content presented；

By the calling bridger device associated with the data handling system, in response to activating the call icon, via The computer system, receives the calling from client computing devices；

By the calling bridger device, the phone number associated with the third party content supplier is pointed into the calling Code；

By the calling bridger device, it is determined that being pointed at the phone number associated with the third party content supplier The parameter of the calling of code, the parameter of the calling can be accessed by the data handling system；

By the data handling system, the first example frequence of exposure is adjusted to by the parameter based on the calling Second example frequence of exposure；And

In response to adjusting the first example frequence of exposure, provided according to the second example frequence of exposure based on by client The second example of the third party content that device is shown together with the call icon is calculated, puts and lives as online content A dynamic part.

2. according to the method described in claim 1, including：

By the data handling system and according to the second example frequence of exposure, by the 3rd of the third party content the Example provides to client computing devices to be presented in the case of not described call icon.

3. according to claim 1 or claim 2, including：

Recognized among the lists of keywords associated with the third party content for selecting the third party to be presented The keyword of the example of content item；And

The performance metric associated with the keyword is updated based on the parameter of the calling.

4. method according to claim 3, including：

Transitional information based on the calling for being pointed at the telephone number associated with the third party content supplier To update the performance metric, the transitional information is received from the third party content supplier.

5. the method according to claim 3 or 4, including：

Based on in the associated property of a keyword being associated among the lists of keywords of the third party content It can measure, to update associated with one keyword, for being presented together with the call icon the third party The example frequence of exposure of content item.

6. the method according to any one of claim 1 to 5, including：

Received from the third party content supplier and be pointed at the phone number associated with the third party content supplier The transitional information of the calling of code.

7. the method according to any one of claim 1 to 6, including：

By the data handling system, the geographical position associated with the client computing devices is recognized, and

Updated based on the parameter of the calling with the geographical position be associated, for together with the call icon The example frequence of exposure of the third party content presented.

8. the method according to any one of claim 1 to 7, including：

The content of the analysis described information resource associated with the third party content supplier；And

Based on pair analysis of the content of the described information resource associated with the third party content supplier come really The fixed first example frequence of exposure.

9. method according to claim 8, including：

Identification in the content of the described information resource associated with the third party content supplier with the described 3rd The telephone number that square content provider is associated.

10. the method according to any one of claim 1 to 9, including：

A telephone number among the multiple telephone numbers associated with the data handling system is dynamically assigned to institute State call icon.

11. the method according to any one of claim 1 to 10, wherein, described information resource includes the third party The website of content item, and wherein it is determined that the first example frequence of exposure includes：DOM Document Object Model based on the website (DOM) set to determine the first example frequence of exposure of the third party content for presenting together with the call icon.

12. a kind of data handling system for the online content activity for being used to implement with selective calling function, including：

At least one processor；

Memory, the memory includes the computer generation code instruction stored thereon, and the computer generation code instruction is by described Make the data handling system during at least one computing device：

Based on the information resources associated with third party content supplier, it is determined that for the third party presented together with call icon First example frequence of exposure of content item, the third party content is associated with the third party content supplier；

According to the first example frequence of exposure, via communication network, there is provided the institute for being presented together with the call icon State the first example of third party content；

Parameter based on the calling initiated when the call icon is activated in client computing devices is come by first example Frequence of exposure is adjusted to the second example frequence of exposure；And

There is provided according to the second example frequence of exposure for being shown by client computing devices together with the call icon Second example of the third party content, is used as a part for online content storing activity；And

Bridger device is called, the calling bridger device is communicatively coupled to described at least one processor, the calling Bridger device is configured as：

In response to activating the call icon, via the communication network, receive from described in the client computing devices Calling；

The telephone number associated with the third party content supplier is pointed into the calling；And

The parameter of the calling is determined, the parameter of the calling can be accessed by least one described processor.

13. data handling system according to claim 12, including the data handling system are configured as：

According to the second example frequence of exposure, the 3rd example of the third party content is provided to client computing devices To be presented in the case of not described call icon.

14. the data handling system according to claim 12 or 13, including the data handling system are configured as：

Recognized among the lists of keywords associated with the third party content for selecting the third party to be presented The keyword of the example of content item；And

The performance metric associated with the keyword is updated based on the parameter of the calling.

15. data handling system according to claim 14, including the data handling system are configured as：

Transitional information based on the calling for being pointed at the telephone number associated with the third party content supplier To update the performance metric, the transitional information is received from the third party content supplier.

16. the data handling system according to claim 14 or 15, including the data handling system are configured as：

Based on in the associated property of a keyword being associated among the lists of keywords of the third party content It can measure, to update associated with one keyword, for being presented together with the call icon the third party The example frequence of exposure of content item.

17. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 16, including the data handling system quilt It is configured to：

Received from the third party content supplier and be pointed at the phone number associated with the third party content supplier The transitional information of the calling of code.

18. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 17, including the data handling system quilt It is configured to：

The identification geographical position associated with the client computing devices；And

Updated based on the parameter of the calling with the geographical position be associated, for together with the call icon The example frequence of exposure of the third party content presented.

19. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 18, including the data handling system quilt It is configured to：

The content of the analysis described information resource associated with the third party content supplier；And

Based on pair analysis of the content of the described information resource associated with the third party content supplier come really The fixed first example frequence of exposure.

20. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 19, including the data handling system quilt It is configured to：

Identification in the content of the described information resource associated with the third party content supplier with the third party Hold the telephone number that supplier is associated.

21. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 20, including the data handling system quilt It is configured to：

A telephone number among the multiple telephone numbers associated with the data handling system is dynamically assigned to institute State call icon.

22. the data handling system according to any one of claim 12 to 21, wherein, described information resource includes institute The website of third party content is stated, and wherein it is determined that the first example frequence of exposure includes：Document object based on the website Model (DOM) is set to determine that frequency is presented in the first example of the third party content for presenting together with the call icon Rate.