HK1122378A - System and method for displaying advertiser defined groups of advertisement campaign information - Google Patents

Description

System and method for displaying advertiser defined sets of advertising campaign information

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application No.60/703,904, application No. 7/29/2005, application No. 119(e), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Background

Users advertising with online advertising service providers (e.g., Yahoo | Search Marketing) typically manage various types of online advertising by using a spreadsheet (spreadsheet) upload/download function, a user interface, or an application program interface ("API") to the advertising service provider's advertising management system. Traditionally, users have been able to utilize a user interface or API to perform operations such as adding, editing, or removing advertisements from their accounts, or modifying various parameters associated with advertisements, such as budget parameters or performance parameters.

Current user interfaces and APIs for online advertising service providers generally allow users to modify parameters associated with individual advertisements, or to modify parameters associated with advertisements grouped by the advertising service provider. As online advertising has become very popular, users may have thousands of advertisements to manage at any particular time. The amount of information available on the internet presents a number of technical problems for online advertisers who attempt to manage the data and data processing results stored in a database that define online advertisements. It is therefore desirable to provide a user interface and API for an advertising campaign (advertising campaign) management system that allows users to flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage large groups of advertisements defined by advertisers, rather than by advertising service providers.

Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a configuration package (pod) of an advertising campaign management system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a model for maintaining ad campaign information in accordance with the ad campaign management system of FIG. 1;

3-31 are examples of different embodiments of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) of the campaign management system of FIG. 1 that provide a user with the ability to display, manage, optimize, or view and customize reports on ad campaign information;

FIG. 32 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for facilitating display of advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 33 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for facilitating display of advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 34 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for managing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 35 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 36 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 37 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 38 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for optimizing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 39 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for optimizing ad campaign information;

FIG. 40 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for optimizing advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 41 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for optimizing ad campaign information;

FIG. 42 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for reporting advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 43 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for reporting advertisement campaign information;

FIG. 44 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for reporting advertisement campaign information; and

FIG. 45 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for interacting with an Application Program Interface (API) of an advertising campaign management system.

Detailed Description

The ad campaign management system described with reference to fig. 1 and 2, the graphical user interface described with reference to fig. 3-31, and the systems and methods described with reference to fig. 32-44 provide a user interface and application program interface ("API") for an ad campaign management system that enables users and machines to flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage a large number of ad groups. The disclosed ad campaign management system provides the ability to manage ad campaign information at a level defined by the user, as opposed to an interface to the ad campaign management system that merely provides the ability to manage ad campaign information at the user account level or at the individual ad level. Users are given the ability to define their own ad campaign information groups (ad groups) for ads to be processed in a similar manner by the ad campaign management system. For example, a user may group advertisements using search instrumentalities, performance parameters, demographic information (demographic) of the user, product families, or any other parameter desired by the user. Allowing users to define their own ad groups allows the ad campaign management system to provide more useful information to users, allowing users to display, manage, optimize, or view reports on ad campaign information in a manner that is most relevant to individual advertisers.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a configuration package (pod) for an advertisement ("ad") campaign management system. The configuration package 100 includes a number of software components and data for facilitating the planning, management, optimization, delivery, communication, and enforcement of advertising and ad campaigns, as well as for storing and managing user accounts. In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 includes an active data store ("CDS") 105 that stores user account information. An application program interface ("API") 110 and a user interface ("UI") 115 are used to read data from the active data store 105 and write data to the active data store 105. The internal API 130 provides shared code and functionality between the API and the UI, as well as facilitates interfacing with the active data store 105. The keyword suggestion component 120 may assist a user in searching for available search terms (search term). An edit processing system ("EPS") 125 may provide content for checking all new ads. A configuration Package Collection Server (PCS) 135 determines to which configuration package the collected ad activity performance data should go. The script server 140 provides scripts for collecting data indicative of client browsing sessions. Image server 145 receives and processes data from the client web browser indicating a client browsing session.

The configuration package may also include a channel server 150 operative to receive data from one or more advertisement channels. A Business information group ("BIG") 155 may provide analysis and filtering of raw click data from advertisement channels through the channel server 150. The account monitoring component 160 monitors the budgets allocated to various ad activities. A financial component 165 may be provided for planning and budgeting ad campaign expenses. The weight optimizer 170 operates to optimize individual ad performance. An activity optimizer 175 may be provided for optimizing the performance of ad activities. A third party analytics feed component 180 is provided for processing incoming ad performance data from third party sources. The quality score component 185 provides yet another metric for measuring performance of individual ads. The predictive component 190 is an analysis tool for predicting keyword trends. Finally, an online registration ("OLS") component 195 provides enhanced security services for online transactions involving money exchanges.

The CDS105 is the primary data store for the configuration package 100. In one embodiment, the CDS105 stores ad campaign account data including account access and permission listings, user information, advertisements, data collected from advertiser websites indicating client browsing sessions, raw click data received from advertisement channels, third party analytics feeds, system generated ad campaign performance data, ad campaign optimization data including budgets and business rules, and so forth. In various embodiments of the invention, the CDS105 stores one or more account data structures as shown in figure 2 and described in more detail below.

Data in the CDS105 may be stored and accessed according to various formats, such as a relational format (relational format) or a flat-file format (flat-file format). The CDS105 may be managed using various known database management techniques (e.g., SQL-based and object-oriented). At the physical layer, the CDS105 is implemented using a combination of one or more of magnetic disk, optical disk, or tape drives. Further, in one embodiment of the invention, the CDS105 has one or more backup databases that may be used to service the configuration package 100 during a failure of the CDS 105.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 provides one or more APIs 110 and UIs 115 used by system users (e.g., advertisers and agents) for access services of the campaign management system (e.g., reading data from or writing data to the campaign data storage 105). The API110 and UI115 may also be provided by the control (distribution suite) component described in detail in U.S. patent application having an application date of 30/12/2005, application No.11/324,129, entitled "System and Method for Advertisement Management," the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The advertisers and their agents may use an API110 (which in one embodiment comprises an XML-based API) to allow access to the ad campaign management system and the data contained therein. In one embodiment, the UI115 includes a website or web application for allowing a user to access the ad campaign management system. Configuration package 100 utilizes internal APIs 130(API 130 is a shared code and function between API110 and UI 115) to facilitate interaction with active data store 105.

According to some embodiments, the above-described user and application program interfaces are used to facilitate management and optimization of ad campaigns, including but not limited to listing management associated with an auction-based sponsored search result listing (listing) marketplace related to search terms. For example, advertisers use these interfaces to access ad campaign information and ad campaign performance information stored in the ad campaign data store 105, search information, analyze information, obtain reports, summaries, and so forth. Advertisers may also use these interfaces to change listings or bidding strategies, which are updated in the campaign data storage 105. Further, these interfaces may be used to perform comparisons of ad campaign component performance, such as performance of particular listings, search terms, creatives (creatives), channels, instruments, and so forth.

While the functionality and usage of the application program interfaces of the configuration package are described with reference to auction-based sponsored listing content related to search terms, it should be appreciated that in some embodiments, these interfaces may also be used for offline or non-sponsored search ad campaigns and ad campaign performance, or a combination of online and offline ad campaign information.

The keyword suggestion component 120 provides keyword suggestions through the interfaces 110, 115 for assisting users with ad campaign management based on seed words (seed terms) or uniform resource locators ("URLs") provided by the users. In one embodiment of the invention, the keyword suggestion component 120 assists the user in searching for available search terms. As described above, in an auction-based system or marketplace, advertisers bid on search terms or phrases (group of terms) that, when used in a client search, will cause an advertisement listing or link to be displayed in the search results. The keyword suggestion component 120 provides suggestions to advertisers regarding terms that the advertisers should bid on. In one embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may view actual searches performed in the past month and provide suggestions based on previous searches. In another embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may view terms that other advertisers of similar products or services are bidding on and suggest these terms to the advertisers. In yet another embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may determine words used in their search by customers who purchase similar products or services and suggest the words to advertisers. In another embodiment, the keyword suggestion component 120 may maintain a table of terms that are divided into several categories of products and services and allow advertisers to browse and pick up terms that are available. In other embodiments, the keyword suggestion component 120 may use other techniques to assist advertisers in the word selection process, for example, suggesting new words to an advertiser if the advertised products and services are unique.

An Edit Processing System (EPS)125 ensures relevance and reduces the risk of advertiser listings before they can participate in the auction. In general, the EPS 125 collates new ads or collated ads. In one embodiment, the EPS 125 employs a set of business rules that determine the accuracy and relevance of advertiser listings. These rules may be applied automatically by the EPS 125 or by manual editorial collation. The EPS 125 may, for example, detect inappropriate content in advertiser listings or illegally used brand terms. In one embodiment, the EPS 125 responds with an annotation (e.g., deny, approve, deny but suggest a modification, etc.).

In one embodiment, the EPS 125 may include a quick check component. The quick check component performs a preliminary or "quick check" to automatically determine whether to accept or reject the ad before submitting the ad to manual editing and storing in the active data store 105. In one embodiment, either the API110 or the UI115 invokes a quick check component service so that the advertiser can receive immediate feedback. For example, the use of forbidden words (e.g., "best") in a submitted advertisement may be quickly detected by the quick check component, thereby eliminating the need for manual editorial proofreading. Conversely, in the case where words such as gambling, adult services, etc. are used, the quick review component may determine that the ad requires a more thorough editorial collation. One of the advantages of the quick review component is to provide quick feedback to the advertiser, which allows the advertiser to immediately make corrections to the listing, thereby speeding up the proofreading by manual editing.

Referring again to fig. 1, according to one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may further include a channel server 150, the channel server 150 operable to receive and process data received from advertisement channels (e.g., google.com and msn.com). This data may include, but is not limited to, customer profiles, historical user behavior information, raw impressions, cost, click (click), and the like. Additional description of user information and its use may be found in U.S. patent application nos. 60/546,699 and 10/783,383, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The channel server 150 is also operable to reformat the received data into a format supported by the ad campaign management system and store the reformatted data in the campaign data store 105.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may also include a Business Information Group (BIG) component 155. The BIG155 is operable to receive cost data, click data, and impression data into the configuration package 100 from various sources including the channel server 150, the configuration package collection server 135, and the third party analytics feed component 180. The BIG155 ensures that such data is received in a correct and timely manner. In one embodiment, BIG155 may also perform aggregation and filtering of raw data impressions and clicks into configuration package 100. BIG155 is also operable to store the collected and processed data to active data store 105. In other embodiments, BIG155 may also perform internal reporting, such as preparing business reports and financial forecasts, according to teachings known to those skilled in the art. To this end, in one embodiment, the BIG155 is operable to communicate with an account monitoring component 160, which will be described in more detail below.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may also include an account monitoring component 160. This component 160 is operable to perform budget and active asset allocation. For example, the account monitoring component 160 may determine how much money remains in a particular advertiser account and how much money may be spent in a particular ad campaign. In one embodiment, the account monitoring component 160 can employ a budgeting function to provide efficient active asset allocation. For example, an advertiser may set an ad campaign budget of $500 for one month. The account monitoring component 160 may implement an ad bidding scheme that brings the actual cost for that month as close as possible to $ 500. One example of a bidding scheme employed by the account monitoring component 160 is to lower the advertiser's bid (bid) to reduce the frequency with which the advertiser's ads are displayed, thereby reducing the advertiser's monthly cost, which can be performed dynamically. Another example of a budget performed by the account monitoring component 160 is to throttle the rate at which advertisements are provided (e.g., the fraction of time an advertisement is provided) without changing the advertiser's bid (however, in the previous example, the bid is changed rather than the rate at which the advertisement is provided). Another example of throttling is to not serve advertisements as often as possible, but to serve advertisements in turns.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may further include a financial component 165, and the financial component 165 may be an accounting application for planning and budgeting ad activity expenses. Using the finance component 165, advertisers can specify budgets and allocate campaign assets. The finance component 165 provides advertisers with the ability to change the budget distribution of campaigns and the ability to transfer money between different campaigns. The financial component 165 may also present information to the advertiser as to how much money remains in the account and how much money may be spent on a particular ad campaign. In some embodiments, the financial component 165 is further operable to provide information to advertisers regarding rate of return, revenue, and their advertising campaign expenses. Financial component 165 may be implemented, for example, using one or more financial suites from Oracle Corporation, SAP AG, Pelletoft Inc. or any other financial software developer.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may also include an online registration (OLS) component 195. The OLS component 195 is operable to provide advertisers with a secure online check-in environment in which secure information, such as credit card information, may be exchanged. The Secure connection between the advertiser computer and the OLS component 195 may be established, for example, using Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (SHTTP), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), or any other public key cryptography.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 may also include a quality score component 185, the quality score component 185 calculating one or more values such as an ad clickable score (ad clickability score) and a quality score. The ad clickable score is one of the ad performance parameters, which represents the quality of the ad when it was provided by the advertising service provider. The ad clickable score is internal to the ad campaign management system and is generally not exposed to the outside of the ad campaign management system. The quality score is one of the ad performance parameters that is exposed externally from the ad campaign management system and may be used by search service components (e.g., ad channels and search engines) to ensure the relative quality of the ad being displayed. Thus, according to one embodiment of the invention, the quality score is calculated by the search services component and fed to the ad campaign management system through the quality score component 185. In some embodiments, the quality score is displayed to the advertiser so that the advertiser can modify the ad to improve its quality score. For example, if an ad has a high quality score, the advertiser knows that it is not necessary to spend money and time trying to perfect the ad. However, if an ad has a low quality score, it may be corrected to increase the quality score of the ad.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 further includes a predictive component 190, the predictive component 190 being an analysis tool for assisting advertisers in keyword selection. In some embodiments, the prediction component is operable to predict keyword trends, predict visitor traffic based on ad locations, and estimate the bid value for a particular ad location.

In one embodiment, the predictive component 190 is operable to analyze past performance and mine search term trends in historical data. For example, the term "iPod" has not appeared a few years ago, but it is now a very common word. In another embodiment, the prediction component 190 performs macroscopic trend prediction, which may include making predictions to determine words that are popular in a particular area (e.g., California) or in a particular population (e.g., males). In yet another embodiment, the prediction component 190 provides both macro and micro trend predictions related to an event. Such events may include, for example, mother's day, christmas, etc. To perform event-related trend prediction for terms related to, for example, mother's day or christmas, the prediction component 190 looks for search patterns regarding flower-related terms or wrapping paper terms. In other embodiments, the prediction component 190 analyzes the historical data to predict the number of impressions or clicks that may be expected for an ad having a particular rank. In another embodiment, the prediction component 190 is operable to predict a bid value necessary to place an ad in a particular location.

In one embodiment, the configuration package 100 also includes a weight optimizer 170 that can adjust the weights (relative display frequency) for rotating elements as part of the alternate ad ("A/B") functionality provided by the ad campaign management system in some embodiments of the present invention. The A/B test feature allows an advertiser to specify multiple variables for ad attributes. These elements may include creatives (title, description and display URLs), destinations (destination URLs), and possibly other elements such as promotions and display prices. More specifically, when an end user performs a search, the ad campaign management system assembles one of the possible variables for the relevant ad and provides it to the ad channel for display to the end user. The ad campaign management system may also attach tracking code associated with the ad to indicate which variable of various attributes of the ad are actually provided. The end user's behavior may then be observed and tracking codes may be used to provide feedback on the performance of various variables for various attributes of the ad.

In determining the weight of a particular element, the weight optimizer component 170 can view the actual performance of the ad to determine the best ad for delivery. The weight optimizer component 170 operates in a variety of modes. For example, in the optimal (Optimize) mode, the weight (display frequency) of each variable varies with time based on the measured results associated with each variable. Thus, the weight optimizer component 170 is responsible for changing the weights based on the measured results. The weight optimizer component can also operate according to a Static (Static) mode, where the system does not change the weight (display frequency) of the individual variables. This mode may provide data to the advertiser about the measured results. The advertiser may choose to change the weights manually.

The configuration package 100 may also include an activity optimizer component 175 that facilitates ad activity optimization to meet a particular ad activity policy, e.g., increase the number of exchanges according to the displayed ads while minimizing the cost of the activity. To this end, in some embodiments, the campaign optimizer component 175 uses data received from the channel server 150, the forecasting component 190, the third party analytics feed component 180, the quality score component 185, and the BIG155 to determine how much to bid on which ad, how to allocate budgets between different ads, how to spend money over the campaign period, and so forth. Moreover, campaign optimization focuses not only on efficiently performing ads, but also on performing arbitration among ads for individual channels, and performing strategies to determine where a limited ad campaign budget projection is most effective.

In one embodiment, the campaign optimizer component 175 analyzes the obtained analysis data, including ad campaign information, ad campaign performance information, and potentially other information, such as user information, to assist in determining or judging an optimal ad campaign strategy. Herein, an "optimal" ad activity policy includes any ad activity policy that is determined to be optimal or superior to other policies, determined to be likely optimal, predicted or expected to be optimal or likely optimal, etc. In some embodiments, the optimization is performed for parameters or combinations of parameters specified by the advertiser, provided automatically or semi-automatically by the ad campaign facilitator, or otherwise.

In addition to those described above, an ad activity policy may also include any action or course of action related to ad activity (including, for example, changing or not changing current settings or policies) or behavior, or a schema or component thereof. The ad campaign policy may include a related suggestion of an action process for one or more aspects or parameters of the ad campaign, and may include an immediate action process or set of parameters, or an action process or set of parameters for a particular time window. For example, in the case of auction-based search result listings, the optimal ad campaign strategy may include suggestions relating to auction-related bids and bid hiding rates (bid rates), or a marketplace relating to search terms or phrases related to sponsored listings.

In some embodiments, the activity optimizer component 175 is operable to analyze the ad activity performance information to determine an optimal ad activity strategy. The ad activity performance information may include a variety of information related to historical performance, channels, instruments, ads, or ad groups of ad activities. The ad activity performance information may include a variety of information that indicates or provides the following recommendations: how effectively an ad or an ad rendered through a particular channel, etc. affects or may affect the behavior of a user or customer. Such as, for example, Yahoo! Such advertising channels may collect performance information about a particular sponsored search result display. This information may include the number or percentage of viewers clicking on the link, or viewers shopping at the advertiser's website or purchasing products at the advertiser's website as a result of the listing, etc.

The campaign optimizer component 175 is operable to analyze the ad campaign information to determine an optimal ad campaign strategy. The ad campaign information may include campaign goals or budget-related conditions or restrictions, or may include information specifying, defining, or describing the ad itself, channels, means, etc. With respect to auction-based sponsored search result listings, ad campaign information may include bidding parameters, such as a maximum or minimum bid, or a bid position (listing rank or prominence) associated with a term or set of terms, for example, as will be described below. Such ad activity information may also include activity goals, quotas or purposes, e.g., expressed in metrics such as ROAS (return on ad costs), CPI (clicks per impression), or other metrics, and associated with individual ads, words or phrases, channels, instruments, etc.

The campaign optimizer component 175 can also include a bid optimization function that can be utilized by the system to determine an expected or optimal bid for a listing (e.g., paid search result). The bid optimization functionality of the campaign optimizer component 175 can be used to limit the set goals and limits on bids set by advertisers. The limit may include a maximum bid and a minimum bid. The target may be associated with a listing and may be specified in terms of one or more metrics related to the performance of the listing. The campaign optimizer component 175 can analyze recent analysis data in conjunction with metrics and specify bid suggestions predicted by the bid optimization function to achieve the goal or to be as close to the goal as possible. In some embodiments, the campaign optimizer component 175 may also provide suggestions for listings that may include a maximum bid and an update period, which may be the time between maximum bid hiding updates. In other embodiments, the campaign optimizer component 175 may also provide suggestions that allow a list item to obtain a range of values for a premium position (e.g., the first page listing) when the list item is provided.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the ad campaign management system, to assist in ad campaign management and optimization, the configuration package 100 is further operable to collect visitor status data from an advertiser website. To this end, the configuration package 100 utilizes a configuration package collection server 135, a script server 140, and an image server 145 to collect and store visitor status data in the activity data store 105. The collected visitor status data may then be used by various components of the configuration package 100 (including but not limited to the campaign optimizer component 175, the forecast component 190, and the BIG155) to generate ad campaign performance data, in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention.

Various methods of data collection according to various embodiments of the present invention may include, but are not limited to, full analysis, activity-only analysis, swap counters, and sampling. In one embodiment, full analysis collection provides the most powerful collection method. The full analytics collection method collects marketing-based and free-search-based leads (leads). As a result, advertisers can see how to generate a complete image of the lead and exchange. Primarily, the full analytics collection approach provides a complete screening report (fundports) that provides key insight into how visitors to an advertiser's web site navigate through the browser, possible candidates (prospects), and eventually reach the exchange event. The visitor status store on the active data store 105 may also allow for repetition and return of customer reporting data and allow for a complete set of authorization (authorization) methods.

In another embodiment, the campaign-only analysis collection method closely resembles the full analysis collection method, but only tracks paid marketing events and ignores or discards result events generated from free searches. This has the advantage of providing screening and repeat visitor reporting as well as reduced data collection and storage rates. The campaign-only analytics approach provides a balance between rich reporting data and reduced collection, processing, and storage costs.

In yet another embodiment, the exchange counter method is the simplest data collection method available. Using the exchange counter analysis, the advertiser places a tag on a page that generates a value (e.g., revenue) for the advertiser. The image server 145 places a guide "stack" in the cookie that can be used to delegate the correct terms/creative to the exchange event. This data collection mechanism generates enough data to provide optimization for creative weighting. It should also be noted that in one embodiment, the direct authorization method may be applied to the exchange counter method. In the swap counter approach, no visitor state memory is required and only swap events are received. Thus, this approach has minimal impact on the load and data storage requirements of the configuration package 100. In another embodiment, a sampling method is utilized. According to this approach, only a random number (e.g., 10%) of ad hoc visitors are tracked, which reduces data collection and storage.

To allow the lead generation source to be authorized for exchange events, a client session state on the advertiser's website may be maintained. Authorization is the process by which all marketing events are tied to a particular marketing action or set of particular marketing actions. There are two known methods for storing visitor status: a client-side cookie and a server-side database.

In one embodiment, a cookie may be used as an exemplary client-side visitor state store. When cookies are used to store visitor state, one of two methods may be used to store visitor state. The redirect server used on the lead generation event may append the visitor state to the cookie when clicking on the event. Alternatively, the collection server may set a cookie at the time of the guidance event. While the cookie method visitor state is the most cost effective, it has several drawbacks. Generally, cookies have lower storage requirements and therefore actively searching users (typically the most valuable users because they generate the most revenue) may lose authorization information as their steering stack grows and causes some older events to be pushed off the stack. As a result, a swap event may occur in the event that the steering information, and thus the authorization information, is lost in the stack. Further, the user that breaks the cookie is essentially invisible to the system. In addition, efficiency is reduced due to the additional time required to resolve the collection server request when setting the cookie, which may result in the user clicking off of the guide page before the cookie can be completed. Finally, cookie-based visitor state storage prevents any intrinsic analysis of user behavior.

In another embodiment, a server-side database, such as the CDS105, may be used to store visitor status. Using server-side storage in the database provides high efficiency, but at the cost of additional storage costs. The server-side storage using visitor status allows the ad campaign management system to have a more advanced authorization model, which may allow for assistance-based authorization. The efficiency of cookie-based visitor state storage is increased by a number of factors. Mainly the system is no longer limited in the amount of visitor state storage a user can have, so no loss of guidance occurs. Users who break cookies can still be tracked as unique visitors, and thus can still track (albeit at a reduced rate of accuracy) and thus be able to include them. The collection event processing delay is greatly reduced because the events can simply be logged and actually processed at a later time. With the cookie method, the bootstrapping authorization must occur when the event is received because the cookie must be evaluated before the beacon (beacon) server returns the request. Further, where visitor status is stored in the activity data store, valuable marketing data may be collected and analyzed for internal use.

In one embodiment, the ad campaign management system utilizes a combination of the client-side cookie and server-side database techniques described above to collect and maintain visitor state data. In particular, as indicated above, the configuration package 100 utilizes the configuration package collection server 135, the script server 140, and the image server 145 to collect and store visitor status data in the activity data store 105. In one embodiment, the configuration package collection server 135, the script server 140, and the image server 145 may be implemented as Java servlets, for example.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of one embodiment of a model for maintaining ads, in accordance with the ad campaign management system of FIG. 1. As shown, the ad campaign management system includes a data store 200, which data store 200 facilitates hierarchical storage of ad campaign data, thereby providing advertisers with multiple levels of structure for controlling ad content. In particular, the primary account 205 may be provided to an advertiser utilizing the services of the ad campaign management system for receiving aggregated analytics data related to the primary account 205 and managing or optimizing the Web attributes 210 and advertisements within the primary account 205 based on the aggregated analytics data. The Web attributes 210 may include websites, or combinations of related websites and Web pages, for which advertisers advertise. Further, in the master account 205, advertisers may create several accounts 220 to separately manage ad activity and collect ad performance information.

To assist in tracking and collecting ad performance data from the Web properties 210, the data store 200 also maintains custom tags (custom tags), program code, direction code, and the like 215. According to one embodiment, indicia 215 may comprise a piece of code created by the system and placed on a particular web site's relevant web pages to allow for automatic tracking and collection of data indicating customer sessions on the advertiser's web site. For example, the tags may be used to track a user's visit to, interaction with, or purchase from a website that was entered by the user clicking on an advertising link associated with the website. Depending on the specific requirements and business goals of a particular advertiser, the tags may be coded to gather specific information about the customer sessions in which the advertiser is interested. Thus, some tags may enable data to be collected regarding the number of original clicks on an advertiser's website, while other tags may track the number of clicks in exchange (e.g., purchasing a product or service from the advertiser's website). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that data collection may be limited to other portions of the client session.

Some embodiments utilize (or incorporate) features or techniques such as HTML tagging, data tracking, and related techniques as described in U.S. patent application nos. 09/832,434 and 09/587,236, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

In one embodiment, within the primary account 205, an advertiser may maintain one or more accounts 220, and the accounts 220 may be used to receive analytics data related to a particular account 220 and manage ad campaign spending associated with various Web attributes 210. Thus, the account 220 allows advertisers to distribute their advertising funds to different Web properties 210 and discrete ad campaigns 225. A particular ad campaign 225 may include a set of one or more advertising campaigns or behaviors that are intended to achieve a common advertising goal (e.g., marketing or sales of a particular product, service, or content, or set of products, services, or content). Two ad campaigns can be considered quite distinct when they are intended for different advertising targets. For example, an advertiser may advertise a product and a service associated with the product for sale. Thus, advertisers may store discrete ad campaigns 225 for advertising the products and services.

In one embodiment, the storage of ad campaign 225 may be further subdivided into ad groups 230. The ad group 230 may be considered a conceptual bay or container that includes ad and ad parameters to be processed in a similar manner. The ad group 230 may allow microscopic targeting, such as grouping by ads targeting a particular audience, demographic group, or product family. For example, the ad group may relate to a particular manufacturer's product (e.g., Sony, Microsoft, etc.), or a high-end family of electronic products (e.g., TV, DVD, etc.). There are many ways to manage a particular ad group in a similar manner. For example, an advertiser may specify that there is a certain spread (e.g., 50%) in the goods in a particular group of ads, may want to distribute all those ads in a certain way, or may want to spend a certain amount of budget on those ads. In addition, ad groups 230 provide advertisers with a convenient tool to move large groups of ad and ad parameters from one ad campaign 225 to another ad campaign 225, or to copy large groups of ad and ad parameters from one ad campaign 225 to another ad campaign 225.

In one embodiment, changes made to the parameters of a particular ad group 230 may be applicable to all ads within the particular ad group. For example, one such parameter may be pricing. For sponsored searches, the advertiser may set a default price for the entire ad group, but may append the price for individual terms. Similarly, an advertiser may further specify that a particular term is low, but decide to increase the amount spent on another term uniformly across all ads in a particular ad group. Thus, storage according to one or more ad groups 230 allows advertisers to bridge the gap between ad campaigns and individual ads that include a particular ad campaign.

A particular ad may contain one or more items of advertising content for creating ad/terms in the ad group, including but not limited to creatives (e.g., titles, descriptions) and destination URLs (plus associated URL tracking codes). Alternatively, a particular ad may contain { keyword } tokens for replacing a title, description, or alternative text in other ad components. Further, the ads may exist in an ad library (not shown) as templates that may be reused between ad groups, or as local ads that are used and stored only within a particular ad group. An ad library, which may be provided by an ad campaign management system, allows advertisers to store ad templates, which are shared and reused between campaigns and ad groups. The ads in the ad library may be shared by accounts, e.g., each account has its own library.

The ad group 230 may utilize a number of means for achieving advertising goals. The term "means" includes a particular form or type of advertisement. For example, in online advertising, the means may include sponsored search results list 235, banner advertisement 255, content match 270, and the like. In offline advertising, the means may include television advertisements, broadcast advertisements, newspaper advertisements, and the like. In different embodiments, a means may comprise a subset or superset of the listed examples or other examples. For example, online advertising is a broader approach than that of narrower sponsored search result lists. Further, advertisers may utilize multiple advertisement channels for different means. For example, an advertiser may be located, for example, in a web site such as Yahoo! Sponsored search listings are used in web sites or portals (portals) of google.com, msn.com, etc. In one embodiment, a user may set parameters within ad group 230 to set spending limits for various types of advertising instrumentalities that comprise ad group 230.

One example of an advertising means is sponsored search 235. According to one embodiment, the sponsored search 235 operates as follows: advertisers use auction-based systems or marketplaces to bid on search terms or phrases that, when used in a search, cause ad listings or links for a particular advertiser to be displayed in the search results. Advertisers may also bid on the location or prominence of their listings in the search results. With respect to the auction-based sponsored search 235, a particular advertiser may provide a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)240 to a web page to which the ad would bring the client if clicked and may provide text for the advertisement 245 that should be displayed. The advertiser may also identify one or more terms 250 that should be associated with the advertisement 245.

Another example of an advertising means is content matching 270. The storage of content matching ads 280 may be used by advertisers to supplement the sponsored search facility 235, or as an alternative to the sponsored search facility 235. Ads stored according to the content matching means 270 are displayed alongside relevant articles, product reviews, presented to the customer. For the content matching means 270, the data store 200 stores one or more URLs 275, the URLs 275 identifying the addresses of web pages to which clients will be taken if they are clicked on a particular ad, and storing text, images, video or other types of multimedia information including the creative portion 280 of the advertisement.

Yet another example of an advertising means is the banner ad 255. Advertisers may use the banner ad means 255 to supplement, or as an alternative to, the sponsored search means 235 and the content matching means 270. Advertisers pay for each display (called impression) of the banner ad 265 as compared to sponsored search and content matching approaches, which are typically based on a pay-per-click scheme. Alternatively, if the banner ad displays a telephone number, the advertiser may only be billed when the user dials the telephone number associated with the advertisement. Thus, for the slogan ad approach, the data store 200 maintains a URL 260 to a web page that the ad would take a client to if clicked on and a creative 265 that includes the slogan ad.

The data store 200 of the ad campaign management system may also store various parameters for the various ad groups. Such parameters may include a maximum or minimum bid or bid position (rank or prominence of a listing) associated with a term or set of terms for an ad within a particular ad group or ad group. As described above, in embodiments of an auction-based sponsored search result listing environment, the prominence or ranking of listings is closely related to ad performance and, thus, useful parameters in ad activity management. The ranking of a particular ad determines the quality of the ad's placement on the page displayed to the customer. Although detail content varies with the ad channel, the top level listings generally appear at the top of the page, the following listings appear in the right column, and the remaining listings appear at the bottom of the page. Listings that line about the top five will appear on subsequent search results pages.

There is an association between the ranking and both the number of impressions and the click-through rate (number of clicks per impression), which provides advertisers with the opportunity to pay more for each click (get a higher ranking) for more visitors to their web site. As a result, advertisers may determine how much a bid will be willing for individual listings based on the advertiser's business goals and may determine the quality of service generated by the listings on their websites. This information may also be stored in the data store 200 of the ad campaign management system of the present invention for a particular ad group 230.

3-31 are examples of different embodiments of a graphical user interface ("GUI") 115 for the advertising campaign management system of FIG. 1 that provides the user with the ability to: displaying, managing, optimizing, or viewing and customizing reports on ad campaign information. As used herein, ad campaign information may include: information such as current or historical performance of an advertisement or group of one or more advertisements; campaign goals related to the advertisement or the one or more ad groups; budget-related conditions or restrictions associated with an advertisement or one or more groups of advertisements; information specifying, defining or describing the advertisement; a bid parameter such as a maximum or minimum bid position associated with an advertisement or one or more advertisement groups; metrics associated with an advertisement or one or more groups of advertisements such as Return On Advertisement Spending (ROAS), Cost Per Click (CPC), or number of Clicks Per Impression (CPI); cost Per Acquisition (CPA) or any other parameter associated with an advertisement or group of one or more advertisements provided by an advertising service provider.

FIG. 3 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI displaying advertisement campaign information. In general, the GUI 300 provides a high-level summary of the account, a high-level summary of at least a portion of the ad activity and ad group within the user account, a graphical representation of performance parameters associated with the user account, and a listing of any alerts associated with the user.

In one embodiment, the GUI 300 includes an alert section 302, an account summary performance section 304, and an ad campaign/ad group summary section 306. The alert section 302 can include one or more notifications 308 to the user. The one or more notifications 308 may relate to a user account in general, or to an ad campaign for an advertiser account, an ad group for an ad campaign, an individual advertisement, or any other grouping of information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider. For example, the one or more notifications 308 may alert the user to: the keyword has been rejected; a credit card associated with the user account is about to expire; the advertisement has been vetoed; or any other type of alert desired by the advertising service provider. Further, alert section 302 may include a drop-down menu 310 to filter the one or more notifications 308 based on information, generally a user account, or ad campaign, ad group, individual advertisement, or any other group of information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider.

The account summary performance section 304 may include a graphic 312 that illustrates performance parameters of the account over a period of time 312. Exemplary performance parameters include impressions, clicks, acquisitions, or revenues associated with information, generally user accounts, or individual advertisements, ad groups, ad campaigns, or any other grouping of information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider. In addition to the graph 312, the account summary performance section 304 may include a numeric listing 314 of performance parameters such as impressions, clicks, acquisitions, or revenues generally associated with the user's account, or associated with ad campaigns, ad groups, individual advertisements, or any other group of information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider.

The ad activity/ad group summary section 306 may include one or more summaries of ad activity and ad groups 316, which ad activity and ad groups 316 may be filtered according to a drop down menu filter 317. The drop down menu filter 317 may allow the user to filter summaries of ad campaigns and ad groups 316 based on the ad campaigns, ad groups, top performance ad groups, search instrumentalities, or any other grouping information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider. In FIG. 3, the ad campaign and one or more digests of ad group 316 are filtered according to a top target group (top ad group). The summary of the ad campaign and ad group 316 may include information relating to the name of the ad campaign 320, the name of the ad group 322 associated with the ad campaign 320, a top-level performance advertisement 323, a search means 324 of the ad campaign and ad group, a number of impressions of the advertisements within the ad group 326, a click-through rate (CTR) of the ad group 328, a number of clicks on the advertisements within the ad group 330, a Cost Per Click (CPC) of the advertisements within the ad group 332, an amount a user spends on the advertisements within the ad group 334, or any other performance parameter related to the ad campaign or ad group provided by the advertising service provider. The top performance advertisement 322 may be an advertisement with the highest performance parameters within an ad campaign or ad group defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider, such as an advertisement with the highest number of impressions, the highest CTR, or the highest number of impressions.

The ad campaign/ad group summary section 306 may also include a date range selection tool 336. By activating the date range selection tool 336, the user may select a date range in which they would like to view the performance parameters listed in the ad campaign/ad group summary section 306. For example, the user may choose to view performance parameters for the past 24 hours, the last month, two weeks before a month, or any other time period defined by the user. It should be appreciated that the date range selection tool 336 may be applied to other GUIs as will be described below with respect to FIGS. 4-31.

FIG. 4 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI displaying advertisement campaign information. Fig. 4 shows: when displaying advertising information based on one or more ad campaigns and ad groups 416 in fig. 3, a user may activate one or more hyperlinks 432 to dynamically create a second GUI 434. The second GUI 434 may include information such as top-level performance advertisements.

Fig. 5a and 5b are examples of embodiments of GUIs displaying advertisement campaign information. In FIG. 5a, in addition to an alert section 506 and a performance section 508 that are similar to the alert section and performance section described above with respect to FIG. 3, the GUI 500 includes an ad campaign summary section 502, the ad campaign summary section 502 listing a summary of one or more ad campaigns 504. The summaries of one or more ad activities 504 in fig. 5 are filtered according to a top-level performance ad activity 510. Each summary of an ad campaign may include a numerical listing of performance parameters associated with the ad campaign, such as monthly budget 512, number of impressions 514, click-through rate (CTR)516, number of clicks 518, Cost Per Click (CPC)520, number of acquisitions 522, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)524, revenue 526, return on advertising expenses (ROAS)528, amount of ad campaign spending 530, or any performance parameter provided by the advertising service provider.

In fig. 5b, the GUI 501 includes an ad activity section 502, in addition to an alert section 506 and a performance section 508 similar to those described above with respect to fig. 3 and 5a, the ad activity summary section 502 listing one or more ad activities 504. The GUI 501 also includes a drop down menu 532 for selecting a primary account and a drop down menu 534 for selecting an account within the selected primary account. The ad campaign management system typically manages accounts in a hierarchical manner such that multiple accounts are associated with one master account.

The GUI 501 also includes a drop down menu 536 and a drop down menu 538, where the drop down menu 536 is used to select the performance parameters graphically illustrated in the performance section 508 and the drop down menu 538 is used to select the number of activity summaries that are displayed at one time in the ad activity summary section 502. Similar to the activity summary described above, the activity summary includes performance parameters related to the ad activity, such as assistance 540. The number of assistance for an activity is the number of times a potential customer completes an exchange of related products or services after searching for information related to the activity in advance. For example, a potential customer may first search for the first search term and not complete the exchange. However, the potential customer may then search for a second search term that is related to the first search term and complete the exchange. When this occurs, the first word is assisted in the exchange, although the potential customer completes the exchange after searching for the second word. The amount of assistance may be calculated on the primary account, ad campaign, ad group, or individual ad or keyword levels, or any other level defined by the advertiser.

It should be appreciated that any of the drop down menus described with respect to fig. 5b may be used with any of the user interfaces described in fig. 3-31.

FIG. 6 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Generally, the GUI 600 of FIG. 6 includes an ad campaign summary section 602, the ad campaign summary section 602 including a summary of one or more ad campaigns 603 within an advertiser account. Each of the one or more summaries of the ad campaign 603 may include performance parameters associated with the ad campaign, such as a monthly budget 604, a number of impressions 606, a CTR 608, a number of clicks 610, a CPC 612, an amount spent on the ad campaign 614, or any other performance parameter related to the ad campaign provided by the ad service provider. The GUI 600 may also include a summary bar 616 that includes aggregated information for all of the ad campaign information displayed for one or more ad campaigns 603. For example, the summary section 616 may include an aggregate monthly budget 616, an aggregate number of impressions 618, an aggregate CTR 620, an aggregate number of clicks 622, an aggregate CPC 624, a total amount spent 626 across all ad campaigns, or any other performance parameter related to ad campaigns provided by the advertising service provider.

The GUI 600 may also include one or more ad activity action hyperlinks 628. By selecting one or more ad activities and activating the one or more ad activity action hyperlinks 628, the user may perform actions such as pausing the ad activity, activating the ad activity, deleting the ad activity, grouping multiple activities into one activity, copying the ad activity, adding the ad activity to a watch list, removing the ad activity from the watch list, or any other function that may be performed on the ad activity in general.

FIG. 7 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. As in the GUI of FIG. 6, the GUI 700 displays a summary of one or more ad campaigns 702 within an advertiser account. The GUI 700 may also include a filter bar 704 to allow a user to sort and view ad campaign summaries according to performance parameters, ad groups, or any other parameter associated with ad campaigns provided by an advertising service provider.

Fig. 8a and 8b are examples of embodiments of graphical user interfaces for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the GUI of FIGS. 6 and 7, GUI 800a displays a summary of one or more ad campaigns 802 within an advertiser account. The GUI 800 may also include a search bar 804, the search bar 804 allowing a user to search for a summary of the one or more ad activities 802. Using the search bar 804, the user may search for and display a particular summary of the one or more ad campaigns 802 based on performance parameters such as impressions 806, CTR 808, clicks 810, CPCs 812, acquisitions 814, CPAs 816, revenue 818, ROAS 820, spending amounts 822 on ad campaigns, or any other performance parameter related to ad groups provided by the advertising service provider. Further, the search bar 804 may allow the user to search for and display a particular summary that is greater than, less than, or equal to the value 824 entered by the user.

FIG. 8b shows that the GUI may provide an advanced search GUI 826 in addition to or in place of the search bar 804 (FIG. 8 a). Advanced search GUI 826 provides a user the ability to search for advertisements based on one or more search criteria. For example, a user may search for an advertisement based on a range of values for one or more performance parameters associated with the advertisement or a range of values for one or more ad campaign management settings for the advertisement.

In one embodiment, the advanced search GUI 826 provides the ability to search for advertisements that contain a piece of text or advertisements that do not contain a piece of text 828. In addition, the advanced search GUI 826 provides the ability to search for advertisements based on a range of values related to performance parameters (e.g., average CPC 830, impression 832, CTR 834, click 836, cost 838, exchange 840, revenue 842, ROAS 844, or any other performance parameter associated with an advertisement provided by an advertising campaign management system). In addition, advanced search GUI 826 provides the ability to search for an advertisement based on whether the advertisement is valid 846, whether the advertisement is being viewed 848, or whether there is an alert associated with the advertisement 850.

It will be appreciated that the advanced search GUI 826 provides the ability to search for advertisements based on any combination of one or more search criteria. For example, a user may perform a first search for all advertisements with an average CPC 830 between $0.50 and $ 0.75. The user may also perform a second search for all advertisements for which the average CPC 830 is between $0.50 and $0.75, the exchange number 840 is between 100 and 500, and the state 846 is set to valid.

FIG. 9 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the GUI of FIGS. 6-8, GUI 900 displays a summary of one or more ad campaigns 902 within an advertiser account. GUI 900 may also include one or more hyperlinks that, when activated by a user, cause the ad campaign management system to create a second GUI 904. Generally, the second GUI 904 displays information, such as performance parameters related to ad activity, in graphical form. In one embodiment, the second GUI 904 may include a graphic 905 of performance parameters (e.g., impressions 906, clicks 908, acquisitions 910, revenues 912, or any other performance parameter associated with ad activity provided by an advertising service provider) over a period of time related to ad activity.

FIG. 10 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Generally, the GUI 1000 includes an ad group summary section 1002. The ad group summary section 1002 generally includes one or more summaries of ad groups 1004 within the campaign, a summary bar 1006, and a plurality of ad group action hyperlinks 1008. Each summary of the ad group 1004 may include ad campaign information related to the ad group, such as a search instrumentality 1010, a number of ads within the ad group 1012, a number of impressions 1014, a CTR 1016, a number of clicks 1020, a CPC 1022, an amount spent on the ad group 1024, or any other performance parameter related to the ad group provided by the ad service provider. Similarly, the summary bar 1006 may include aggregate ad campaign information for all ad groups within the ad campaign, such as an aggregate ad number 1026, an aggregate impression number 1028, an aggregate CTR 1030, an aggregate click number 1032, an aggregate CPC1034 for an ad group within the ad campaign, an aggregate spending amount 1036 for an ad group within the ad campaign, or any other performance parameter listed in the summary of ad group 1004.

By selecting one or more ad groups within the ad group summary section 1002 and activating one of the ad group action hyperlinks 1008, the user may perform actions such as pausing an ad group, activating an ad group, deleting an ad group, grouping a plurality of ad groups into an ad group, copying an ad group, moving an ad group to a different ad campaign, adding an ad group to a watch list, removing an ad group from a watch list, or any other function that may be performed on an ad group in general.

GUI 1000 can also include an activity setting hyperlink 1038 that, when activated by a user, will open one or more GUIs, such as those in fig. 11-15. FIG. 11 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing an advertising campaign. Generally, in the illustrated embodiment, the GUI includes a basic information section 1102, a business objective section 1104, a budget and progress section 1106, a means settings section 1108, and a geographic positioning section 1110.

The basic information section 1102 may include information related to ad activity, such as the name 1112 of the ad activity, a description 1114 of the ad activity, a status indication 1116, an indication 1118 of whether the ad activity is on a watch list, or any other set of information related to ad activity provided by the advertising service provider. The basic information portion 1102 may also include an edit hyperlink 1120 that, when activated by a user, will allow the user to edit any information listed in the basic information portion 1102, as will be seen in FIG. 12 described below.

Referring again to FIG. 11, the business objective portion 1104 provides an indication of the results of the various business objectives. The business target may be a performance target for one of the parameters specified in fig. 11, or other target for an advertising campaign. The business target portion 1104 may include a list of: one or more performance parameters 1122, current values 1124 associated with each performance parameter, a designation 1126 of the importance of each performance parameter, and an indication 1128 of whether the values associated with each performance parameter are inherited. In one embodiment, the value of the performance parameter may be inherited if the value is obtained from an associated account level. For example, ad campaigns may inherit values of performance parameters from advertiser account level settings propagated through all ad campaigns within an advertiser account. Alternatively, the ad group may inherit the values of the performance parameters from the advertiser ad campaign levels propagated through all ad campaigns within the ad group. The business target portion 1104 may also include an edit hyperlink 1130 that, when activated by a user, will allow the user to edit any business target settings associated with one or more performance parameters 1124, as will be seen in fig. 13 described below.

Referring again to FIG. 11, the budget and progress section 1106 can include advertising campaign information such as the current monthly budget 1132 for the ad campaign and the start and end dates 1134 for the ad campaign. The budget and progress section 1106 can also include an edit hyperlink 1136, which when activated by a user, will allow the user to modify the budget or start and end dates of ad activity associated with the ad activity visible in FIG. 14, described below.

Referring again to FIG. 11, the instrument settings section 1108 may include a sponsored search section 1140, a content matching section 1142, or a section for any other type of search instrument known in the art. In general, the sponsored search portion 1140 may include one or more performance parameters 1144 associated with the sponsored search, current values 1146 of the respective performance parameters, and an indication 1148 of whether the values of the respective performance parameters are inherited. Similarly, the content match portion 1142 can include one or more performance parameters 1150 associated with content matching, current values 1152 for the respective performance parameters, and an indication 1154 of whether the values for the respective performance parameters are inherited. The instrument settings section 1108 may also include an edit hyperlink 1156 that, when activated by a user, will allow the user to modify instrument settings associated with ad activity, as can be seen in FIG. 15, which will be described below.

Referring again to FIG. 11, geographic positioning portion 1110 may include the following columns: country name 1158, city 1160, or region for which ad activity is directed. The geo-locating section 1110 can also include an editing hyperlink 1162 that, when activated by a user, will allow the user to modify the geographic target settings associated with ad activity.

It will be appreciated that all of the ad campaign information displayed in the GUI 1100 for ad campaigns may also be displayed in the GUI for ad groups.

FIG. 12 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for editing basic information related to an advertising campaign. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI may be created for editing the basic information related to the ad group. Generally, GUI 1200 includes a window 1202 for editing the name of an advertising campaign, a window 1204 for editing the description of an advertising campaign, a drop down menu 1206 for changing the state of an advertising campaign, a drop down menu 1208 for changing whether the advertising campaign management system is to view the advertising campaign, and a save change hyperlink 1210 for saving the windows 1202 and 1204, and the current information within drop down menus 1206 and 1208.

FIG. 13 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing business objectives for an ad campaign level. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI may be created for displaying and managing business objectives at the ad group level. Generally, GUI 1300 includes a list of one or more business objects 1302. For each business objective, the user may modify different parameters associated with the business objective. For example, the user may select whether the business target is inherited from different advertiser account levels 1304 as described above. The user may also enter values 1306 for performance parameters associated with ad activity, such as minimum and maximum positions in a search list, CPM, CPC, CPA, or ROAS, if the values are not inherited. In addition, the user may also select an importance level 1308 of the business objective, e.g., unimportant, important, or very important, for the campaign optimizer 175 (FIG. 1).

FIG. 14 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing budget and progress parameters for an ad activity level. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI for displaying and managing budget and progress parameters for ad group levels may be created. Generally, the GUI 1400 includes an estimation tool 1402, an estimation graph 1404, and a progress tool 1406.

The estimation tool 1402 allows a user to enter values 1408, such as a monthly target budget, and dynamically create estimated performance parameters, such as an estimated number of monthly impressions 1410 or an estimated number of monthly clicks 1412, based on the values entered for the monthly target budget.

The estimate map 1404 may include a plot 1414 of a ratio of a potential number of clicks to a current estimated number of clicks, and a plot 1416 of a ratio of a budget necessary to obtain the potential number of clicks to a current monthly target budget. In addition, the estimate map 1404 may also include a numerical list 1418 of impressions and number of clicks lost with the current monthly target budget. In one embodiment, the graphs 1414, 1416 and the value list 1418 are dynamically updated as the user enters new values in the estimation tool 1402 and dynamically creates estimated performance parameters. In one embodiment, the data necessary to calculate the potential number of clicks, the currently estimated number of clicks, the budget necessary to obtain the potential number of clicks, and the impressions and number of clicks lost with the current monthly budget are obtained from the activity optimizer 175 (FIG. 1) and the predictive component 185 (FIG. 1) described above.

The progress tool 1406 allows a user to set a start date and an end date for an ad campaign. Generally, the progress tool 1406 includes a start date window 1420 and an end date window 1422, wherein the user can select the current date or a date for starting the ad campaign from the start date window 1420, and further, the user can select a date for ending the campaign later in the end date window 1422, or select that the campaign does not have an end date.

FIG. 15 is an example of one embodiment of a GUI for a user to edit an ad campaign instrumentation setting associated with an ad campaign. However, it will be appreciated that a similar GUI may be created for editing the active instrument settings associated with the ad group. In general, the GUI 1500 includes a CPC selection area 1502, an advanced matching selection area 1504, a list of any negative keywords 1506, and an automatic optimization selection area 1508.

CPC selection area 1502 allows a user to set the CPC for an advertising campaign. In one embodiment, the user may choose to inherit the CPC from the account level by selecting area 1510 within CPC selection area 1502. Alternatively, the user may enter the CPC for the advertisement campaign in the designation window 1512.

Advanced matching selection area 1504 allows a user to select to enable or disable advanced matching within the ad campaign management system. When advanced matching is enabled, the advertising service provider implements advanced matching algorithms instead of exact phrase matching algorithms, thereby allowing the advertising service provider to provide advertisements more frequently. The negative keyword list 1506 is a word used in advanced match enablement to avoid ad matches that find certain meanings of a word when the keyword has multiple meanings.

Finally, an automatic optimization selection area 1508 allows the user to select whether to allow the ad campaign management system to adjust one or more performance parameters of the ad campaign to optimize the performance of the ad campaign based on the user's one or more business goals.

FIG. 16 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. In general, the GUI 1600 of FIG. 16 includes an ad campaign graphical section 1602, an ad campaign summary section 1604, an ad campaign management section 1606, and an ad group summary section 1608 similar to that described above with respect to the GUI 1000 of FIG. 10.

The ad activity graphic section 1602 generally includes a graphic 1610 that illustrates selected performance parameters 1611 of ad activity over a period of time. For example, the graphic 1610 may show the number of impressions, number of clicks, number of acquisitions, revenue, or any other performance parameter associated with an ad campaign provided by an advertising service provider for an advertisement within the campaign.

The ad campaign summary section 1604 generally includes one or more average performance parameters 1612 for all ad groups within an ad campaign. For example, the average performance parameters 1612 may include an average CPC, an average position in a search listing, an average click-through rate, a quality score for an entire campaign, or any other performance parameter associated with an ad campaign provided by an advertising service provider that may not be averaged across all ad groups within the ad campaign.

The ad campaign management section 1606 generally includes one or more performance parameters 1614 associated with the ad campaign, current values 1616 associated with the respective performance parameters 1614, and current importance designations 1618 of the respective performance parameters 1614. The one or more performance parameters 1614 related to ad activity may include a minimum allowable position in a search listing, a maximum allowable position in a search listing, a CPM, a CPC, a CPA, a ROAS, or any other performance parameter provided by an internet service provider.

Additionally, the GUI 1600 may include an editing hyperlink 1620, where the editing hyperlink 1620, when activated by a user, will advance the user into a GUI, such as in FIG. 13, to allow the user to modify business goals associated with ad activity.

FIG. 17 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the GUI 1600 of FIG. 16, the GUI 1700 generally includes an ad campaign graphic section 1702, an ad campaign summary section 1704, an ad campaign management section 1706, and an ad group summary section 1708. However, the GUI 1700 of FIG. 17 also includes a search bar 1710 that allows a user to search for and display summaries of one or more ad groups 1712 associated with ad activity. Using the search bar 1710, the user may search for summaries of one or more ad groups 1712 based on a search instrumentality 1714, an impression 1716, a CTR 1718, a click 1720, a CPC1722, an acquisition 1724, a CPA 1726, a revenue 1728, a ROAS 1730, an amount spent on an ad group 1732, or any other performance parameter related to an ad group provided by an advertising service provider. In addition, the search bar 1710 may allow the user to search for a summary that is greater than, less than, or equal to the value 1734 entered by the user.

FIG. 18 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Generally, the GUI 1800 of fig. 18 may include an ad group graphics section 1802, an ad group summary section 1804, an ad group top performance ad section 1806, and a keyword/ad summary section 1808.

The ad group graph section 1802 generally includes a graph 1810 that illustrates selected performance parameters 1812 for an ad group over a period of time. For example, graph 1810 may show the number of impressions, the number of clicks, the number of acquisitions, revenue, or any other performance parameter associated with an ad group provided by an ad service provider for an ad group.

The ad group summary section 1804 generally includes one or more average performance parameters 1813 for all advertisements within the ad group. For example, the average performance parameters 1813 may include an average CPC, an average position in a search listing, an average click-through rate, a quality score for the entire ad group, or any other performance parameter associated with an ad group provided by an advertising service provider that may not be averaged across all advertisements within the ad group.

The ad group top performance ad section 1806 may include an advertisement 1814 and one or more performance parameters 1816 associated with the advertisement 1814. The top performance advertisement within an ad group may be an advertisement having the highest performance parameters within the ad group defined by the advertiser or advertising service provider, e.g., an advertisement having the highest number of impressions, the highest CTR, or the maximum number of clicks.

The one or more performance parameters 1816 associated with the advertisement 1814 may include the click-through rate of the advertisement, the quality of the advertisement, the percentage of the advertisement provided relative to all advertisements in the ad group, or any other performance parameter associated with the top-performance advertisement provided by the advertising service provider.

The keyword/ad summary section 1808 includes at least two tabs 1817 to allow a user to view ad campaign information related to ad groups for keywords or ads. In fig. 18, ad campaign information related to ad groups is displayed by keyword, while in fig. 19 (described below), ad campaign information related to ad groups is displayed by advertisement. Referring to FIG. 18, the keyword/ad summary section 1808 includes one or more summaries 1818 of keywords within the ad group. Each summary 1818 may include an average position 1820 in the search listing of advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, a number of impressions 1822 of the advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, a CTR 1824 of the advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, a number of clicks 1826 of the advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, a CPC 1828 of the advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, an amount of spending 1830 of the advertisements in the ad group associated with the keyword, or any other performance parameter associated with the keyword of the ad group provided by the advertising service provider.

The keyword/ad portion 1808 may also include a summary bar 1832. The summary bar 1832 may include the advertisement campaign information for all keywords in the ad group or all keywords currently displayed in the keywords/advertisements section 1808. For example, the summary slip 1832 may include an average location 1834 of advertisements of the ad group associated with a particular keyword, an aggregate impression count 1836, an average CTR 1838, an aggregate click count 1840, an average CPC 1842, an aggregate amount of spending 1844 on advertisements of the ad group associated with a particular keyword, or an aggregate of any other performance parameters listed in the keyword summary within the ad group 1818.

The GUI 1800 may also include one or more keyword action hyperlinks 1846. Similar to the ad activity and ad group action hyperlinks described above, the user may select one or more keywords and activate the one or more keyword action hyperlinks to perform actions such as pausing the keywords, activating the keywords, deleting the keywords, moving the keywords to a different ad group, copying the keywords, adding the keywords to the watch list, removing the keywords from the watch list, or any other function that may be performed on the keywords.

19a, 19b, and 19c are examples of embodiments of GUIs for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to FIG. 15, the GUI 1900 of FIG. 19a may include an ad group graphic section 1902, an ad group summary section 1904, an ad group top performance ad section 1906, and a keyword/ad summary section 1908. The keyword/ad summary section 1908 displays ad campaign information related to the ad group by ad. Generally, the keyword/ad summary section 1908 includes one or more summaries 1910 of ad campaign information associated with a particular ad. The summary 1910 may include the name 1912 of the advertisement, the percentage 1914 of the advertisement provided relative to all advertisements in the ad group, the quality 1915 of the advertisement, the number of impressions 1916 of the advertisement, the CTR 1917 of the advertisement, the number of clicks on the advertisement 1918, the CPC 1920 of the advertisement, the amount spent on the advertisement 1922, or other performance parameters provided by the advertising service provider in relation to the advertisement.

FIG. 19b is another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. The GUI 1901 of fig. 19b may include an ad group graphic section 1924, an ad group top performance ad section 1926, and a keyword/ad summary section 1928. Generally, the keyword/ad summary portion 1928 includes one or more ad summaries 1930. Each ad summary 1930 may include ad campaign information associated with the ad (e.g., an indication 1932 of whether the ad has been approved, the number of times the ad service provider provided the ad using a sponsored search 1934, the number of times the ad search provider has provided the ad based on content matches 1936, a graphical representation 1938 of ad quality), or performance parameters associated with the ad (e.g., the number of impressions 1940, CTRs 1942, the number of clicks 1944, or any other performance parameters provided by the ad campaign management system).

FIG. 19c is another embodiment of a GUI 1903 for creating advertisements. In one embodiment, the GUI 1903 is displayed after activation of a hyperlink, such as hyperlink 1942 (fig. 19b) of the GUI 1901. Generally, the GUI 1903 includes an advertisement preview area 1946, an advertisement creation area 1948, and an advertisement creation help area 1950.

The ad creation area 1948 may include one or more fields that provide the user with the ability to create and preview ads in the ad preview area 1946. The fields in the advertisement creation area 1948 may include a title inserted field 1952, a short description field 1954, a long description field 1956, an end point URL 1958, a show URL 1960, and an advertisement name 1962. As text is inserted into any of the fields described above, the ad campaign management system dynamically creates an advertisement preview in the advertisement preview area 1946. The ad creation area 1948 may also include a keyword list area 1964 that lists keywords associated with the ad being created.

FIG. 20 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to fig. 18 and 19a, the GUI 2000 of fig. 20 may include an ad group graphic section 2002, an ad group summary section 2004, an ad group top performance ad section 2006, and a keyword/ad summary section 2008. The GUI 2000 may also include a filter bar 2010 to allow a user to filter the keyword summary of the ad group based on performance parameters or any other advertising campaign information associated with the ad group.

FIG. 21 is an example of another embodiment of a GUI for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to fig. 18-20, the GUI 2100 of fig. 21 may include an ad group graphic portion 2102, an ad group summary portion 2104, an ad group top performance ad portion 2106, and a keyword/ad summary portion 2108. GUI 2100 may also include a search bar 2110 that allows a user to search for one or more keyword digests 2112 based on maximum CPC 2114, average position 2116, impressions 2118, CTR 2120, clicks 2122, CPC2124, acquisitions 2125, CPA 2126, revenues 2128, ROAS 2130, spending amount 2132, or any other performance parameter related to the keywords of the ad group provided by the advertising service provider. In addition, the search bar 2110 may also allow the user to search for one or more keyword digests 2112 that are greater than, less than, or equal to the value 2134 entered by the user.

Fig. 22 and 23 are examples of other embodiments of GUIs for displaying and managing advertisement campaign information. As can be seen in fig. 22, the secondary management GUI 2202 may be dynamically created by activating a hyperlink on the primary GUI. The sub-pipe GUI 2202 may include a list of performance parameters 2206, such as average location, impression, CTR, click, take, CPA, revenue, ROAS, cost, or any other performance parameter provided by an advertising service provider. In addition, the secondary management GUI 2202 may also include an estimation tool 2208 and an estimation graph 2210. The estimation tool 2208 allows a user to enter a potential performance parameter value 2212, such as the potential value of the maximum CPC, and dynamically create ad groups of estimated other performance parameters based on the value of the potential performance parameter, such as an estimated average position 2214, an estimated monthly impression 2216, or an estimated monthly number of clicks 2218. If the user wishes to save the potential performance parameter values 2212 input to the assessment instrument 2208 at any point as new values assigned to the appropriate performance parameters, the user can execute a save button 2219.

In one embodiment, the estimation tool 2210 includes a graphical representation of the estimated number of impressions 2220 and estimated number of clicks 2222 versus the maximum CPC setting (bid), and an estimated indication of the current bid 2224. In general, the estimated number of impressions 2220 and the estimated number of clicks 2222 are functions of the ad group's current performance parameter settings. The estimated indication of the current bid 2224 shows the position of the user's current bid relative to the estimated number of impressions 2220 and the estimated number of clicks 2222. As the user uses the estimation tool 2208 to create a new estimated performance parameter for the ad group, the estimated indication 2224 of the current bid moves relative to the estimated number of impressions 2220 and the estimated number of clicks 2222 in accordance with the estimated performance parameter.

Fig. 24a and 24b are examples of other embodiments of GUIs for displaying, managing, and optimizing advertisement campaign information. Generally, the GUI 2400 of FIG. 24a allows a user to set various performance parameters for keywords within an ad group. The GUI 2400 can generally include a performance section 2402, an assessment tool 2404, an assessment graph 2406, and a preview section 2408. The performance section 2402 may include a numeric listing of one or more performance parameters (e.g., average position, number of impressions, CTR, clicks, CPC, acquisitions, CPA, revenue, ROAS, spending amount, or any other performance parameter provided by the advertising service provider in relation to the ad group's keywords) associated with the ad group's keywords.

The estimation tool 2404 allows a user to enter a potential performance parameter value 2410, such as a potential value for maximum CPC, and dynamically create an estimated performance parameter, such as an estimated average position 2412, an estimated monthly impression 2414, or an estimated monthly number of clicks 2416, for the ad group based on the potential performance parameter value.

In one embodiment, the estimate map 2406 includes a plot of an estimated number of impressions 2418 and an estimated number of clicks 2420 versus a maximum CPC setting, as well as an estimated indication of a current bid 2422. The estimated indication of the current bid 2422 shows the position of the user's current bid relative to the estimated number of impressions 2418 and the estimated number of clicks 2420. As the user creates new estimated performance parameter values for the ad group's keywords using the estimation tool 2404, the estimated indication 2422 of the current bid moves relative to the estimated number of impressions 2418 and the estimated number of clicks 2420 according to the estimated performance parameters.

The preview section 2408 displays one or more advertisements that are bound to the keywords. In general, the preview section 2408 provides the user with the ability to perform one or more actions 2424 on the advertisement displayed in the preview section, e.g., provides the ability to remove the advertisement from the keyword.

FIG. 24b is an example of another embodiment 2401 of a GUI for allowing a user to set various performance parameters for keywords within an ad group. Similar to the GUI 2400 of fig. 24a, the GUI 2401 may include a performance section 2426, an estimation tool 2428, and an estimation map 2430 as described above. The GUI 2401 may also include an initial placement suggestion region 2432. The initial placement suggestion area 2432 provides suggestions to advertisers that include a range of values, the result of which is that the advertisement gets a premium position in the search results. Examples of good places include a prominent place in the search results, e.g., a place near the beginning of a web page, or on the first page of the search results. In one embodiment, the recommendations in the initial placement recommendation region 2432 are calculated based on current performance parameters (e.g., those listed in performance section 2426, as well as predictive information obtained from predictive component 190 (fig. 1) as described above).

25-31 are different embodiments of GUIs for displaying and customizing reports that include advertising campaign information. As described above with respect to fig. 1, the campaign management system provides the ability to receive advertising campaign information from various sources including the channel server 150, the configuration package collection server 135, and the third party analytics feed component 180. The BIG component 155 of the campaign management system ensures that this data is received in a correct and timely manner, and may also perform aggregation and filtering on the raw data impressions that enter the configuration package 100. After the received data is filtered and received, the campaign management system may generate reports on all of the advertising campaign information from multiple advertising service providers that is relevant to one advertiser account.

Referring to fig. 25-31, GUI 2500 may generally include a graphic portion 2502, a menu 2504 for selecting a report type, a drop down menu 2506 for selecting at what account level to view a report, one or more activation regions for selecting a graphic type 2508, a drop down menu 2510 for selecting performance parameters drawn on a left coordinate axis of graphic portion 2502, a drop down menu 2512 for selecting values drawn on a right coordinate axis of graphic portion 2502, an update action region 2514 for updating a graphic shown on graphic portion 2502, a list 2516 of values of one or more performance parameters associated with a drawn graphic 2502, and a download action region 2518 for downloading advertising campaign information in various formats.

To generate an illustration of the graphical portion 2502, the user should select the report type 2504, the account level 2506, the graphical type 2508, and the value for the left axis 2510 or the right axis 2512. Report type 2504 defines the type of report shown in graphical section 2502, such as a performance summary report, a daily budget report, a summary report in terms of ad campaign names, a summary report in terms of ad groups, a summary report in terms of ad titles, or any other type of report defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider. Examples of report types are described in detail in U.S. patent application No.11/413,699 (attorney docket No.12729/136), entitled "advertiser reporting System and Method in a Networked Database Search System," filed on 28.2006, with application No.11/413,699 (attorney docket No.12729/136), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Report type 2504 is further defined by the user selecting an account level 2506 to view the report. In general, reports may be viewed based on advertiser account levels, advertising campaign levels, ad group levels, or any other group of advertising campaign information defined by an advertiser or advertising service provider.

To customize the illustration in the graphical section 2502, a user may select the selector 2508 to view the report as a line graph, bar graph, pie graph, or any other type of graph known in the art. Further, the user may customize the illustration in the graphical section 2502 by: performance parameters plotted against time periods are selected as a left axis 2510 and performance parameters plotted against time periods are selected as a right axis 2512. The performance parameter plotted on the left axis 2510 or the right axis 2512 can be number of impressions, clicks, CPCs, number of exchanges, exchange rate, CPAs, spending amount, revenue, ROAS, or any other performance parameter provided by the advertising service provider in association with advertiser accounts, ad campaigns, ad groups, advertisements, or other grouping information defined by the advertiser or advertising service provider.

In some embodiments, each of the GUIs is described above with respect to FIGS. 3-31 as being dynamic and customizable. For example, a user may interact with the ad campaign management system to enable or disable particular options associated with their account. As a result, the ad campaign management system may display a customization GUI to the user that removes information associated with options in the ad campaign management system that have been disabled. For example, if the user disables optimization functionality in the ad campaign management system, the ad campaign management system may remove all performance parameters or options related to the optimization from the GUI presented to the user.

In other embodiments, the ad campaign management system may also provide the user with the ability to display which performance parameters to the user. For example, the user can select which performance parameters associated with the account that the ad campaign management system presents to the user in the GUI, or the user can select the order of different types of performance parameters presented to the user. The customizable GUI allows the ad campaign management system to provide the user with the user-defined information that is most relevant to the user.

Figure 32 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system 3200 for facilitating the display of advertising campaign information. The system 3200 generally includes an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) that includes one or more servers 3202 in communication with user devices 3204 via a network 3206. In general, as described above, the advertising service provider 3202 organizes the advertising campaign information into an account hierarchy according to the user account, one or more ad campaigns associated with the user account, one or more ad groups associated with the ad campaigns, and keywords and advertising information associated with the ad groups. After organizing the ad campaign information, the ad service provider 3202 sends at least a portion of the ad campaign information to the user 3204 for display based at least in part on the one or more ad groups.

Each server of the advertisement service provider 3202 may include a processor 3208, a network interface 3210 connected with the processor 3208, and a storage unit 3212 connected with the processor 3208. Generally, the storage unit 3212 stores at least advertisement campaign information. The advertisement campaign information may include: information relating to relationships between user accounts, ad campaigns, and ad groups; performance parameters associated with the user account, the ad campaign, and the ad group; or advertisements and keywords associated with user accounts, ad campaigns, and ad groups.

Processor 3208 is generally operative to perform one or more operations to organize advertisement campaign information stored in storage unit 3212 into one or more ad groups defined by an advertiser. As described above, an ad group may be viewed as a concept compartment or container that includes advertisements and advertisement parameters that are processed in a similar manner.

After organizing the ad campaign information into one or more ad groups, the ad service provider 3202 may transmit at least a portion of the ad campaign information to the user device 3204 for display via the network interface 3210 based at least in part on the one or more ad groups. In one embodiment, the advertising service provider 3202 sends one or more hypertext pages including graphical user interfaces (e.g., those in fig. 3-31) when executed in an internet browser, stand-alone application, or any other device known in the art.

FIG. 33 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for facilitating display of advertisement campaign information. Method 3300 begins with the following step 3302: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. The ad provider may organize the ad campaign information into one or more ad groups defined by the advertiser based on search instrumentalities, performance parameters of the ad campaign information, or any other parameters related to ad groups provided by the advertising service provider.

The advertising service provider then displays advertising campaign information 3304 to the user based at least in part on the one or more ad groups. The advertising campaign information may be displayed in a GUI running in an internet browser on the user's device (e.g., those GUIs in fig. 3-31), in a standalone application running on the user's device, or on any other device known in the art.

FIG. 34 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for managing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the system of fig. 32, the present system generally includes an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) that includes one or more servers 3402 in communication with user devices 3404 via a network 3406. As explained above, the advertising service provider can include a processor 3408, a network interface 3410 coupled to the processor 3408, and a storage unit 3412 coupled to the processor 3408.

Generally, the ad service provider 3402 executes one or more programs running on the processor 3408 to organize the ad campaign information stored in the storage unit 3412 into one or more ad groups defined by the advertiser.

In one embodiment, the advertising service provider 3402 transmits at least a portion of the advertising campaign information organized into one or more ad groups to the user device 3404 via the network 3406 via the network interface 3410. The user device 3404 uses an internet browser, a standalone application, or any other type of application known in the art to display at least a portion of the received ad campaign information to a user in a User Interface (UI) (e.g., the UIs of fig. 3-31) and operates to allow the user to modify the ad campaign information based at least in part on one of the one or more ad groups. For example, the user may modify the maximum CPC associated with the ad group; adding or deleting keywords associated with the ad group; adding or deleting advertisements associated with the ad group; modifying business objectives associated with the ad group; modifying a search means associated with the ad group; modifying a budget limit associated with the ad group; or modify any other performance parameter associated with the ad group.

In another embodiment, the advertising service provider 3402 sends at least a portion of the ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups to the user device 3404 via the network 3406 via an Application Programming Interface (API) of the network interface 3410. The user device 3304 receives the ad campaign information using an application that operates to communicate with the API of the ad service provider 3402 and operates to modify the ad campaign information based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups, as described above.

FIG. 35 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information. The method 3500 begins with step 3502, which is as follows: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. The ad campaign information 3504 is then modified based at least in part on the one or more ad groups, as described above.

FIG. 36 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information. Method 3600 begins with step 3602 below: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. At least a portion 3604 of the ad campaign information is displayed, e.g., in fig. 3-31, based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups, and at least a portion 3606 of the displayed ad campaign information is modified as described above.

FIG. 37 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for managing advertisement campaign information. Method 3700 begins with the following step 3702: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. Instructions 3704 for modifying at least a portion of the ad campaign information based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups is received via an Application Program Interface (API), and at least a portion 3706 of the ad campaign information is modified based on the received instructions.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for optimizing advertisement campaign information. Similar to the system of fig. 32 and 34, the present system generally includes an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) that includes one or more servers 3802 in communication with user devices 3804 via a network 3806. As explained above, the advertising service provider may include the processor 3808, a network interface 3810 coupled to the processor 3808, and a storage unit 3812 coupled to the processor 3808.

Generally, the ad service provider 3802 executes one or more programs running on the processor 3808 to organize the ad campaign information stored in the storage unit 3812 into one or more ad groups defined by the advertiser.

In one embodiment, the ad service provider sends at least a portion of the ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups to user device 3804 via network 3806 via network interface 3810. User device 3804 uses an internet browser, a standalone application, or any other type of application known in the art to display at least a portion of the received ad campaign information to a user in a User Interface (UI) (e.g., the UIs of fig. 3-31) and operates to allow the user to optimize performance of the ad campaign information based at least in part on one of the one or more ad groups. For example, the user may dynamically create an estimate of a performance parameter based on potential CPC values or potential business target settings and change the actual performance parameter or business target settings based on the estimates for the ad group.

In another embodiment, the ad service provider 3802 sends at least a portion of the ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups to the user device 3804 via the network 3806 via an Application Program Interface (API) of the network interface 3810. User device 3804 receives the ad campaign information using an application operative to communicate with an API of ad service provider 3802 and is operative to optimize the ad campaign information based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups, as described above.

FIG. 39 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for optimizing ad campaign information. Method 3900 begins with the following step 3902: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. The advertising service provider obtains predictive information 3904 relating to at least a portion of the one or more ad groups and modifies the advertising campaign information based at least in part on the predictive information to optimize performance 3906 for at least one of the one or more ad groups, as described above.

FIG. 40 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for optimizing advertisement campaign information. Method 4000 begins with the following step 4002: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. At least a portion of the advertising campaign information 4004 is displayed based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups, and the advertising service provider obtains forecast information 4006 related to at least a portion of the displayed information. The displayed information is then modified based at least in part on the prediction information to optimize performance 4008 of at least one of the one or more ad groups, as described above.

FIG. 41 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for optimizing ad campaign information. Method 4100 begins with the following step 4102: the advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups. Predictive information relating to at least a portion of the one or more ad groups is obtained 4104 and instructions for modifying at least a portion of the advertising campaign information based at least in part on the predictive information to optimize performance of the one or more ad groups are received via an Application Program Interface (API) 4106. At least a portion of the ad campaign information is then modified based on the received instructions 4108.

FIG. 42 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system for reporting advertisement campaign information. Similar to the systems of fig. 32, 34, and 38, the present system generally includes an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) that includes one or more servers 4202 that communicate with user devices 4204 via a network 4206. However, the present system for reporting ad campaign information also includes an analytics feed 4207 provided by the ad campaign management system or another third party. As explained above, the advertising service provider may include a processor 4208, a network interface 4210 coupled to the processor 4208, and a storage unit 4212 coupled to the processor 4208.

In general, the advertising service provider 4202 executes one or more programs running on the processor 4208 to collect ad campaign information from the components within the advertising service provider and the at least one analytics feed 4207 and store the ad campaign information in the storage unit 4212. The ad service provider 4202 executes one or more other programs running on the processor 4208 to organize the ad campaign information stored in the storage unit 4212 into one or more ad groups.

In one embodiment, the advertising service provider 4202 receives instructions from the user device 4204 via the network interface 4210 regarding how to customize the report based at least in part on the one or more ad groups. In response, the advertising service provider 4202 executes one or more programs running on the processor 4208 to generate a customized report based on instructions received from the user device 4204 and to transmit at least a portion of the customized report to the user device 4204 via the network interface 4210 via the network 4206. The user device displays at least a portion of the received customized report, for example, in a User Interface (UI) in fig. 3-31, based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups, using an internet browser, a standalone application, or any other type of application known in the art.

In another embodiment, the advertising service provider 4202 receives instructions from the user device 4204 via an Application Program Interface (API) of the network interface 4210 regarding how to customize reports based at least in part on the one or more ad groups. In response, the advertising service provider 4202 executes one or more programs running on the processor 4208 to generate a customized report based on instructions received from the user device 4204 and to transmit at least a portion of the customized report to the user device 4204 via the network 4206 via the API of the network interface 4210. The user device receives the portion of the customized report using an application that operates to communicate with an API of the network interface 4210 of the advertising service provider 4202 and displays at least a portion of the received customized report based at least in part on at least one ad group of the one or more ad groups.

FIG. 43 is a flow diagram of one embodiment of a method for reporting advertisement campaign information. The method 4300 starts with the following step 4302: an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) collects ad campaign information from components and at least one analytics feed within the advertising service provider. The advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups 4304 and receives instructions 4306 regarding customizing a report based in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups. The advertising service provider generates a report based on the received instructions and displays at least a portion of the customized report based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups 4308, as described above.

FIG. 44 is a flow diagram of another embodiment of a method for reporting advertisement campaign information. Method 4400 begins with the following step 4402: an advertising service provider (ad campaign management system) collects ad campaign information from components and at least one analytics feed within the advertising service provider. The advertising service provider organizes the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups 4404 and receives instructions 4406 via an Application Program Interface (API) regarding customizing a report based in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups. The custom report is then sent to the user device 4408 via the API.

FIG. 45 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system 4502 for interacting with an Application Program Interface (API)4504 of an ad campaign management system 4506 via a network 4507. In general, the system 4502 includes a processor 4508, a network interface 4510 connected to the processor 4508, and a storage unit 4512 connected to the processor 4508.

In general, the processor 4508 is operative to execute one or more instructions stored in a storage unit 4512 to communicate with the API4504 of the ad campaign management system 4506 via a network interface 4510. In one embodiment, processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with API4504 to send commands that define how ad campaign information is organized into one or more ad groups. In another embodiment, the processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API4504 to send instructions to the ad campaign management system 4506 to modify ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups based at least on at least one of the one or more ad groups. In yet another embodiment, the processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API4504 to receive forecast information related to ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups, and send instructions to the ad campaign management system 4506 to modify at least one ad group based on the forecast information to optimize performance of the one or more ad groups. In yet another embodiment, the processor 4508 may execute instructions to communicate with the API4504 to send information to the ad campaign management system 4506 regarding customization of reports including ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups, and to receive the customized reports via the API4504 of the ad campaign management system 4506.

It will be appreciated that the advertising campaign management system of the present invention described with reference to fig. 1 and 2, the graphical user interface described with reference to fig. 3-31, and the system and method described with reference to fig. 32-45 provide a user interface and application program interface for an advertising campaign system that provides the ability to flexibly, dynamically, and efficiently manage a large number of ad groups. The user now manages the ad campaign information at the user-defined account level, as opposed to conventional user interfaces and application program interfaces that merely provide the ability to manage ad campaign information at the user account level or at the individual ad level. Users are given the ability to define their own ad campaign information groups (ad groups) for ads that are processed in a similar manner via the ad campaign management system. For example, the user may group advertisements by search means, performance parameters, demographic information of the user, product families, or virtually any other parameter desired by the user. Allowing users to define their own ad groups allows the ad campaign management system to provide more useful information to users, allowing users to display, manage, optimize, or view reports on ad campaign information in a manner that is most relevant to individual advertisers.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understood that it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that are intended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.

Claims (32)

1. A method of facilitating display of advertising campaign information, comprising the steps of:

organizing the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups; and

transmitting, for display, at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more ad groups.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises an ad campaign data set customized and defined by an advertiser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises being disposed at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises ads and ad parameters that are similarly processed by an ad campaign management system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises ads targeted to a set of demographic information and ad parameters.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of demographic information includes a gender of a user performing an Internet search.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of demographic information includes a geographic location of a user performing an Internet search.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of demographic information includes a revenue level of a user performing an Internet search.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of demographic information includes an age of a user performing an internet search.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises an ad targeted to a product family and ad parameters.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises ads and ad parameters that contain the same search means.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the search means comprises a sponsored search.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the search means comprises content matching.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein sending at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface for display based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises:

transmitting an advertisement group summary of the one or more advertisement groups, the advertisement group summary comprising a plurality of parameters associated with advertisement groups displayed to the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein sending at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface for display based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises:

sending a graphical representation of parameters associated with one of the one or more ad groups over a period of time to the user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more advertisement groups comprises: receiving a command from a user defining how to organize the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least a portion of the advertising campaign information is displayed to a user in a graphical user interface.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface is displayed in an internet browser.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the graphical user interface is displayed in a standalone application.

20. A system that facilitates display of advertising campaign information, comprising:

means for organizing the advertisement campaign information into one or more advertisement groups; and

means for sending, for display, at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more ad groups.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises an ad campaign information set customized and defined by an advertiser.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises being disposed at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises ads and ad parameters that are similarly processed by an ad campaign management system.

24. A computer-readable storage medium comprising sets of instructions for facilitating display of advertising campaign information, the sets of instructions causing a computer system to perform the actions of:

organizing the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups; and

transmitting, for display, at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface based, at least in part, on at least one of the one or more ad groups.

25. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises an ad campaign information set customized and defined by an advertiser.

26. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises ads and ad parameters that are similarly processed by an ad campaign management system.

27. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein sending at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information to a user interface for display based at least in part on at least one of the one or more ad groups comprises:

transmitting an advertisement group summary of the one or more advertisement groups, the advertisement group summary comprising a plurality of parameters associated with advertisement groups displayed to the user; and

sending a graphical representation of parameters associated with one of the one or more ad groups over a period of time to the user.

28. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein organizing advertisement campaign information into one or more advertisement groups comprises:

receiving a command from a user defining how to organize the advertising campaign information into one or more ad groups.

29. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the at least a portion of the advertisement campaign information is displayed to a user in a graphical user interface.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the graphical user interface is displayed in an internet browser.

31. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the graphical user interface is displayed in a standalone application.

32. An Application Program Interface (API) of an ad campaign management system, the API operative to facilitate network communications between the ad campaign management system and an application running on a user device, wherein the API receives a request from the application running on the user device for access to ad campaign information organized into one or more ad groups stored in the ad campaign management system.