Suggesting and/or providing ad serving constraint information

Abstract

Targeting information (also referred to as ad “serving constraints”) or candidate targeting information for an advertisement is identified. Targeting information may be identified by extracting topics or concepts from, and/or generating topics or concepts based on, ad information, such as information from a Web page to which an ad is linked (or some other Web page of interest to the ad or advertiser). The topics or concepts may be relevant queries associated with the Web page of interest, clusters, etc.

1 . A computer-implemented method to assist advertisers by generating serving constraints for an advertisement, the computer-implemented method comprising:
 a) identifying, by an ad serving system including at least one computer on a network, a target document using information provided, via an advertiser interface of the ad serving system, by an advertiser entering or managing information related to an advertisement;   b) generating, by the ad serving system, concepts from information associated with the target document;   c) storing, by the ad serving system, at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement, wherein the at least one of the concepts stored in association with the advertisement had not been previously associated with the advertisement as a serving constraint; and   d) later using at least one of the concepts stored in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to constrain the serving of the advertisement with respect to a plurality of documents, the plurality of documents not being limited to the target document.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the target document is a Web page. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the target document is identified based on a link in the advertisement input, via the advertiser interface, by the advertiser. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the target document is identified using a document identifier input, via the advertiser interface, by the advertiser. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the target document is identified based on concepts associated with the target document. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the target document is linked from the advertisement. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6  wherein the advertisement is rendered with the target document. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the information associated with the target document includes text extracted from the target document. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the information associated with the target document includes a further document linked with the target document. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the information associated with the target document includes search engine queries that have returned a link to the target document. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the information associated with the target document includes search engine queries that would return a link to the target document. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the one or more serving constraints include one or more keywords. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the one or more serving constraints include geo-location information. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the one or more serving constraints include temporal information. 
     
     
         15 . A computer-implemented method to assist advertisers by generating serving constraints for an advertisement, the computer-implemented method comprising:
 a) identifying, by an ad serving system including at least one computer on a network, a target document using information provided, via an advertiser interface of the ad serving system, by an advertiser entering or managing information related to an advertisement;   b) generating, by the ad serving system, concepts from information associated with the target document;   c) associating, by the ad serving system, at least one of the concepts with the advertisement as one or more candidate serving constraints;   d) sending, by the ad serving system, the one or more candidate serving constraints to the advertiser for presentation via the advertiser interface;   e) determining, by the ad serving system, after sending the one or more candidate serving constraints to the advertiser for presentation, an intention of the advertiser with regard to the presentation of the one or more candidate serving constraints based on a manual input of the advertiser via the advertiser interface;   f) accepting, by the ad serving system, at least one of the one or more candidate serving constraints responsive to the determined intention of the advertiser;   g) storing, by the ad serving system, the accepted at least one of the candidate serving constraints in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement; and   h) later using at least one of the concepts stored in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to constrain the serving of the advertisement with respect to a plurality of documents, the plurality of documents not being limited to the target document.   
     
     
         16 . Apparatus to assist advertisers by generating serving constraints for an advertisement, the apparatus comprising:
 a) at least one processor;   b) an input device; and   c) at least one storage device storing a computer executable code which, when executed by the at least one processor, performs a method of
 1) identifying a target document using information provided, via an advertiser interface of an ad serving system, by an advertiser entering or managing information related to an advertisement; 
 2) generating concepts from information associated with the target document; 
 3) storing at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement, wherein the at least one of the concepts stored in association with the advertisement had not been previously associated with the advertisement as a serving constraint; and 
 4) later using at least one of the concepts stored in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to constrain the serving of the advertisement with respect to a plurality of documents, the plurality of documents not being limited to the target document. 
   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the target document is a Web page. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the target document is identified based on a link in the advertisement input by the advertiser via the advertiser interface. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the target document is identified using a document identifier input, via the advertiser interface, by the advertiser. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the information associated with the target document includes text extracted from the target document. 
     
     
         21 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the information associated with the target document includes a further document linked with the target document. 
     
     
         22 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the information associated with the target document includes search engine queries that have returned a link to the target document. 
     
     
         23 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the information associated with the target document includes search engine queries that would return a link to the target document. 
     
     
         24 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the serving constraints include one or more keywords. 
     
     
         25 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the one or more serving constraints include geo-location information. 
     
     
         26 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the one or more serving constraints include temporal information. 
     
     
         27 . The apparatus of  claim 16   wherein the advertiser interface is further adapted to
 send the one or more candidate serving constraints to the advertiser for presentation, 
 determine, after sending the one or more candidate serving constraints to the advertiser for presentation, an intention of the advertiser with regard to the presentation of the one or more candidate serving constraints based on a manual input of the advertiser, and 
 accept at least some of the one or more candidate serving constraints responsive to the determined intention of the advertiser, wherein the act of storing stores accepted candidate serving constraints in association with the advertisement. 
   
     
     
         28 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the target document is identified based on concepts associated with the target document. 
     
     
         29 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the target document is linked from the advertisement. 
     
     
         30 . The apparatus of  claim 29  wherein the advertisement is rendered with the target document. 
     
     
         31 . A machine-readable medium storing machine-executable instructions which, when executed by a machine, effect the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         32 - 38 . (canceled) 
     
     
         39 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the act of storing at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement stores, in a database, the at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement. 
     
     
         40 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the act of storing at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement store, in a database, the at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement. 
     
     
         41 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 15  wherein the act of storing the accepted at least one of the candidate serving constraints in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement stores, in a database, the accepted at least one of the candidate serving constraints in association with the advertisement. 
     
     
         42 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  wherein the act of storing at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement stores, on a server, the at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement. 
     
     
         43 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the act of storing at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement as one or more serving constraints to be used to target the serving of the advertisement store, on a server, the at least one of the concepts in association with the advertisement.