Method and system for scheduling electronic advertising

Abstract

A method for scheduling advertising comprises the steps of: estimating a respective fraction of delivered advertisement impressions that result in a response from a user for each of a plurality of advertising contracts, estimating a value per impression for each of the advertising contracts, and scheduling an advertising line under the contract having the highest value per impression at a next available advertising window.

1 . A computer-implemented method for scheduling advertisements comprising:
 receiving a plurality of advertising contracts that are each associated with a time interval;   determining a click through rate for each of a plurality of advertising contracts;   determining a conversion rate for each of the plurality of advertising contracts;   estimating a value per impression based on the click through rate and the conversion rate, wherein the estimated value per impression is based on a weight assigned to future time intervals, further wherein the weight is based on an estimated relative traffic pattern for each future time interval; and   scheduling the advertisements based on the estimated value per impression.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the value per impression is estimated based on a moving average representing a fraction of trials in which an impression is delivered and the user responds to the impression. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the number of impressions to be delivered during the next available advertising window is further determined based on a desired number of responses and an estimate of a fraction of the impressions that elicit a response from the user. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a sufficiently high value per impression is initially assumed for a new advertising contract, so as to ensure that sufficient trials are performed under the new contract to form an accurate estimate of the value per impression. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein each remaining time interval is associated with a time of day and the weight assigned to each remaining time interval is based on an average number of impressions delivered during the time of day on a plurality of previous. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein each time interval of the plurality of time intervals comprises of a half hour time interval. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein, if two of the advertising contracts have substantially the same value per impression, an advertising line is scheduled under the one of the two contracts for which advertising delivery has a greater urgency. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , wherein a measure of urgency for each contract is based on a ratio of a remaining fraction of the total impressions to be delivered under the contract divided by a remaining fraction of the total time during which the contract is to be fulfilled. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the next available advertising window is a time period after which a guaranteed-delivery advertisement is scheduled. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertising is transmitted electronically to a recipient using one of the group consisting of web pages, portions of web pages, banners, buttons, pop-up windows, placement within sponsored search listings, and streaming media. 
     
     
         11 . A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer program code, wherein, when the computer program code is executed by a processor, the processor performs a method for scheduling advertising, comprising the steps of:
 receiving a plurality of advertising contracts that are each associated with a time interval;   determining a click through rate for each of a plurality of advertising contracts;   determining a conversion rate for each of the plurality of advertising contracts;   estimating a cost per impression based on the click through rate, the conversion rate, and a weight assigned to future time intervals, further wherein the weight is based on an estimated relative traffic pattern for each future time interval; and   scheduling the advertisements based on the estimated cost per impression.   
     
     
         12 . The computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the estimated cost per impression is estimated in near-real time based on a moving average representing a fraction of trials in which an impression is delivered and the user responds to the impression. 
     
     
         13 . The computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein the number of impressions to be delivered during the next available advertising window is further determined based on a desired number of responses and an estimate of a fraction of the impressions that elicit a response from the user. 
     
     
         14 . The computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein a sufficiently high estimated cost per impression is initially assumed for a new advertising contract, so as to ensure that sufficient trials are performed under the new contract to form an accurate estimate of the estimated cost per impression. 
     
     
         15 . The computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein each time interval of the plurality of time intervals comprises of a half hour time interval. 
     
     
         16 . The computer readable medium of  claim 11 , wherein, if two of the advertising contracts have substantially the same estimated cost per impression, an advertising line is scheduled under the one of the two contracts for which advertising delivery has a greater urgency. 
     
     
         17 . The computer readable medium of  claim 16 , wherein a measure of urgency for each contract is based on a ratio of a remaining fraction of the total impressions to be delivered under the contract divided by a remaining fraction of the total time during which the contract is to be fulfilled. 
     
     
         18 . A computer implemented method for scheduling advertisements comprising:
 determining a plurality of time intervals in which to display the advertisements;   determining a number of clicks remaining over a predetermined amount of the time intervals;   determining a weight for a current time interval and for the remaining time intervals; and   calculating, with at least one processor, a number of clicks over the current time interval based on the number of clicks remaining, the weight for the current time interval, the weights for the remaining time intervals, and the click through rate.   
     
     
         19 . The computer implemented method of  claim 18  wherein the weight is based on an estimated relative traffic pattern for each future time interval. 
     
     
         20 . The computer implemented method of  claim 18  wherein the calculated number of clicks over the current time interval comprises the number of clicks remaining times the weight for the current time interval, which is divided by the multiplication of the click through rate times a sum of the weights for the remaining time intervals.