Advertising inventory allocation

Abstract

A simultaneous ascending price auction (“SAA”) can be used to allocate advertising inventory to bidders. The advertising inventory can be, for example, radio or television advertisement spots (“spots”). The bidders can be advertisers that can provide advertisements for presentation in the spots. Two or more contiguous spots can define an advertising block. Spots or advertising blocks can be allocated to advertisers by the SAA mechanism based on bid criteria. The SAA can perform simultaneous advertisement scheduling and pricing. The auction allocation can be optimized to facilitate efficient allocation of advertisements to spots or blocks.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method comprising:
 identifying, within a single content item block, two or more contiguous advertisement spots;   determining, by one or more data processing apparatus, that an advertisement must be assigned to each of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots in order for any advertisement to be presented in the advertisement block;   assigning, by one or more data processing apparatus, one or more of the advertisement spots to a first set of bidders, each of the one or more advertisement spots being assigned to a corresponding the bidder based on a maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a single advertisements spot;   determining, by one or more data processing apparatus, that at least one of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots remain unassigned after the assigning; and   re-assigning, by one or more data processing apparatus, at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder based on a maximum amount that the particular bidder will pay for the at least two contiguous advertisement spots.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , comprising:
 determining that at least one advertisement spot remains unassigned following the re-assignment of the at least two contiguous advertisement spots; and   assigning the at least one advertisement spot to a filler bidder.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots comprises identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots in online content. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , comprising determining, for a first bidder in the first set of bidders, a maximum amount that the first bidder will pay for a single advertisement spot based on a total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and a total amount that the first bidder will pay for the total number of advertisement spots. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein re-assigning at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder comprises re-assigning the total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder to the first bidder based on the total amount. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , comprising:
 determining that a first bidder is requesting a first advertisement spot and that a second bidder is requesting the first advertisement spot and a second advertisement spot that is adjacent to the first advertisement spot; and   determining which of the first bidder and the second bidder has specified a higher maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a total number of advertisement spots requested by the bidder, wherein:
 reassigning the at least two contiguous advertisement spots to one of the first bidder or the second bidder that specified the higher maximum amount irrespective of the number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and the second bidder. 
   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , comprising:
 determining, after the re-assigning, that each advertisement spot in the advertisement block has been assigned to a bidder; and   providing advertisements for presentation in the advertisement block based on the-reassigning.   
     
     
         28 . A system comprising:
 a data store storing information related to advertisements that are available for presentation;   one or more data processing apparatus that interact with the data store and perform operations comprising;
 identifying, within a single content item block, two or more contiguous advertisement spots that are available for presentation of advertisements; 
 determining that an advertisement must be assigned to each of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots in order for any advertisement to be presented in the advertisement block; 
 assigning one or more of the advertisement spots to a first set of bidders, each of the one or more advertisement spots being assigned to a corresponding the bidder based on a maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a single advertisements spot; 
 determining that at least one of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots remain unassigned after the assigning; and 
 re-assigning at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder based on a maximum amount that the particular bidder will pay for the at least two contiguous advertisement spots. 
   
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the one or more data processing apparatus perform operations comprising:
 determining that at least one advertisement spot remains unassigned following the re-assignment of the at least two contiguous advertisement spots; and   assigning the at least one advertisement spot to a filler bidder.   
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots comprises identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots in online content. 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the one or more data processing apparatus perform operations comprising determining, for a first bidder in the first set of bidders, a maximum amount that the first bidder will pay for a single advertisement spot based on a total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and a total amount that the first bidder will pay for the total number of advertisement spots. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 31 , wherein re-assigning at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder comprises re-assigning the total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder to the first bidder based on the total amount. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the one or more data processing apparatus perform operations comprising:
 determining that a first bidder is requesting a first advertisement spot and that a second bidder is requesting the first advertisement spot and a second advertisement spot that is adjacent to the first advertisement spot; and   determining which of the first bidder and the second bidder has specified a higher maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a total number of advertisement spots requested by the bidder, wherein:
 reassigning the at least two contiguous advertisement spots to one of the first bidder or the second bidder that specified the higher maximum amount irrespective of the number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and the second bidder. 
   
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 28 , comprising:
 determining, after the re-assigning, that each advertisement spot in the advertisement block has been assigned to a bidder; and   providing advertisements for presentation in the advertisement block based on the-reassigning.   
     
     
         35 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, that when executed by one or more data processing apparatus cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 identifying, within a single content item block, two or more contiguous advertisement spots;   determining that an advertisement must be assigned to each of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots in order for any advertisement to be presented in the advertisement block;   assigning one or more of the advertisement spots to a first set of bidders, each of the one or more advertisement spots being assigned to a corresponding the bidder based on a maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a single advertisements spot;   determining that at least one of the two or more contiguous advertisement spots remain unassigned after the assigning; and   re-assigning at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder based on a maximum amount that the particular bidder will pay for the at least two contiguous advertisement spots.   
     
     
         36 . The computer readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 determining that at least one advertisement spot remains unassigned following the re-assignment of the at least two contiguous advertisement spots; and   assigning the at least one advertisement spot to a filler bidder.   
     
     
         37 . The computer readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots comprises identifying two or more contiguous advertisement spots in online content. 
     
     
         38 . The computer readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising determining, for a first bidder in the first set of bidders, a maximum amount that the first bidder will pay for a single advertisement spot based on a total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and a total amount that the first bidder will pay for the total number of advertisement spots. 
     
     
         39 . The computer readable medium of  claim 38 , wherein re-assigning at least two of the contiguous advertisement spots to a particular bidder comprises re-assigning the total number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder to the first bidder based on the total amount. 
     
     
         40 . The computer readable medium of  claim 35 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:
 determining that a first bidder is requesting a first advertisement spot and that a second bidder is requesting the first advertisement spot and a second advertisement spot that is adjacent to the first advertisement spot; and   determining which of the first bidder and the second bidder has specified a higher maximum amount that the bidder will pay for a total number of advertisement spots requested by the bidder, wherein:
 reassigning the at least two contiguous advertisement spots to one of the first bidder or the second bidder that specified the higher maximum amount irrespective of the number of advertisement spots requested by the first bidder and the second bidder.