Apparatus and Method for Identifying and Employing Visitation Rates

Abstract

Provided is a computer-implemented method that includes obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user, determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest, determining, using a computer, a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset, and storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.

1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user;   determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest;   determining, by a computer, a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, wherein determining the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises:
 identifying a user profile of the user, the user profile including a characteristic of the user; 
 obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, wherein:
 the ratio of members of the group having the characteristic is used to reduce an undercounting of members of the group having the characteristic who visit the place of interest and do not employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, and 
 the ratio is a function of both an amount of members of the group having the characteristic and a portion of the amount of members of the group having the characteristic who employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest; 
 
 reducing the undercounting by increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio; 
   adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset; and   storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the user location data set is a location history of the user, the location history including time-stamped geolocations of the user detected by the mobile computing device over time;   the user location data set is one location history of a plurality of location histories of a plurality of different users, the location histories including both location histories that are associated with a user profile and location histories that are not associated with a user profile;   a different ratio is used to determine a different visit count for a location dataset that is not associated with a user profile and this different visit count is also used to adjust the visit count for the place of interest; and   determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of the place of interest comprises:
 obtaining a plurality of polygons defining boundaries of a plurality of stores of a business; 
 determining that the location dataset includes a geographic coordinate inside one of the polygons; 
   the adjusted visit count of the place of interest is an estimated amount of a number of visitors to the business within a duration of time;   and the method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 determining whether a marketing campaign of the business changed a visitation rate of the business based on stored data in the visitation rate datastore. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of the place of interest comprises identifying a polygon that characterizes a geographic area of the place of interest and determining that the location visited is inside the polygon. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein identifying the polygon comprises:
 identifying a plurality of centroids corresponding to locations of a plurality of different places of interest;   providing the plurality of centroids to a crowdsourcing environment, wherein the crowdsourcing environment is tasked with identifying polygons for the plurality of different places of interest based at least in part on the plurality of centroids; and   receiving, from the crowdsourcing environment, a plurality of polygons corresponding to the plurality of different places of interest, the plurality of polygons including the polygon for the place of interest.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest comprises:
 obtaining a ratio of members of a group having multiple characteristics of the user profile that employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the ratio corresponds to an error associated with counting visits to the place of interest by those having the characteristic based on mobile device geolocation. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the ratio is the ratio of males in the group that employ a mobile device that can be detected while in a store corresponding to the place of interest. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , comprising:
 determining that the user location dataset was provided by an application on the mobile computing device;   obtaining another ratio of users who use the application while in the place of interest; and   increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the other ratio.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio comprises:
 increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset by the ratio.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises adding the visit count value corresponding to the location dataset to a current visit count for the place of interest. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining that the place of interest was visited by the user during a given timeframe, wherein the visit count is indicative of a number of persons that visited the place of interest during the given timeframe;   determining that the user was presented with an advertisement based on the user profile; and   measuring an effectiveness of the advertisement during the given timeframe based on the determinations that the user was presented with an advertisement and that the place of interest was visited by the user during the given timeframe.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 obtaining a second user location dataset indicative of a second location visited by a user, the second user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user,   determining that the second location visited does not corresponds to the geographic location of the place of interest; and   based on the determination that the second location visited does not corresponds to the geographic location of the place of interest, not adjusting the visit count for the place of interest to include a visit count corresponding to the second location dataset.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user location dataset comprises a geographic location indicative of a physical location of the mobile computing device at a given time. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the geographic location comprises a set of geographic coordinates indicative of a given geographic point. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein obtaining a ratio of a group having the characteristic that also employs a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest comprises:
 obtaining a group profile, the group profile having a plurality of characteristics corresponding to characteristics of the user profile, and the group profile specifying the ratio.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 serving marketing content to the user device for presentation to the user,   identifying a receive location corresponding to a geographic location of the user device at or near a time when the marketing content is presented to the user;   determining a visitation effectiveness for a geographic area based at least in part on the receive location.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising serving marketing content for the place of interest to other users in the geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the user visited the place of interest after receiving the marketing content. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the geographic area comprises a geographic region within a given radius of the place of interest and including the receive location. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the geographic area comprises a geographic tile including the receive location. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising:
 identifying a demographic for the tile;   identifying a different geographic area having the same or similar demographic as the tile; and   serving marketing content for the place of interest to a user in the different geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the user visited the place of interest after receiving the marketing content.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 identifying a demographic for the geographic area;   identifying a different geographic area having the same or similar demographic; and   serving marketing content for the place of interest to a user in the different geographic area based at least in part on a determination that the user visited the place of interest after receiving the marketing content.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying a different user having profile that is the same or similar to a profile of the user, and   serving marketing content for the place of interest to the different user based at least in part on a determination that the user visited the place of interest after receiving the marketing content.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying a plurality of users that have visited the place of interest after receiving marketing content for the place;   identifying a common characteristic of the plurality of users that have visited the place of interest after receiving marketing content for the place;   identifying a plurality of users associated with the common characteristic; and   serving the marketing content for the place of interest to the plurality of users associated with the common characteristic based at least in part on the plurality of users having a characteristic associated with users that have visited the place of interest after receiving marketing content for the place of interest.   
     
     
         24 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising program instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to perform the following steps:
 obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user,   determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest;   determining a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, wherein determining the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises:
 identifying a user profile of the user, the user profile including a characteristic of the user; 
 obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, wherein:
 the ratio of members of the group having the characteristic is used to reduce an undercounting of members of the group having the characteristic who visit the place of interest and do not employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, and 
 the ratio is a function of both an amount of members of the group having the characteristic and a portion of the amount of members of the group having the characteristic who employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest; 
 
 reducing the undercounting by increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio; 
   adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset; and   storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.   
     
     
         25 . A system, comprising:
 one or more processors; and   memory storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform the following steps:
 obtaining a user location dataset indicative of a location visited by a user, the user location dataset being based at least in part on a location signal received from a mobile computing device associated with the user, 
 determining that the location visited corresponds to a geographic location of a place of interest; 
 determining a visit count corresponding to the location dataset, wherein determining the visit count corresponding to the location dataset comprises:
 identifying a user profile of the user, the user profile including a characteristic of the user, 
 obtaining a ratio of members of a group having the characteristic that also employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, wherein: 
 the ratio of members of the group having the characteristic is used to reduce an undercounting of members of the group having the characteristic who visit the place of interest and do not employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest, and 
 the ratio is a function of both an amount of members of the group having the characteristic and a portion of the amount of members of the group having the characteristic who employ a mobile device that can be detected while in the place of interest; 
 
 reducing the undercounting by increasing the visit count corresponding to the location dataset based on the ratio; 
 adjusting a visit count for the place of interest to include the visit count corresponding to the location dataset; and 
 storing the adjusted visit count for the place of interest in a visitation rate datastore.