Rule-based bidding platform

Abstract

A computing system is configured to accept bid rules from merchants for the placement of ads for a plurality of products. The bid rules comprise a bid amount, a rule definition and a priority. The bid amount may be an absolute bid or it may be relative to base advertising rate. The rule definition comprises criteria for describing products to determine when the bid rule is applied to a product for sale. The priority indicates whether the bid rule applies to a particular product when the rule definition of more than one bid rule could be applied to a product. The computing system is also configured to generate a list of product offers based at least in part on the bids. The system may also generate reports for merchants.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 generating, by a bidding platform computing device, a computer interface usable by a merchant in order to place bids for placement of ads for a plurality of products based on one or more bid rules, wherein each bid rule comprises:
 a bid amount indicating an absolute advertising rate or a relative bid adjustment to be made to a base advertising rate; 
 a rule definition comprising criteria for identifying products of the merchant associated with the respective bid rule, the criteria comprising one or more price criteria, taxonomy criteria, or product manufacturer criteria; and 
 a bidding priority indicating a respective priority of the bid rule in relation to other bid rules; 
   transmitting the computer interface to a computing device of the merchant, and   receiving one or more bid rules of the merchant from the merchant computing device.