Web advertising campaign management system and method

Abstract

Events generated by customer interaction during an internet-based session are made available for use by a system for tracking the effectiveness of web advertising campaigns. Event occurrences are collected for evaluation to determine whether campaign goals are being met. Campaigns are defined by rules indicating which ad content is to be displayed to which customers. Event types to be reported are selected depending on the needs of the particular campaign.

1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 registering a first event handler associated with a first advertising campaign to receive event messages of a first event type from among a plurality of event types, wherein each of the plurality of event types is a distinct type of event resulting from one or more occurrences related to a web page and associated with user interaction with the web page;   registering a second event handler associated with a second advertising campaign to receive event messages of a second event type from among the plurality of event types;   one or more applications executing on one or more servers generating display content for the web page and transmitting the display content to the user via the communications network;   receiving input from a user of the web page via a communications network;   determining, based on the received input, events associated with web page activity of the user to be events defined by the first advertising campaign and the second advertising campaign;   one or more applications executing on the one or more servers generating a first event message of the first event type based on a first determined event of the determined events;   the one or more applications executing on the one or more servers generating a second event message of the second event type based on a second determined event of the determined events;   forwarding at least the first event message and at least the second event message to the respective first event handler and the second event handler registered to receive event messages of the respective first event type of the first event message and the second event type of the second event message;   the first event handler modifying operation of the one or more applications based on the forwarded first event message being of the first event type to generate first modified display content comprising at least a first advertisement from the first advertising campaign;   the second event handler modifying operation of the one or more applications based on the forwarded second event message being of the second event type to generate second modified display content comprising at least a second advertisement from the second advertising campaign; and   transforming the display content of the web page to comprise the first modified display content and the second modified display content to present the first advertisement and the second advertisement to the user via the communications network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein two or more of the plurality of event handlers are registered to receive event messages of the first event type and further comprising forwarding each event message associated with the one or more identified events associated with the first event type to each of the two or more of the plurality of handlers registered to receive event messages of the first event type. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein modifying includes modifying the display content to present one or more users of the web page an option to purchase a product or service at a discount from a regular price for such purchase. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a plurality of advertising campaigns are associated with the first event handler, and wherein the first event handler modifies operation of the one or more applications, based on the forwarded first event message, to generate the first modified display content comprising at least a third advertisement from one of the advertising campaigns of the plurality of advertising campaigns and at least a fourth advertisement from another of the advertising campaigns of the plurality of advertising campaigns. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first event handler registers with an event router to be associated with the first advertising campaign and wherein the event router routes event messages associated with the one or more identified events related to the first advertising campaign of the first event type to the first event handler. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first event handler updates a database upon receipt of each event message of the first event type. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first advertising campaign is comprised of a set of rules used to define applicability of the first advertisement for display content, further comprising a campaign manager application, executing on the one or more servers and having access to a database updated by the first event handler, modifying the set of rules based on updates from the first event handler. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , transmitting the transformed display content of the web page comprising the first modified display content and the second modified display content to at least one of one user or more users of the web page to present the first advertisement and the second advertisement. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising selecting the first advertisement from the first advertising campaign based on an identity of the at least one user of the one or more users. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first event handler is registered to receive event messages of the first event type from among the plurality of event types and not event messages of the second event type from among the plurality of event types. 
     
     
         11 . A system comprising:
 one or more servers that generates display content of a web page for transmission to one or more users of the web page via a communications network, wherein the one or more servers receive input from the one or more users via the communications network, and wherein the one or more servers are configured to determine, based on the received input, events associated with web page activity of at least one user of the one or more users to be identified events related to a plurality of advertising campaigns, wherein the identified events are associated with event types, wherein each of the event types is a distinct type of event that results from one or more occurrences related to a web page;   a first event handler registered to receive event messages of at least a first event type of event types;   a second event handler registered to receive event messages of at least a second event type of the event types, wherein event messages of the first event type result from occurrences related to a first type of activity on the web page and event messages of the second event type result from occurrences related to a second type of activity on the web page;   one or more server applications executing on the one or more servers generating one or more event messages based on the determined identified events related to the advertising campaigns, and further associating the one or more event messages with the one or more event types associated with the identified events and identifying each event type of each one or more event messages by including identifying information in the one or more event messages; and   an event router, receiving the one or more event messages, that forwards at least one of the received one or more event messages to the first event handler when the received one or more event messages is associated with the first event type, and that forwards at least one of the received one or more event messages to the second event handler when the received one or more event messages is associated with the second event type;   wherein the first event handler provides a first input to the one or more servers, based on the forwarded one or more event messages of the first event type, and the one or more servers generate first modified display content comprising at least a first advertisement from a first advertising campaign of the advertising campaigns in response to the first input;   wherein the second event handler provides second input to the one or more servers, based on the forwarded one or more event messages of the second event type, and the one or more servers generates second modified display content comprising at least a second advertisement from a second advertising campaign of the advertising campaigns in response to the second input; and   wherein the one or more servers transmits display content comprising at least one of the first modified display content and the second modified display content to the at least one user of the one or more users via the communications network.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of event handlers registered to receive event messages of the first event type and further wherein the event router forwards each event message associated with the one or more identified events of the first event type to each of the plurality of event handlers registered to receive event messages of the first event type. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more servers modifies the display content to present one or more users of the web page an option to purchase a product or service at a discount from a regular price for such purchase. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein a plurality of advertising campaigns are associated with the first event handler, and wherein the first event handler modifies operation of the one or more server applications, based on the forwarded first event message, to generate the first modified display content comprising at least a third advertisement from one of the advertising campaigns and at least a fourth advertisement from another of the advertising campaigns. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first event handler registers with the event router to be associated with the first advertising campaign and wherein the event router routes event messages associated with the one or more identified events of the first event type related to the first advertising campaign to the first event handler. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a database coupled to the first event handler, wherein the first event handler updates the database upon receipt of each event message of the first event type. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first advertising campaign is comprised of a set of rules used to define applicability of the first advertisement for display content, further comprising a campaign manager application executing on the one or more servers and having access to a database updated by the first event handler, wherein the campaign manager application modifies the set of rules based on updates to the database by the first event handler. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first advertisement is selected from the advertising campaign for display content based on an identity of one or more users of the web page. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of event handlers including the first event handler and the second event handler, wherein the first event handler of the plurality of event handlers is registered to receive event messages of the first event type from among the plurality of event types and not event messages of the second event type from among the plurality of event types. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium containing machine readable instructions that when executed causes a data processing system to perform a method, comprising:
 registering a first event handler associated with a first advertising campaign to receive event messages of a first event type from among a plurality of event types, wherein each of the plurality of event types is a distinct type of event resulting from one or more occurrences related to a web page and associated with user interaction with the web page;   registering a second event handler associated with a second advertising campaign to receive event messages of a second event type from among the plurality of event types;   one or more applications executing on one or more servers generating display content for the web page and transmitting the display content to the user via the communications network;   receiving input from a user of the web page via a communications network;   determining, based on the received input, events associated with web page activity of the user to be events defined by the first advertising campaign and the second advertising campaign;   one or more applications executing on the one or more servers generating a first event message of the first event type based on a first determined event of the determined events;   the one or more applications executing on the one or more servers generating a second event message of the second event type based on a second determined event of the determined events;   forwarding at least the first event message and at least the second event message to the respective first event handler and the second event handler registered to receive event messages of the respective first event type of the first event message and the second event type of the second event message;   the first event handler modifying operation of the one or more applications based on the forwarded first event message being of the first event type to generate first modified display content comprising at least a first advertisement from the first advertising campaign;   the second event handler modifying operation of the one or more applications based on the forwarded second event message being of the second event type to generate second modified display content comprising at least a second advertisement from the second advertising campaign; and   transforming the display content of the web page to comprise the first modified display content and the second modified display content to present the first advertisement and the second advertisement to the user via the communications network.   
     
     
         21 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein two or more of the plurality of event handlers are registered to receive event messages of the first event type and further comprising forwarding each event message associated with the one or more identified events associated with the first event type to each of the two or more of the plurality of handlers registered to receive event messages of the first event type. 
     
     
         22 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein modifying includes modifying the display content to present one or more users of the web page an option to purchase a product or service at a discount from a regular price for such purchase. 
     
     
         23 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein a plurality of advertising campaigns are associated with the first event handler, and wherein the first event handler modifies operation of the one or more applications, based on the forwarded first event message, to generate the first modified display content comprising at least a third advertisement from one of the advertising campaigns of the plurality of advertising campaigns and at least a fourth advertisement from another of the advertising campaigns of the plurality of advertising campaigns. 
     
     
         24 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein the first event handler registers with an event router to be associated with the first advertising campaign and wherein the event router routes event messages associated with the one or more identified events related to the first advertising campaign of the first event type to the first event handler. 
     
     
         25 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein the first event handler updates a database upon receipt of each event message of the first event type. 
     
     
         26 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein the first advertising campaign is comprised of a set of rules used to define applicability of the first advertisement for display content, further comprising a campaign manager application, executing on the one or more servers and having access to a database updated by the first event handler, modifying the set of rules based on updates from the first event handler. 
     
     
         27 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , transmitting the transformed display content of the web page comprising the first modified display content and the second modified display content to at least one user of one or more users of the web page to present the first advertisement and the second advertisement. 
     
     
         28 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 27 , further comprising selecting the first advertisement from the first advertising campaign based on an identity of the at least one user of the one or more users. 
     
     
         29 . A non-transitory machine readable storage medium of  claim 20 , wherein the first event handler is registered to receive event messages of the first event type from among the plurality of event types and not event messages of the second event type from among the plurality of event types.