JP2016524239A - Pricing based on browsing of ads in scrollable ad units - Google Patents

Abstract

The online system determines pricing for advertisements included in a scrollable advertising unit that includes a plurality of advertisements and a display area for presenting one or more advertisements. When an advertisement is included in a scrollable advertising unit, the price at which the advertisement is presented is determined based on the bid price of the advertisement evaluated for inclusion in the scrollable advertising unit and the scaling factor. The magnification is based on the probability that the advertisement is presented to the user based on the position in the scrollable advertising unit associated with the advertisement. Advertisement characteristics that affect the probability that an advertisement will be presented to the user may also be considered in the magnification.

Description

  The present invention relates generally to online systems, and more particularly to displaying advertisements in online systems.

  Presenting advertisements to online system users allows advertisers to gain public attention to the product or service and convince online system users to take action on the advertiser's product, service, opinion, or philosophy To. Many online systems make money by displaying advertisements to their users. Often, the online system charges the advertiser each time an advertisement is presented to a user of the online system (eg, for each “impression” of the advertisement).

  In addition, as users increasingly use mobile devices or other devices with limited display area, online systems may combine multiple ads into scrollable ad units. Accordingly, the user can browse the various advertisements by navigating the scrollable advertisement unit, and the display area where the advertisement is presented is reduced so that the probability of user separation is reduced. For example, a user can scroll a scrollable advertising unit horizontally or vertically to access various advertisements contained in the scrollable advertising unit.

  Traditionally, online systems identify ad impressions when an advertisement is included in a scrollable advertisement, even if the user does not navigate through the scrollable advertisement unit to view the advertisement. For example, a user who is presented with a scrollable ad unit that includes an advertisement does not interact with the scrollable ad unit, so only one of the scrollable ad unit's ads is presented to the user. However, in the conventional system, the impression of each advertisement of the scrollable advertisement unit is charged. In addition, advertisement-specific properties can reduce the likelihood that a particular advertisement will be viewed or interacted with by a user. Therefore, when those advertisements are presented in the display area of the scrollable advertisement unit, the probability that the user views other advertisements in the scrollable advertisement unit may be reduced. This reduces the potential revenue of the online system due to the presentation of scrollable advertising units.

  Online systems earn money by displaying advertisements to their users. In order to reduce the probability of separating users by presenting a large number of advertisements, online systems generate scrollable advertisement units that include multiple advertisements. The scrollable advertisement unit includes a display area for presenting one or more advertisements identified from the plurality of advertisements included in the scrollable advertisement unit. By interacting with the scrollable advertisement unit, the online system user causes various advertisements from a plurality of advertisements included in the scrollable advertisement unit to be presented in the display area.

In various embodiments, the online system uses a cost-per-impression pricing system that bills an advertiser when an advertisement associated with the advertiser is presented to the user. In order to maximize revenue and bill advertisers more accurately for ad impressions, the online system will determine the probability that the ad will be viewed based on the position of the ad in the scrollable ad unit, Determining the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit based at least in part on

  In order to identify the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit, the online system determines the value of the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit. For example, the online system determines a discount factor for each location that describes the measure of expected advertising performance at each location of the scrollable ad unit, and then accesses the discount factor to include ads to include in the scrollable ad unit. select. Based on the discount factor, the position of the scrollable advertising unit is ranked. In addition, the bid amount associated with the advertisement is used to rank the advertisement. For example, the expected value of each advertisement is determined based on the bid amount of each advertisement and the probability that the user will access the advertisement, and these expected values are used to rank the advertisements. Based on the ranking of the position and the ranking of the advertisement, a position within the scrollable advertising unit is determined for the advertisement. For example, an advertisement having a ranked ad location is determined to have a position in a scrollable ad unit that has the corresponding location as the ranked position. A scrollable ad unit associated with the position at which the advertisement is determined is generated and subsequently transmitted for presentation to the user.

  In some embodiments, in order to maximize revenue through a scrollable ad unit and more accurately bill advertisers for ad impressions, the online system is based on the position of the ad in the scrollable ad unit. Consider the probability that an ad will be viewed. In some embodiments, the online system also considers ad-specific properties that affect the probability that the advertisement will be presented to the user. For example, when an online system determines whether an advertisement is presented to a user, it is associated with target conditions, content associated with the user's privacy settings, products or services previously purchased by the user Consider content and content associated with products or services previously installed by the user.

  The online system determines the position of the scrollable ad unit associated with the advertisement. The position may indicate the relative distance between the advertisement and the display area of the scrollable display unit. Thus, advertisements associated with high positions are not presented in the display area until multiple interactions with the scrollable advertising unit are received. For example, advertisements are ranked and positions within scrollable advertising units are ranked. An advertisement is associated with a position based on the ranking of the advertisement and the ranking of the position. The bid amount associated with the ranked ad, the probability that the ad will be viewed based on the position of the ad in the scrollable ad unit, and / or the characteristics of the ad that will affect the probability that the ad will be presented to the user Based on this, the price for presenting the advertisement to the user through the scrollable advertising unit is calculated.

The block diagram of the system environment which an online system manages according to embodiment of invention. 1 is a block diagram of an online system according to an embodiment of the invention. The figure which shows the example of the scrollable advertisement unit according to embodiment of invention. 5 is a flowchart of a method for assigning advertisements to positions in a scrollable advertising unit and pricing an advertisement in a scrollable advertising unit according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 illustrates a method for assigning advertisements to positions within a scrollable advertising unit, according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 illustrates a method for assigning advertisements to positions within a scrollable advertising unit, according to an embodiment of the invention.

  The drawings depict various embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be utilized without departing from the inventive principles described herein. .

Overview An online system presents a user with a scrollable advertising unit that includes a plurality of advertisements. The scrollable advertisement unit includes a display area for presenting one or more advertisements identified from the plurality of advertisements included in the scrollable advertisement unit. To determine the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit, the online system determines various position values within the scrollable advertising unit where the advertisement can be placed. For example, the online system determines a discount factor for each location in the scrollable advertising unit that describes a measure of the probability that the user will interact with the advertisement presented at each location. The discount factor is used to select advertisements to include in the scrollable advertising unit. For illustrative purposes, scrollable advertising units are described herein as containing advertisements. However, in some embodiments, the scrollable ad unit is a user photo, a story describing an action performed by an additional user connected to a user viewing the scrollable ad unit, a scrollable ad unit It may include content items other than advertisements, such as actions suggested by the social networking system for the viewing user, or any other suitable information.

  The location discount factor is calculated using information related to the probability that the user of the online system interacts with the location advertisement. For example, the historical click-through rate (CTR) of an advertisement presented at a location is used to determine a discount factor for that location. Based on the discount factor, the position of the scrollable advertising unit is ranked.

  In addition, the bid amount associated with the advertisement for inclusion in the scrollable advertising unit is used to rank the advertisement. For example, the expected value of each advertisement is determined based on the bid amount of each advertisement and the probability that the user will access the advertisement, and these expected values are used to rank the advertisements. Based on the ranking of the position and the ranking of the advertisement, a position within the scrollable advertising unit is determined for the advertisement. For example, an advertisement having a ranked ad location is determined to have a position in a scrollable ad unit that has the corresponding location as the ranked position.

  In one embodiment, advertisements are ranked based on advertisement values calculated for various advertisements (“ad values”) and bids associated with the advertisements. In order to determine the ad value, the bid amount of the advertisement is discounted by the multiplication factor. The magnification is based on the probability that the advertisement is presented in the display area based on the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit. The scale may also include the probability that the advertisement will not be presented based on one or more characteristics of the advertisement. Ad values are calculated for various advertisements potentially included in a scrollable advertising unit, and the advertisements are ranked based on the corresponding ad values. Based on the ranking of the advertisement and the ranking of the position of the scrollable advertisement unit, the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertisement unit is determined.

Advertisers associated with advertisements included in the scrollable ad unit are charged a price based on the bid amount and magnification of the advertisement included in the scrollable ad unit. For example, an advertiser is charged a fee based on the bid amount of an advertisement that is ranked lower than the advertiser's advertisement and the ratio of the ratio of the advertisement with the lower ranking and the ratio of the advertiser's advertisement. In addition, the discount factor of the position within the scrollable advertisement where the advertisement is presented may be used when determining the price charged to the associated advertiser.

System Architecture FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system environment 100 for an online system 140. The system environment 100 illustrated by FIG. 1 includes one or more client devices 110, a network 120, one or more third party systems 130, and an online system 140. In alternative configurations, various and / or additional components may be included in the system environment 100.

  Client device 110 is one or more computing devices that can send and / or receive data over network 120 in addition to receiving user input. In one embodiment, client device 110 is a conventional computer system such as a desktop computer or a laptop computer. Alternatively, client device 110 may be a device with computer functionality, such as a personal information terminal (PDA), mobile phone, smartphone, or other suitable device. Client device 110 is configured to communicate over network 120. In one embodiment, client device 110 executes an application that allows a user of client device 110 to interact with online system 140. For example, client device 110 executes a browser application to allow interaction between client device 110 and online system 140 over network 120. In another embodiment, the client device 110 interacts with the online system 140 through an application programming interface (API) running in the client device's 110 native operating system, such as IOS® and ANDROID®. .

  Client device 110 is configured to communicate through network 120, which may comprise any combination of local and / or wide area networks, using both wired and / or wireless communication systems. In one embodiment, the network 120 uses standard communication technologies and / or protocols. For example, the network 120 uses technologies such as Ethernet (registered trademark), 802.11, microwave access world interoperability (WiMAX), 3G, 4G, code division multiple access (CDMA), and digital subscriber line (DSL). Includes the communication link to use. Examples of networking protocols used for communication over the network 120 are Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) And file transfer protocol (FTP). Data exchanged over the network 120 may be represented using any suitable format such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML). In some embodiments, all or some communication links of network 120 may be encrypted using any suitable technique.

One or more third party systems 130 may be coupled to the network 120 to communicate with an online system 140 described further below in conjunction with FIG. For example, online system 140 is a social networking system. In one embodiment, the third party system 130 is an application provider that communicates information describing an application executed by the client device 110 or communicates data used by an application executing on the client device to the client device 110. is there. In other embodiments, the third party system 130 provides content or other information for presentation through the client device 110. The third party website 130 may also communicate information, such as advertisements, content, information about applications provided by the third party website 130, to the online system 140.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an online system 140 architecture. The online system 140 shown in FIG. 2 includes a user profile store 205, a content store 210, an action logger 215, an action log 220, an edge store 225, an interface generator 230, an ad request store 235, a discount factor. A calculator 240, an add value calculator 245, an add selection module 250, a price calculator 255, and a web server 260 are included. In other embodiments, the online system 140 may include additional, fewer, or various components for a variety of applications. Conventional components such as network interfaces, security functions, load balancers, failover servers, management and network operations consoles are not shown in order not to obscure the details of the system architecture.

  Each user of online system 140 is associated with a user profile stored in user profile store 205. The user profile includes declarative information about the user that is explicitly shared by the user and may further include profile information inferred by the online system 140. In one embodiment, the user profile includes a plurality of data fields, each data field describing one or more attributes of a corresponding social networking system user. Examples of information stored in the user profile include historical, demographic, or other types of descriptive information such as work history, educational background, gender, hobbies or preferences, location, and the like. The user profile may further store other information provided by the user, such as images and videos. In certain embodiments, the user's image may be tagged with information identifying the social networking system user displayed in the image. The user profile in the user profile store 205 may also be executed on content items in the content store 210 and maintain a reference to the action by the corresponding user stored in the action log 220.

  While user profiles in the user profile store 205 are frequently associated with individuals and allow individuals to interact with each other through the online system 140, user profiles may also be stored for entities such as businesses and organizations. This allows entities to connect with other online system users and establish presence on the online system 140 for content exchange. An entity can use a brand page associated with the entity's user profile to post information about the entity itself, the entity's products, or provide other information to users of the online system. Other users of the online system can connect to the brand page, receive information posted on the brand page, or receive information from the brand page. The user profile associated with the brand page includes information about the entity itself and provides the user with background data or information data about the entity.

The content store 210 stores objects each representing various types of content. Examples of content represented by objects are page posts, status updates, photos, videos, links, shared content items, game application results, check-in events at local companies, brand pages, or any other type of content including. Online system users can create objects that are stored by the content store 210, such as recent updates, photos, events, groups, applications, etc. that are tagged by the user to associate with other objects in the online system 140. In some embodiments, the object is received from a third party application or a third party application independent of the online system 140. In one embodiment, an object in content store 210 represents a single piece of content, or content “item”. Thus, social networking system users are encouraged to communicate with each other by posting text and various types of media content items to the online system 140 through various communication channels. This increases the amount of interaction between users and increases the frequency with which the user interacts within the online system 140.

  The action logger 215 receives communications regarding internal and / or external user actions to the online system 140 and accumulates information regarding user actions in the action log 220. Examples of actions include adding a connection to another user, sending a message to another user, updating an image, reading a message from another user, viewing content associated with another user, and another Including attendance at events posted by other users. In addition, multiple actions can include objects and one or more specific users, so these actions are associated with those users and stored in the action log 220.

  The action log 220 may be used by the online system 140 to track user actions in the online system 140 and actions in the third party system 130 that communicate information to the online system 140. A user can interact with various objects of the online system 140, and information describing these interactions is stored in the action log 220. Examples of interactions with objects include comments on posts, sharing links, checking in through a mobile device to a physical location, accessing content items, and any other suitable interaction. Examples of interaction with objects of the online system 140 included in the action log 220 are comments on photo albums, communication with users, establishment of connections with objects, participation in events, participation in groups, events Creation, app approval, use of the application, a statement of preference for the object (a “like” statement for the object), and a deal. In addition, action log 220 may record advertisements of online system 140 and user interactions with other applications running on online system 140. In some embodiments, information from the action log 220 is used to infer the user's interests or preferences to supplement the interests contained in the user's user profile and allow a more complete understanding of the user's preferences. To do.

  The action log 220 may further store user actions performed on a third party system 130 such as an external website and communicated to the online system 140. For example, an e-commerce website may recognize a user of online system 140 through a social plug-in that allows the e-commerce website to identify the user of online system 140. Because the user of online system 140 is uniquely identifiable, an e-commerce website, such as the example above, can provide information about the user's actions outside of online system 140 for associating the online system 140 with the user. Can communicate with. Thus, the action log 220 may record information regarding actions performed by the user on the third party system 130, including web page browsing history, related advertisements, purchases made, and other patterns of shopping and purchases. .

In one embodiment, the edge store 225 stores information that describes connections between the user and other objects in the online system 140 as edges. Some edges can be defined by the user, allowing the user to specify relationships with other users. For example, a user can generate an edge with other users, such as friends, colleagues, partners, etc., in parallel with the user's real life relationships. Other edges may indicate that the user is online, such as expressing interest in the pages of the online system 140, sharing links with other users of the online system 140, or commenting on posts made by other users of the online system 140. Generated when interacting with system 140 objects.

  In one embodiment, an edge may include a variety of features, each representing a characteristic of a user interaction, a user and object interaction, or an object interaction. For example, the features included in the edge are the ratio of the interaction between the two users, the time since the two users last interacted, the ratio or amount of information retrieved by one user about the object, Or describe the number and type of comments posted by the user on the object. A feature may also represent information describing a particular object or user. For example, a feature may represent the level of interest that a user has for a particular topic, the ratio at which the user logs into the online system 140, or demographic information about the user. Each feature may be associated with a source (source) object or source user, a target object or target user, and a feature value. A feature may be specified as an expression based on a value that describes a source object or source user, a target (destination) object or target user, or an interaction between a source object or source user and a target object or target user. Thus, an edge can be represented as one or more feature expressions.

  The edge store 225 also stores information about edges, such as objects, interests, and other user affinity scores. An affinity score, or “affinity”, may be calculated over time by the online system 140 to estimate a user's interest in an object or another user of the online system 140 based on actions performed by that user. User affinity may be calculated over time by the online system 140 to estimate the user's affinity for objects, interests, and other users of the online system 140 based on actions performed by that user. Affinity calculations were made in US patent application Ser. No. 12 / 978,265 filed on Dec. 23, 2010, U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 690,254 filed Nov. 30, 2012, Nov. 2012. Are further described in U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 689,969, filed on May 30, and U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 690,088, filed on Nov. 30, 2012, each of which is described in its entirety. This is incorporated herein. In one embodiment, multiple interactions between the user and a particular object may be stored in the edge store 225 as a single edge. Alternatively, each interaction between the user and a particular object is stored as an independent edge. In some embodiments, connections between users may be stored in the user profile store 205 or the user profile store 205 may access the edge store 225 to determine connections between users.

  Interface generator 230 generates one or more interfaces, such as web pages, that contain content from online system 140. For example, the interface generated by the interface generator 230 includes images, movies, profile information, or other data. The interface generator 230 also generates one or more interfaces that enable the online system 140 to request information from the user and allow the user to provide information to the online system 140 through the client device 110 and the network 120. . For example, the interface generator 230 generates a form for the user to provide historical information, such as the user's age, to include in the user's user profile. When another user requests the user's profile page, the interface generator 230 retrieves data from the profile store 205 and generates a representation of the user profile information for presentation by the client device 110.

The interface generator 230 also generates a scrollable advertisement unit that includes a display area and includes a plurality of advertisements. Although described herein in connection with advertisements, in some embodiments, scrollable advertising units include additional types of content items for presentation through a display area. Examples of content items that can be presented by a scrollable ad unit include user photos, stories describing actions performed by additional users connected to the user viewing the scrollable ad unit, and scrollable ad units. Includes actions suggested by the social networking system for the viewing user. Thus, the scrollable advertising unit may present an advertisement, a combination of advertisements and other content items, or other content items to the user. The scrollable advertisement unit presents one or more advertisements included in the scrollable advertisement unit to the user through the display area. In addition, the user can interact with the scrollable advertisement unit to move between the advertisements in the scrollable advertisement unit and view various advertisements through the display unit. For example, the user can provide horizontal or vertical input to the display area of the scrollable advertising unit to view various advertisements in the display area of the scrollable advertising unit. For example, a scrollable ad unit presents a single ad in the display area and whether the user moves the cursor over the horizontal scroll tab, clicks the horizontal scroll tab, or swipes the cursor from right to left , Or when providing other suitable input, present additional advertisements in the scrollable ad unit in the display area. In addition, the interface generator 230 may replace at least a subset of the ads of the scrollable advertising unit based on the received user input. For example, at least a subset of the ads of the scrollable ad unit are replaced with ads relating to the content of the ads with which the user interacted. The replacement of scrollable advertising unit advertisements is further described below in conjunction with FIG.

  One or more advertisement requests (“ad requests”) are stored in the ad request store 235. The advertisement request includes advertisement content and a bid amount. The advertising content is text data, image data, audio data, video data, or any other data suitable for presentation to the user. In various embodiments, the advertising content further includes a network address that specifies a landing page that the user is directed to when the advertisement is accessed.

  The bid amount is associated with the advertisement by the advertiser and specifies the amount of reward that the advertiser provides to the online system 140 when the advertisement is presented to the user or accessed by the user. In one embodiment, the bid amount is an expectation such as a monetary reward received by the online system 140 for presentation of the advertisement to the user when the advertisement receives user interaction or based on any other suitable criteria. Used by the online system to determine the value. For example, the bid amount specifies the amount that the online system 140 receives from the advertiser when an advertisement is displayed, and the expected value is determined based on the bid amount and the probability that the user will access the displayed advertisement. The

  In addition, the advertisement request may include one or more target conditions specified by the advertiser. The target condition included in the advertisement request specifies one or more characteristics of a user eligible for the advertisement content of the advertisement request to be presented. For example, the target condition is used to identify users with user profile information, edges, or actions that meet at least one of the target conditions. Thus, targeting conditions allow advertisers to identify users with specific characteristics and simplify subsequent distribution of content to different users.

In one embodiment, the target condition may specify the type of action or connection between the user and another user or object of the online system 140. The target condition may further specify an interaction between the user and the object performed outside of the online system 140, such as the third party system 130. For example, targeting criteria can include sending a message to another user, using an application, joining a group, leaving a group, joining an event, generating an event description, purchasing a product or service using an online marketplace Or, identify a user who has taken a particular action, such as a review, a request for information from the third party system 130, or any other suitable action. By including an action in the targeting criteria, the advertiser can further narrow down the eligible users to be presented with the content of the advertising request. As another example, the target condition identifies a user who has a connection to another user or object, or who has a particular type of connection to another user or object.

  Discount coefficient calculator 240 calculates a discount coefficient associated with each position in the scrollable advertising unit. The discount factor can be used to apply a discount to the amount evaluated by the online system 140 for the advertiser for presenting the advertisement at a particular location in the scrollable advertising unit. For example, the discount factors for the different positions in the scrollable advertising unit are 0.25 and 0.45, resulting in a discount for advertisements presented at those positions of 75% and 55%, respectively. In the above example, the position where the discount coefficient is 0.45 has a higher value than the position where the discount coefficient is 0.25. Location discounts are based on information associated with each location that indicates the probability that the user will interact with the advertisement presented at one location. This information may be the historical click-through rate (CTR) of the advertisement presented at one location. For example, locations with high CTR are more preferred locations, so a discount factor is determined such that advertisements at those locations are expensive.

  The ad value calculator 245 calculates an ad value for each advertisement that is being evaluated for inclusion in a scrollable advertising unit. The ad value is calculated based on the bid amount of the ad request including the advertisement. This bid specifies how much the advertiser pays the online system 140 for advertising presentation (cost-per-impression (CPM)), user interaction with the advertisement (cost-per-click (CPC)), or any other suitable criteria. To do. In calculating the ad's ad value, the bid amount of an ad is the probability that a user viewing the scrollable ad unit will view the ad if the ad is associated with a position in the scrollable ad unit. Discounted by For example, the ad value calculator 245 calculates the ad value for presenting the advertisement at various positions of the scrollable advertising unit, and determines the position of the various positions when determining one position of the advertisement within the scrollable advertising unit. Use an ad value. The probability of presenting the advertisement in the display area of the scrollable advertisement unit decreases as the position of the advertisement is farther from the display area. For example, an advertisement that is not presented through the display area until the user navigates through five locations that contain the advertisement is more likely to appear in the display area than an advertisement that is presented through the display area when the user navigates through two locations that contain the advertisement. The probability of being presented is low.

  In some embodiments, the ad value is also based on advertisement-specific properties that can affect the presentation of the advertisement. For example, ad values are based in part on advertisement properties that affect whether an advertisement is rejected when rendered for presentation to a user. In addition, properties that are unique to the advertisement, such as targeting criteria, may prevent the advertisement from being displayed to the user. For example, an advertisement for an application that runs only on an IOS® operating system is not presented to a user viewing the advertisement through a client device 110 running an ANDROID® operating system. In addition, the privacy settings selected by the user may prevent presentation of advertisements to the user. For example, advertisements that require access to information that the user has restricted access are not displayed to the user. Further, advertisements for goods or services (eg, applications) that are already installed or purchased by the user may not be displayed to the user.

If a content item other than an advertisement is included in the scrollable advertising unit, the content item value is determined based on the characteristics of the advertisement. For example, stories or other data associated with users connected to the identified user are retrieved and analyzed to identify stories that may be associated with the user being presented with the scrollable advertising unit. The user who is viewing the scrollable ad unit can view the various conditions of the user viewing the scrollable ad unit, the various story properties, and the user viewing the scrollable ad unit if the story is associated with a position within the scrollable ad unit. Based on the probability of browsing the story, a score for presenting the story is determined and stories to be included in the scrollable advertising unit are selected. Similarly, a score for presenting an action suggestion, user photo, or other content is provided by the ad value calculator 245 when the content item's characteristics and story are associated with a position within a scrollable ad unit. It can be determined based on the probability that a user viewing the scrollable advertising unit will view the story. Examples of ranking or selecting stories for presentation to the user are US Patent Application No. 13 / 194,770 filed July 29, 2011 and US Patent filed July 29, 2011. No. 13 / 194,773, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. An example of determining values for presenting action recommendations to a social networking system is disclosed in US patent application Ser. No. 13 / 549,080, filed Jul. 13, 2012, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety. Included in the book. As described above, the value of a content item is changed by the probability that a user viewing the scrollable advertising unit will view the content item when the content item is associated with a position within the scrollable advertising unit. Thus, scores for presenting the content item at various positions of the scrollable advertising unit are determined.

  The ad selection module 250 accesses the ad value from the ad value calculator and selects an advertisement to be included in the scrollable advertisement unit. For example, ad selection module 250 ranks advertisements based on their corresponding ad values and selects advertisements (eg, through an ad auction) based on the rankings. In one embodiment, the ad selection module 250 selects advertisements that have at least a threshold ad value or at least a threshold ranking. The number of advertisements selected may be based on the number of positions available on the scrollable advertisement unit. For example, if a scrollable advertising unit includes positions for 10 advertisements, the top 10 ranked advertisements are selected for inclusion in the scrollable advertising unit. Further, in addition to advertising ranking, conditions can be used to select advertisements to include in a scrollable advertising unit. Examples of advertisement conditions that affect advertisement selection include advertisement content, the identifier of the entity requesting the advertisement, and the advertising pricing scheme (eg, CPC or CPM).

  The price calculator 255 calculates the price of the advertisement selected for inclusion in the scrollable advertisement unit. In various embodiments, the price of an advertisement included in a scrollable advertising unit is based on the bid amount and magnification of other advertisements included in the scrollable advertising unit. For example, the price of an advertisement is based on the bid amount of an advertisement that has a lower ranking than the advertiser's advertisement, and the ratio of the ratio of the advertisement with the lower ranking and the ratio of the advertiser's advertisement. In addition, a discount factor for the location within the scrollable advertisement where the advertisement is presented may be used when determining the price charged to the associated advertiser. Advertising pricing for scrollable advertising units is further described below in conjunction with FIGS. 4-5B.

Web server 260 links online system 140 to one or more client devices 110 and one or more third-party systems 130 through network 120. The web server 260 supplies web pages and other web-related contents such as JAVA (registered trademark), FLASH (registered trademark), and XML. The web server 260 is between the online system 140 and the client device 110,
Receive messages such as instant messages, queued messages (eg, email), text messages, short message service (SMS) messages, messages sent using any other suitable messaging technique, etc. Can be routed. A user can send a request to the web server 260 to update information (eg, an image or a video) stored in the content store 210. In addition, the web server 260 provides an application programming interface (for transmitting data directly to native client device operating systems such as IOS®, ANDROID®, WEBOS®, RIM®, etc.). API) functions may be provided.

Scrollable Advertising Unit FIG. 3 is an example of one embodiment of a scrollable advertising unit. As described above, the scrollable advertising unit 300 presents the advertisement 330 a in the display area 320 when the scrollable advertising unit 400 is rendered by the client device 110. The user can interact with the scrollable advertising unit 300 to navigate between the advertisements 330b, 330c that are included in the scrolling of the scrollable advertising unit. Thereby, one or more different advertisements 330 b, 330 c are presented in the display area 320. For example, the user can provide horizontal or vertical input to the display area 320 of the scrollable advertisement unit 300 to view different advertisements 330 a, 330 b in the display area 320 of the scrollable advertisement 300. In the example of FIG. 3, the user can navigate the advertisement of the scrollable advertising unit 300 vertically or horizontally to change what is presented through the display area 320. In one embodiment, the user can provide horizontal or vertical input to the display area of the scrollable advertising unit to view various advertisements in the display area of the scrollable advertising unit. For example, a scrollable ad unit presents a single ad in the display area and whether the user moves the cursor over the horizontal scroll tab, clicks the horizontal scroll tab, or swipes the cursor from right to left , Or when providing other suitable input, present additional advertisements in the scrollable ad unit in the display area. In the example of FIG. 3, to change the advertisements included in the scrollable advertising unit and presented by the display area 320, the user interacts with the scroll bar 310 of the display area 330, or through the display area 320, ), Move the cursor in the display area 320, or perform any suitable interaction.

  The scrollable advertising unit 300 may include one or more features to increase the likelihood that impressions will be billed on the advertisement 330 of the scrollable advertising unit 300. For example, one or more scrollable ad units 300, ads 330 of scrollable ad units 300 that are displayed to a user of a social networking system user in a news feed that describes additional user actions may be displayed to the user through the social networking system. It may include a story describing a social networking system user's action where the advertiser pays the social networking system for presenting a story describing the connected user's action. Also, ads for scrollable ad units are selected based on information associated with the user by the online system (eg, user profile information, actions performed by the user, connections between the user and the object or other users) Can be done.

In addition, when the user views or interacts with the advertisement 330 a presented in the display area 320, the scrollable advertisement unit 300 may automatically preset an additional advertisement 330 b in the display area 320. For example, if the user accesses the advertisement 330a in the display area 320, the online system 140 determines that the user has viewed the advertisement 330a. In response, the online system 140 reads the tracking mechanism associated with the advertisement 330a, bills the advertisement 330a for impressions, and presents the additional advertisement 330b of the scrollable advertising unit 300 in the display area 320. Similarly, if an additional advertisement 330b is billed for an impression, another advertisement 330c may be presented in the display area 320. Further, at least a subset of the ads 330 of the scrollable ad unit 300 may be replaced with alternative ads for content related to the ads 330 of the scrollable ad unit 300 that the user interacted with. For example, if the user asserts “Like” an advertisement 330a for a page presented in the display area 320, the online system 140 may display one or more advertisements 330 of the scrollable ad unit 300 for that page. May be replaced with other advertisements for the page, such as advertisements for

Advertisement Position Assignment and Pricing FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for determining the position of an advertisement in a scrollable advertisement unit 300 and pricing an advertisement included in the scrollable advertisement unit 300. Online system 140 receives information about the advertisement, such as an ad request, from one or more advertisers 400 (400). As described above in conjunction with FIG. 2, the ad request includes a bid amount, advertising content, targeting criteria, impressions, or any other suitable data describing the advertisement. When the online system 140 identifies an opportunity to serve one or more advertisements to a user of the online system using a scrollable advertising unit, the online system 140 may communicate with the advertisement presented at the location of the scrollable advertising unit 300. Information describing the user interaction is retrieved (410). For example, click through rate histories of advertisements presented at various positions of the scrollable advertising unit 300 are retrieved (410).

  Based on the position value information, the discount coefficient calculator 240 calculates discount coefficients for various positions in the scrollable advertising unit 300 (420). As described above in conjunction with FIG. 2, the discount factor associated with a location provides a measure of the predicted advertising performance for that location. A position within the scrollable advertising unit 300 that has a lower probability of being connected to the presentation of an advertisement to the user is given a larger discount. For example, if the scrollable ad unit 300 allows a user to navigate an ad on a single axis, the initial position will not receive a discount because of the high probability that the user will view the ad (eg, a discount factor 1.0), the last location (ie, the location where the user must navigate farthest to view) receives the largest discount (eg, a discount factor of 0.05). The location discount factor may be stored by the online system 140 and then accessed to prevent recalculation of the discount factor for various presentations of the scrollable advertising unit 300. For example, the discount factor associated with a position in a scrollable ad unit 300 with 10 positions for the user to navigate the advertisement horizontally remains constant for similar scrollable ad units 300. is there.

  Based on the discount factor, the online system 140 ranks the position within the scrollable advertising unit 300 (430). In one embodiment, the locations are ranked (430) such that the location with the smallest discount (ie, the largest discount factor) is ranked highest. In the example of FIG. 5A, the discount factor associated with position 1.1 (i.e., first row, first column of scrollable advertising unit 300 that the user can scroll horizontally and vertically) is 1.0, Thus, position 1.1 is ranked highest. Also, the discount coefficient associated with position 2.1 is 0.45, so position 2.1 is ranked second from the top. As shown in the example of FIG. 5B, the positions are ranked in descending order of discount factors.

When online system 140 receives a request to present scrollable advertising unit 300 to a user, online system 140 selects an advertisement candidate stored in ad request store 235. For example, online system 140 identifies advertisement candidates associated with an ad request that has at least one target condition that is met by the characteristics of the user to whom the scrollable ad unit is presented. The ad value calculator 245 may calculate the advertisement ad value by changing the bid amount of the advertisement according to the magnification (440). For example, the magnification is based on the probability that the advertisement is presented to the user when the advertisement is associated with a particular location of the scrollable advertising unit 300. For example, the advertisement ad value is the product of the bid amount of the advertisement and its magnification. In some embodiments, the advertisement scale based on the probability that the advertisement is presented to the user based on the characteristics of the advertisement (eg, a characteristic that prevents the advertisement from being presented) calculates the advertisement ad value (440). ) Can be used when. For example, the ad's ad value is presented to the user when associated with a particular position within the scrollable advertising unit 300 and the probability of being presented to the user based on the bid amount of the advertisement, the characteristics of the advertisement. It can be the product of the probability. In one embodiment, if the bid amount of the advertisement is specified using a cost-per-click basis, the bid amount is converted to a value for the CPM. For example, the CPM bid is multiplied by the click-through rate of the advertisement to determine the CPM bid.

  Based on the ad value, advertisement candidates are ranked (450), and advertisements are selected from the advertisement candidates (460) based at least in part on the ranking. For example, the top ranked advertisement is selected for presentation 460 through the scrollable ad unit 300 (460). As another example, ads that have at least a threshold location in ranking are selected for inclusion in a scrollable ad unit.

  The position of the selected advertisement in the scrollable ad unit is based on a ranking of the position of the scrollable ad unit 300 based on a discount factor and a ranking based on the ad value of one or more advertisements of the plurality of advertisements. Determined (470). In the example of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the online system 140 advertises an ad in a scrollable ad unit by associating that ad with a position that has a location that matches the ad location of the ranked ad as a ranked position. Is determined (470). In the example of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the advertisement with the highest ad value is assigned to the highest ranked position 1.1 because it has the highest discount factor 1.0. Similarly, in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the advertisement with the second highest ad value is assigned to position 2.1. This is because location 2.1 has the second highest discount coefficient, such as 0.45. In one embodiment, the advertisement is mapped to a position until the advertisement is associated with each position in the scrollable advertising unit 300. Alternatively, advertisement ranking determines the order in which advertisements are displayed to the user, regardless of the direction in which the user navigates the scrollable ad unit. For example, in a scrollable advertising unit 300 that allows a user to scroll horizontally and vertically, advertisements may be presented to the user in the ranked order of those advertisements, regardless of the direction in which the user scrolls.

  An advertisement having a bid amount specified using the amount per click can be placed in a position where the discount coefficient is small (eg, an area outside the display area 320 of the scrollable advertisement unit 300). The probability that the user will access the advertisement increases in proportion to the amount of navigation required to present the advertisement in the display area 320 due to self-selection bias (ie, scroll through to view additional advertisements). Active users are more interested in those additional advertisements and are more likely to access the additional advertisements). Due to the price setting on a per click basis, the low probability that an advertisement will be presented is offset by an increased probability that a user will access the advertisement once the advertisement is presented.

The price of each advertisement included in the scrollable ad unit 300 is based on the bid amount of the advertisement selected for inclusion in the scrollable ad unit 300.
5 (480). The price of the advertisement may be based on the bid amount of the additional advertisement that has a low ranking in the advertisement ranking and the scaling factor associated with the advertisement and the additional advertisement. For example, if the advertisement B1 is the selected advertisement and the advertisement B2 has the next highest location of the advertisement B1 in the advertisement ranking, the price for presenting the advertisement B1 is as follows.

(Bid amount _B2 ) [(magnification) _B2 / (magnification) _B1 ]
Here, the bid amount _B2 is the bid amount of the advertisement B2 (specified on the basis of the impression unit price). The magnification _B2 is the magnification of the advertisement B2, the probability that the advertisement B2 is presented to the user based on the characteristics of the advertisement B2, and the user when the advertisement B2 is associated with a specific position in the scrollable advertising unit 300. Based on the probabilities presented. The magnification _B1 is the magnification of the advertisement B1, and the probability that the advertisement B1 is presented to the user based on the characteristics of the advertisement B1 and the user when the advertisement B1 is associated with a specific position in the scrollable advertisement unit 300. Based on the probabilities presented. In one embodiment, the price for presenting the advertisement B1 may also be changed by a discount factor for the advertisement B1, taking into account the position of the advertisement B1 in the scrollable advertising unit. For example, the discount coefficient for presenting the advertisement B1 based on the position in the scrollable advertisement unit 300 is multiplied by the price calculated above. As described above, when the bid amount of the advertisement is specified by the value of the CPC, the bid amount is converted into the value of the CPM.

Summary The above description of embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. One skilled in the art can appreciate that many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure.

  Some parts of this description describe embodiments of the invention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are commonly used by those familiar with data processing techniques to effectively convey the substance of their work to others familiar with the technique. These operations are described functionally, computationally, or logically, but are understood to be implemented by a computer program or equivalent electrical circuit, microcode, etc. Furthermore, it is often proved that it is convenient to call a combination of these operations a module, without losing generality. The described operations and the modules associated with those operations may be implemented in software, firmware, hardware, or any combination thereof.

  Any steps, operations, or processes described herein may be performed or implemented by one or more hardware or software modules, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, the software module is implemented by a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium that includes computer program code. This computer program code may be executed by a computer processor to perform any or all of the described steps, operations or processes.

  Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. The apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes and / or comprise a general purpose computing device that is selectively enabled or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored on any kind of persistent and tangible computer readable storage medium or medium suitable for storage of electronic instructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus. Further, any computing system referred to in the specification may comprise a single processor or may be an architecture that utilizes multiple processor designs to enhance computing functionality.

  Embodiments of the invention may also relate to a product created by the computing process described herein. Such merchandise may comprise information from a computing process, which is stored in a persistent and tangible computer readable storage medium, and any of the computer program products or other data combinations described herein. Embodiments may be included.

  Finally, the language used in the specification has been selected primarily for readability and instructional purposes, and not to delineate or limit the subject matter of the invention. There is a case. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims relating to the application. Accordingly, the disclosure of embodiments of the invention is intended to be illustrative of the scope of the invention specified in the following claims, and is not intended to be limiting.

Claims (42)

Receiving information describing one or more advertisements from one or more advertisers, the information including a bid amount associated with each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements;
In an online system, the step of retrieving information describing a plurality of positions in a scrollable advertising unit, each position being associated with one or more advertisements, wherein the scrollable advertising unit is associated with the one or more advertisements. Including a display area for presenting one or more advertisements based on the location being placed;
Determining a scaling factor for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements, the scaling factor based on a probability of presenting the advertisement to a user based on a position associated with the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit , Magnification determination step,
Determining a value for each advertisement, wherein the value for the advertisement is based on the scale factor of the advertisement and a bid associated with the advertisement;
A ranking step of ranking the plurality of advertisements based on the determined value;
Selecting an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements based at least in part on the ranking;
A method comprising: calculating a price for the selected advertisement based at least in part on the bid amount and the magnification associated with the advertisement in the plurality of advertisements. The advertising price calculation step includes:
Determining a bid amount for an advertisement having a lower ranking than the selected advertisement in the ranking step;
Calculating a ratio between a scale factor associated with the ad that is ranked lower than the selected ad and a scale factor associated with the selected ad;
An ad price determination step of determining a price for the selected ad based on the bid amount of the ad that is ranked lower than the selected ad and the calculated ratio. The method according to 1. The advertising price determination step includes:
The method of claim 2, comprising determining a product of the bid amount for the advertisement that is ranked lower than the selected advertisement and the calculated ratio.   The method of claim 2, wherein the selected advertisement and the advertisement that are ranked lower than the selected ranking are ranked sequentially. The magnification determining step includes
Determining a probability that the advertisement is presented to a user in the display area based on one or more characteristics of the advertisement;
The probability that the advertisement is presented to the user based on the location associated with the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit and the advertisement is presented to the user in the display area based on one or more characteristics of the advertisement. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining the scaling factor of the advertisement based on the probability. The one or more characteristics of the advertisement include target conditions, content associated with the user's privacy settings, content associated with products or services previously purchased by the user, products previously installed by the user 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method is selected from the group consisting of content associated with a service, and any combination thereof.   The information describing the plurality of advertisements from one or more advertisers includes one or more selected from the group consisting of advertising content, targeting conditions, impressions, and any combination thereof. Method.   The price of the selected advertisement is further based on a discount coefficient associated with the position associated with the selected advertisement in the scrollable ad unit, the discount coefficient selected at the position The method of claim 1, wherein the probability of user interaction with the advertisement is described.   The method of claim 8, wherein the discount factor is based on a user interaction history with an advertisement previously associated with the location. In an online system, receiving information describing a plurality of advertisements from one or more advertisers, wherein the information includes a bid amount associated with each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements;
Calculating a magnification for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements, wherein the magnification is determined by the advertisement based on a position of the advertisement in a scrollable advertisement unit comprising a plurality of advertisement positions and a display area. A magnification calculation process that describes the probabilities presented in
Calculating a score for each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements based on the bid amount associated with each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements and the scaling factor;
A ranking step of ranking the plurality of advertisements based at least in part on the calculated score;
Selecting an advertisement from the plurality of advertisements based at least in part on the ranking;
An advertising price calculating step of calculating a price for the selected advertisement based at least in part on one or more bids and one or more multipliers associated with the advertisement of the plurality of advertisements. . The advertising price calculation step includes:
Determining a bid amount for an advertisement having a lower ranking than the selected advertisement in the ranking step;
Calculating a ratio between a scale factor associated with the ad that is ranked lower than the selected ad and a scale factor associated with the selected ad;
An ad price determination step of determining a price for the selected ad based on the bid amount of the ad that is ranked lower than the selected ad and the calculated ratio. 10. The method according to 10. The advertising price determination step includes:
The method of claim 11, comprising determining a product of the bid amount for the advertisement that is ranked lower than the selected advertisement and the calculated ratio.     The method of claim 12, wherein the selected advertisement and the advertisement that are ranked lower than the selected ranking are sequentially ranked. The price of the selected advertisement is further based on a discount coefficient associated with the position associated with the selected advertisement in the scrollable ad unit, the discount coefficient selected at the position The method of claim 10, wherein the probability of user interaction with the advertisement is described.   The method of claim 14, wherein the discount factor is based on a user interaction history with an advertisement previously associated with the location. The magnification calculation step includes
Determining a probability that the advertisement is presented to a user in the display area based on one or more characteristics of the advertisement;
The probability that the advertisement is presented to the user based on the location associated with the advertisement in the scrollable advertising unit and the advertisement is presented to the user in the display area based on one or more characteristics of the advertisement. The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining the scaling factor of the advertisement based on the probability.   The one or more characteristics of the advertisement include target conditions, content associated with the user's privacy settings, content associated with products or services previously purchased by the user, products previously installed by the user The method of claim 16, wherein the method is selected from the group consisting of content associated with a service or any combination thereof.   The information describing the plurality of advertisements from one or more advertisers includes one or more selected from the group consisting of advertising content, targeting criteria, impressions, and any combination thereof. Method. Identifying an opportunity to use a scrollable advertising unit to serve one or more advertisements to a user of an online system, the scrollable advertising unit comprising a plurality of positions, each position associated with an advertisement; A display area for presenting an advertisement based on the position of the advertisement in the scrollable advertisement unit;
Accessing a discount factor associated with each location, the discount factor including a measure of expected advertising performance at each location;
Ranking the plurality of locations based at least in part on the discount factor; and
Determining one or more positions of the scrollable ad unit associated with one or more advertisements based on the ranking of the plurality of positions and the ranking of the one or more advertisements in the plurality of advertisements; Process,
Generating the scrollable ad unit that includes each of the one or more advertisements associated with a determined position;
Transmitting the scrollable advertising unit for display to the user. Retrieving information describing the amount of user interaction with content associated with each of the plurality of positions;
Calculating a discount factor associated with each location based at least in part on the retrieved information, wherein the discount factor includes a measure of expected advertising performance at each location. The method according to claim 19, further comprising: a calculating step. The discount coefficient calculation step includes:
Determining the probability that the user will view content at one location;
Determining the probability that the user will access content at the one location;
A discount coefficient determination step of determining the discount coefficient for the position based on the probability that the user views the content at the one position and the probability that the user accesses the content at the one position. 21. The method of claim 20, comprising: The discount coefficient determination step includes
The method of claim 21, comprising determining a product of the probability that the user views content at the one location and the probability that the user accesses content at the one location.   The method of claim 19, wherein the ranking step is based at least in part on a bid amount associated with each of the plurality of advertisements. The ranking step, based at least in part on a bid amount associated with each of the plurality of advertisements,
Based at least in part on the bid amount, and based on a probability of presenting each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements in the display area based on one or more properties unique to each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements. 24. The method of claim 23, comprising ranking the plurality of advertisements.   The one or more properties unique to each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements include targeting conditions, content associated with the user's privacy settings, content associated with a product or service previously purchased by the user, 25. The method of claim 24, selected from the group consisting of content associated with a user installed product or service, and any combination thereof.   The information describing the amount of user interaction with the content associated with each of the plurality of locations is associated with content previously associated with one or more of the plurality of locations. User interaction history information, the number of users showing preferences for advertisements presented at one location, the percentage of users showing preferences for the advertisements presented at one location, The number of users accessing the advertisement presented at one location, the percentage of users accessing the advertisement presented at the one location, and any combination thereof. 20. The method according to 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving information describing the plurality of advertisements from one or more advertisers.   28. The information of claim 27, wherein the information describing the plurality of advertisements is selected from the group consisting of advertisement content for advertisements, target conditions for the advertisements, impressions of the advertisements, and any combination thereof. Method.   The method of claim 19, wherein the online system is a social networking system.   30. The method of claim 29, wherein the plurality of advertisements include one or more stories associated with content maintained by the social networking system. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing the discount factor associated with each location. Receiving information describing one or more advertisements from one or more advertisers, the information including a bid amount associated with each advertisement in the plurality of advertisements;
Identifying an opportunity to present one or more advertisements to a user of an online system using a scrollable advertising unit, the scrollable advertising unit including one or more content items including one or more advertisements; Providing a display area for presentation to the user;
Accessing a discount factor associated with each location, the discount factor including a measure of expected advertising performance at each location;
Ranking the plurality of advertisements based at least in part on the bid amount associated with each of the plurality of advertisements;
Determining one or more positions in the scrollable ad unit associated with one or more advertisements of the plurality of advertisements, wherein the position of the advertisement is associated with the ranking of the advertisement and the position. A positioning step based at least in part on a discount factor
Generating the scrollable advertising unit that includes the one or more advertisements associated with the one or more positions. The method of claim 32, further comprising presenting the scrollable advertising unit to the user. Retrieving information describing an amount of user interaction with content associated with each of a plurality of positions of the scrollable advertising unit;
Calculating a discount factor associated with each location based at least in part on the retrieved information, wherein the discount factor includes a measure of expected advertising performance at each location. The method according to claim 32, further comprising: a calculating step. The position determining step includes
Ranking the plurality of locations based at least in part on the discount factor; and
One or more positions in the scrollable ad unit associated with the one or more advertisements are based on the ranking of the plurality of positions and the ranking of the one or more advertisements in the plurality of advertisements. 35. The method of claim 32, comprising determining. The discount coefficient calculation step includes:
Determining a probability that the user will view content at one of the plurality of positions;
Determining the probability that the user will access content at the one of the plurality of locations;
Based on the probability that the user views the content at the one of the plurality of positions and the probability that the user accesses the content at the one of the plurality of positions, the 35. A method according to claim 34, comprising: determining a discount coefficient for a location. The discount coefficient determination step includes
37. determining a product of the probability that the user will view content at the one of the plurality of locations and the probability that the user will access the content at the one location. The method described in 1.   The information describing the amount of user interaction with content associated with each of the plurality of locations is associated with content previously associated with one or more of the plurality of locations. 35. The method of claim 34, wherein the stored user interaction history information is included.   The method of claim 32, wherein the online system is a social networking system.   40. The method of claim 39, wherein the plurality of advertisements include one or more stories associated with content maintained by the social networking system. The method of claim 32, further comprising storing the discount factor associated with each location.   The one or more content items for presentation by the display area are a user photo, a story describing an action performed by an additional online system user connected to the user, proposed to the user by the online system 35. The method of claim 32, wherein the method is selected from the group consisting of an action taken and any combination thereof.