IES84356Y1 - A method of monitoring online banner activity - Google Patents
A method of monitoring online banner activity Download PDFInfo
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- IES84356Y1 IES84356Y1 IE2006/0178A IE20060178A IES84356Y1 IE S84356 Y1 IES84356 Y1 IE S84356Y1 IE 2006/0178 A IE2006/0178 A IE 2006/0178A IE 20060178 A IE20060178 A IE 20060178A IE S84356 Y1 IES84356 Y1 IE S84356Y1
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Abstract
ABSTRACT The invention relates to a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a plurality of user computing devices (3) each having browser software loaded thereon to permit the viewing of web pages, an advertisement server (5) and a collection server (7). The plurality of user computing devices, the advertisement server and the collection server are all connected by way of a communications network (9). Each of the user computing devices (3) transmits web page viewing requests to the advertisement server (5). The advertisement sever transmits web pages containing banner advertisements to the user computing devices in response to the requests. When the user computing device displays the advertisement, the user computing device collates tag data relating to each of the banner advertisements and transmits the tag data to the collection server (7) in a single server request message.
Description
“A method of monitoring online banner activity”
Introduction
This invention relates to a method of monitoring online banner activity in a system
comprising a plurality of user computing devices each having browser software
loaded thereon to enable viewing of web pages, each of the web pages containing a
plurality of banners, the system further comprising an advertisement server and a
collection server, the plurality of user computing devices, the advertisement sewer
and the collection server all being connected by way of a communications network.
One of the most significant technological advances over the last number of years has
been the introduction of the internet and the World Wide Web. This new technology
has had many wide-ranging implications for businesses and in particular the manner
in which they carry out their business on a day-to-day basis. In most industries, it is
considered essential for a company to have at least some presence on the World
Wide Web. In addition to providing a company web site, many companies, such as
manufacturers and the like, advertise their goods and or services on the web sites of
other companies. These advertisements are commonly referred to throughout the
industry as banners.
One typical example of such practise would be a clothing or shoe manufacturer such
as Nike (Registered Trade Mark) advertising their goods which may be a new range
of Tiger Woods golf clothing, on the web site of a large sports clothing retailer or golf
equipment retailer. Typically, the banner will include some identification of the new
Nike goods for sale in the shop along with any particular deal being offered. Another
example of such banner advertising would be a company such as a building
contractor or a company offering plumbing services providing a banner advertisement
advertising their services on the web site of a bathroom supplier’s outlet.
Typically, the companies or individuals that wish to place the banner advertisement
on the web site of the third party pay a fee to the third party or another party hosting
the web site to allow them to do so. When paying for this privilege, it is most
important that the parties come to an agreement regarding a fair remuneration or
consideration for the service. Normally, if a banner is posted on a particular web
page the parties agree a fee that is paid for each individual that uses the web page
upon which the advertisement banner is placed. This is otherwise referred to as the
number of “clicks" on a particular website or web page and the charge may be based
on the number of “clicks” on that web page. There are however numerous problems
with this system.
First of all, it is extremely difficult for the parties posting the banner ads to determine
how effective the banner placed on a particular web site is in attracting customers for
the advertiser's goods. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to determine whether that
banner has persuaded a potential customer to make further enquiries or indeed to
make a purchase of the advertiser’s goods. Furthermore, using the known systems it
is virtually impossible for the parties placing the banner to determine how many
unique visitors there have been that have viewed that banner and how many visitors
are return visitors that have already seen the banner. An additional problem with this
is that the parties posting the banners may have various separate banners spread
across various different web pages of different web sites. Therefore, the same
individuals may visit different web pages and view the banner of one company a
number of times on each of the web pages and never make a purchase from that
company. In the course of visiting the various different web pages they may view the
same banner a number of times and therefore it is important for the party posting the
banner that they are aware of whether an individual viewing the banner is a unique
visitor, in other words a first time viewer of that banner, or whether the individual is a
repeat visitor to that web page and has previously viewed the banner on that web
page or whether they have viewed the banner on a different web page. Currently
with the known systems there is no way of determining this. Without knowing the
number of unique visitors to their banners, it is extremely difficult for the parties
posting the banners to analyse the effectiveness of their banner advertising in a
meaningful way.
Another major problem when dealing with banner information collection is that the
process of collecting banner information is envisaged to be extremely computationally
inefficient. When viewing a web page having a number of banners thereon, a server
request message may be created for each banner on the web page and sent to the
server for processing. This is highly inefficient and in some instances there may be
ten or more banner advertisements on a single web page. Each of the banner
advertisements would in turn require a server request message to transmit
information to a server relating to the banner and/or the individual viewing the banner.
This would take up considerable communications bandwidth not to mention requiring
an excessive processing overhead.
Finally, using the present systems, parties posting banners on web sites have very
little direct feedback regarding the effectiveness of their banners as well as the
demographic information relating to the individuals viewing the banners. This
demographic information can be of the utmost importance when deciding on
advertising campaigns and strategies. Without this information it is virtually
impossible for parties posting banner advertisements to accurately target their
desired markets and obtain the best value for money for their advertising spend.
it will be understood from the foregoing and from the remainder of the specification
that this application is directly solely towards the monitoring of banner advertisements
and the numbers of viewers of those banner advertisements, and in particular the
number of unique viewers of those banner advertisements that are served from a
website, whether they be on Web Pages, Streaming Media, Audio or Video File
downloads and the like. This invention is not intended to encompass systems and
methods for monitoring web page access and the like which are well known and do
not form part of the present invention. What must be clear is that it is the banner
advertisements and their monitoring that the invention is particularly interested in and
directed towards and not the web pages themselves which is altogether outside the
scope of this specification.
it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of monitoring online
banner activity that overcomes at least some of the above-mentioned difficulties, that
is simple and efficient to operate and relatively simple to implement. It is a further
object of the present invention to provide a method of monitoring online banner
activity that reduces the computational overhead of the known systems while at the
same time providing a more comprehensive analysis of online banner activity than
was heretofore possible.
Statements of Invention
According to the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online banner
activity in a system comprising a collection server, a remote advertisement server and
a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection server, the remote
advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices being
connected by way of a communication network, the remote advertisement server
having a plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the plurality of remote user
computing devices having web browser software loaded thereon to allow
downloading and viewing of web pages on the user computing device, the method
comprising the steps of:
one of the remote user computing devices sending a web page access
request to the remote advertisement server;
the remote advertisement server transmitting the requested web page to the
remote user computing device, the requested web page containing a plurality
of banners therein, at least some of the banners having a banner tag
associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the
banner name, banner location, banner i.d., banner campaign, banner type
and media creator;
on downloading of the web page, the remote user computing device collating
the banner data of each of the plurality of banner tags contained in the
requested web page into a single server request message;
the remote user computing device transmitting the single server request
message containing banner data relating to each of the plurality of banner
tags to the collection server; and
the collection server receiving the server request message and thereafter
storing and analysing the banner tag data contained therein.
By having such a method it will be possible to monitor online banner activity in a
simple and efficient manner. Furthermore, by placing tags associated with each
banner in the code of the web page, it will be possible to track the banner viewings
with relative ease. By collating all the information from the individual banner tags it
will further be possible to significantly reduce the computational overhead and
communication overhead required in the known systems as a single server request
message may be made to transmit all of the banner tag data. In many cases, there
may be twenty or more banners on any individual web page. Previously, a
communication that a banner had been shown on a web page would have to have
been sent for each individual banner. By having the banner tags and then collating
all of the banner tag information together, the tag information relating to all of the
banners may be placed into a single server request communication to the collection
server whereafter the collection server may monitor and analyse the data
appropriately. This significantly simplifies the transfer and subsequent management
of data and significantly reduces the processing requirements on the collection
server. It will be understood that not all of the banners in a particular web page will
have banner tags associated therewith but it is envisaged that at least two or more
banners will have banner tags associated therewith per web page.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the remote
user computing device transmitting device identifier data to the collection server.
Preferably, the device identifier data will be cookie data. By having the device
identifier data, the collection server will not only be able to determine the number of
times that a particular banner has been seen but will also be able to determine who
has seen that banner and whether that person has seen the banner before which is
particularly useful to the operator of the system, and whether that person has seen
the same advertisement on a different website which is particularly useful to the
advertiser. The cookie data is seen as a simple way to monitor the activity of separate
remote user computing devices.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the device identifier data is transmitted to the collection server
together with the banner data in the single server request message. This is seen as a
particularly simple and efficient way of transmitting the device identifier data to the
collection server for analysis that reduces the bandwidth and computational overhead
requirement on the method as only one piece of device identifier information is sent
with multiple banners.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the step of analysing the banner tag data further
comprises the steps of:
the collection server comparing the banner tag data and device identifier data
with other banner tag data and or device identifier data stored in memory; and
determining whether or not the remote user computing device is a unique
visitor to a particular banner.
This is seen as a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention and most
important as the par1:ies placing banner advertisements in web pages, may now
accurately determine how many unique visitors have viewed their banner.
Therefore, it is now possible for these parties placing the banner advertisements to
accurately measure the effectiveness of their banner advertisements. Previously,
they may only have known that various banner advertisements of theirs were seen
a total of 200,000 ‘times across a number of different web pages, but this
information would only tell them how many times their banner had been served and
not how many times it was seen by unique visitors. However, it is not inconceivable
that previously, and in fact it is extremely likely, that the same individuals were
viewing the same banner over a number of different web pages of one web site as
well as a number of different web pages on different web sites. The same
individuals may have: viewed a particular banner ten or more times. Therefore
instead of actually advertising to 200,000 people and paying a royalty on that rate
they may have only been advertising to 20,000 people. Therefore a far more
equitable way of calculating appropriate royalties may be determined as well as a
far more accurate way of determining the effectiveness of their advertising
campaigns. This was; previously impossible and is seen as a major benefit of the
system and method.
in another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the banner
tag data further comprises the collection server determining the number of unique
visitors to a specified banner shown over a plurality of web pages. By determining the
number of unique visitors over a number of web pages, the parties will be able to
even more accurately determine the number of truly unique visitors to a particular
banner and agree an equitable remuneration based on that calculation. Furthermore.
it will now be easier to determine the true number of unique viewers of a particular
banner and therefore it will be possible to determine the effectiveness of a particular
campaign more thoroughly and comprehensively than was previously the case.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the banner tag data
further comprises the collection server monitoring banner tag data and device
identifier data over a plurality of disparate technologies and thereafter determining the
number of unique visitors to a particular banner shown over the range of
technologies. in this way, it will be possible for the collection server to determine
whether an individual has viewed a particular banner advertisement over a number of
different technologies such as over the internet and a Wireless Application Protocol
(WAP) page. This will enable the user to determine whether the viewer is a unique
viewer or whether they have seen the banner over another technology platform.
in a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the collection
server determining, for those remote user computing devices that are not new unique
visitors to a particular banner, the number of times that remote user computing device
has visited a particular banner. This is further seen as advantageous as the
collection server may determine the effectiveness of a particular advertisement
banner based on the activity of a particular user computing device subsequent to
seeing the banner advertisement a number of times.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method comprises the step of the collection server
monitoring the click-through activity of the remote user computing devices accessing
a particular banner. This will further enable the collection server to determine the
usefulness and effectiveness of the banner advertisement and will allow the collection
server to provide statistical data based on a particular banner advertisement which
may include data relating to its position on a page and how many click-through that
similar banners in that position achieved as opposed to similar banners placed
elsewhere for example.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the method comprises the initial step of the advertisement
server generating banner tags for a plurality of banner advertisements in a web page
and encoding those banner tags into the web page code. This is seen as a simple
way of inserting the banner tags into the web page code and allows for all of the web
pages stored on a particular advertisement server to be adjusted to contain the
banner tags to allow comprehensive monitoring of the banners.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the step of the advertisement server generating banner
tags and encoding the banner tags into a web page further comprises the
advertisement server inserting banner tags in streaming media, those banner tags
being capable of reporting events in the streaming media.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of storing
device identifier data along with demographic data relating to the proprietors of that
device identifier data and comparing the device identifier data received from the user
computing device with the stored device identifier data and demographic data to
determine a demographic profile, if matching device identifier data is found, of a
visitor to a banner. In this way, a demographic profile may be attributed to a viewer of
a banner advertisement and stored to allow the collection server determine the
average demographic profile of the viewers of a particular banner advertisement.
ln one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of combining the
demographic data of the matching device identifier data with the banner data to build
a demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement. Similarly, the collection
server may generate a profile that may be attributed to a particular banner
advertisement i.e. that it is viewed predominantly by individuals in a particular socio-
economic group and therefore the advertisers may target their banner advertisement
campaigns more accurately towards particular user groups.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the steps of:
obtaining the device identifier data and related demographic data of a plurality
of operators of user computing devices that have accessed a specified
sample web page;
comparing the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have
accessed the specified sample web page with the device identifier data of
user computing devices that have accessed a web page containing a
particular banner;
determining the matching device identifier data and from the matching device
identifier data building a demographic profile for the operators of the user
computing devices that have accessed the particular banner.
This is seen as a particularly efficient way of gathering demographic data in relation
to the viewers of a particular banner advertisement. By using the sample web page
where the demographic data of a number of device identifier data owners is known, it
is possible to determine to a high degree of accuracy the demographic profile of the
viewers of a particular banner advertisement which allows advertisers to further refine
their advertisements to the users.
This is further seen as a highly important aspect of the invention. By providing a
method such as this, it will be possible for the companies posting banner
advertisements to determine the demographic information of individuals viewing
their banners. This is seen as particularly advantageous as the individuals posting
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the banner advertisements on web pages may more accurately target their
advertising campaigns to those individuals that are viewing the banners most
frequently through this medium. For example, certain companies such as a
telecoms provider may have a very wide customer base including customers
anywhere from 18 to 80 years of age. The majority of the customers viewing their
banner advertisements on the web on selected web pages may however be in the
18-30 age bracket.
advertisement campaigns on these web pages to the 18-30 age bracket and
Therefore, the advertisers may target their online banner
provide more effective advertising through that media. Furthermore, by combining
the demographic data and the banner advertisement data in this manner the
companies placing the banner advertisements may determine that the vast majority
of their unique visitors through a particular web page are female and aged 25 or
under. In the case of a car insurance company, they may place their prominent
rates for lady drive policies on those web pages in order to obtain the maximum
exposure of their banner advertisements. This has been heretofore impossible.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method in which the
demographic data relating to the users of a particular sample web page is obtained
from the operators of that sample web page. This demographic data may be
provided by the web page operator who may have received the name, sex and age
of the web page user during a Iogin or signing-up procedure. Therefore they can
provide very accurate demographic details to the collection server which can
therefore provide a much more accurate demographic analysis. Alternatively, it is
envisaged that the demographic data provided by the operators of that sample web
page may further comprise the probability of the user being of a particular
demographic category. This is a further alternative when no definite data regarding
the actual visitors of a web page is available, it may be possible to ascertain with a
high degree of probability i.e. over 80%, the demographic profile of an individual
viewing a particular web page. For example, in a web site containing a number of
web pages with various different topics such as that run by RTE News (Registered
Trade Mark), there are various web pages dedicated to business, sport, health,
general news and lifestyle topics. Through research it may be determined that the
vast majority, i.e. 80% of people reading the sports pages are in fact male aged 18
to 35 whereas the majority of people reading the health and lifestyle pages are
women in the age category of 30 to 45. Therefore, by knowing the probability of
the viewers of the web pages being in a particular demographic category, the
operators of the sample web page may give the probability that a user is of a
particular category and therefore further allowing the suppliers of advertising
banner content to target their audiences more appropriately. This is a particularly
useful way of carrying out the invention without requiring extensive, time consuming
and expensive market research.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity comprising a collection server, a remote advertisement server
and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection sewer, the remote
advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being
connected by way of a communications network;
the remote advertisement server having memory for storage of web pages,
each web page containing a plurality of banner advertisements therein, at
least some of the banners having a banner tag associated therewith
containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, the banner
location, the banner i.d., the banner campaign, the banner type and the media
creator;
the plurality of remote user computing devices each having browser software
loaded thereon to allow access to and downloading of web pages from the
advertising server for viewing on the user computing device, the remote user
computing device further comprising a processor to collate the plurality of
banner tags associated with the banners contained in a downloaded web
page into a single server request message and the remote user computing
device having a transmitter to transmit the single server request message to
the collection server over the communications network;
the collection server having a receiver to receive a server request message
containing data relating to a plurality of banner tags from the remote user
computing devices, memory for storing information received from the remote
user computing devices, and a processor to analyse the banner tag data
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contained in the server request messages.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity in which the collection server further comprises means to
receive device identifier data in addition to the server request message and the
collection sen/er’s processor has means to compare the received device identifier
data and banner tag data of a server request message with other device identifier
data and banner tag data stored in memory.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online
banner activity in which the collection server processor has means to determine the
number of unique visitors to a banner.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity in which the collection server has means to determine the
number of unique visitors to a banner advertisement over a plurality of web pages.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity in which the collection server has means to receive server
request messages and device identifier data for a plurality of disparate technologies
and has means to del;ermine the number of unique visitors to a banner advertisement
over the range of disparate technologies.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online
banner activity in which the collection server has device identifier data and
demographic data relating to the proprietors of that device identifier data stored in
memory, the collection server having means to compare received device identifier
data with the stored device identifier data and ascertain a demographic profile, if
matching device identifier data is found, to viewers of a particular banner based on
the comparison of the device identifier data.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity in which the demographic data further comprises the probability
of a device identifier belonging to a particular demographic category.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring
online banner activity in which the collection server has means to combine the
demographic data of matching device identifier data with the banner tag data and
attribute a demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a system for monitoring online
banner activity in which the remote advertisement server further comprises a
processor for generating banner tags for the banner advertisements and inserting the
banner tags for a plurality of banner advertisements into the web page’s code.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in a system comprising a collection server, a remote
advertisement server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the collection
server, the remote aclvertlsement server and the plurality of remote user computing
devices all being connected by way of a communications network, the remote
advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon containing
banner advertisements, at least some of the banner advertisements on each web
page having banner tag data relating to the banner advertisement contained in the
code of the web page, each of the remote user computing devices having browser
software stored thereon to allow the user computing devices download and view web
pages on the remote user computing device, the method comprising the steps of:
the collection server receiving a server request message containing banner
tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein from a remote user
computing device;
the collection server parsing the server request message containing banner
tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein and thereafter analysing the
banner tag data; and
storing the banner tag data in memory.
This is seen as an efficient way for the collection server to operate in such a method
and system. The collection server can collect data relating to the viewers of banner
advertisements in an unobtrusive manner and furthermore will be able to reduce the
computational burden and communication overhead required to monitor the banner
tag data by collecting the data in this way.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of the collection
server receiving device identifier data in addition to the server request message and
analysing the device identifier data and banner tag data by comparing it with other
device identifier data and associated banner tag data stored in memory.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity as in which the step of the collection server analysing the device
identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection
server determining whether or not the remote user computing device is a unique
visitor to a particular banner.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the device
identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection
server determining the number of unique visitors to a particular banner over a plurality
of web pages.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the step of the collection server analysing the device
identifier data and the banner tag data further comprises the step of the collection
server monitoring banner tag data over a plurality of disparate technologies and
thereafter determining the number of unique visitors to a particular banner over the
range of technologies.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the collection server determines for those remote user
computing devices that are not new unique visitors to a particular banner, the number
of times that remote user computing device has visited a particular banner.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the collection server monitors the click-through activity
of the viewers of a panticular banner.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the step of storing
device identifier data along with demographic data relating to the proprietors of that
device identifier data and comparing the device identifier data received from the user
computing device with the stored device identifier data and demographic data and
determining the demographic profile, if matching device identifier data is found, of a
visitor to a banner.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity as in which the method further comprises the step of combining the
demographic data of the matching device identifier data with the banner data to
determine the demographic profile for a particular banner advertisement.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method further comprises the steps of:
obtaining the device identifier data and related demographic data of a plurality
of operators of user computing devices that have accessed a specified
sample web page;
comparing the device identifier data of the user computing devices that have
accessed the sample web page with the device identifier data of user
computing devices that have accessed a web page containing a particular
banner;
determining the matching device identifier data and from the matching device
identifier data building a demographic profile for the operators of the user
computing devices that have accessed the particular banner.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the demographic data is provided by the operators of
the sample web page.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in which the demographic data provided further comprises the
probability of the operator of a user computing device accessing the sample web
page being of a particular demographic category.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in a system comprising an advertisement server, a remote
collection server and a plurality of remote user computing devices, the advertisement
server, the remote collection server and the plurality of remote user computing
devices all being connected by way of a communications network, each of the
plurality of remote user computing devices having browser software loaded thereon
to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the remote user computing
device, the remote collection server further comprising a processor for analysing
server request messages relating to web page accesses sent by individual user
computing devices on executing a web page, the method comprising the steps of:
the advertising server obtaining the code for a particular web page containing
a plurality of banners;
the advertisement server inserting a banner tag containing one or more of the
banner name, the banner type, the banner i.d., the banner location, the
campaign name and the media creator in the code of the web page for a
plurality of the banners in the web page;
the advertisement server storing the web page code complete with banner
tags in memory for subsequent access by remote user computing devices;
on receiving a web page access request from one of the remote user
computing devices, transmitting the web page code complete with banner tag
data to the remote user computing device.
This is seen as a particularly useful way for the advertisement server to operate in
such a method. The advertisement server will be able to insert the banner tags into
the code of the web pages themselves in a simple and efficient manner with the
minimum of difficulty as well as in a non-obtrusive manner. This will allow the banner
tag data to be downloaded by the user computing devices without requiring additional
permissions or actions to be carried out by the user computing device operators.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the advertising server places banner tags in streaming
media content and subsequently stores the streaming media content complete with
banner tags in advertisement server memory for subsequent access by remote user
computing devices.
In one embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring online
banner activity in a system comprising a user computing device, a remote collection
server and a remote advertisement server, the remote advertisement server having a
plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the web pages having a plurality of
banners therein, at least some of the banners having banner tags associated
therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, the
banner location, the banner i.d., the banner campaign, the banner type and the media
creator, the remote collection server further comprising a processor for processing
data received from the user computing device, the user computing device having web
browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on
the user computing device, the method comprising the steps of;
the user computing device sending a web page access request to the remote
advertisement server and thereafter downloading the requested web page;
the user computing device collating all of the banner tag data contained in the
web page into a single server request message; and
the user computing device transmitting the single server request message to
the collection server for analysis.
In this way, the user computing device will operate in a very efficient manner allowing
the method of monitoring online banner activity to be carried out in a simple,
seamless manner. The banner tags from two or more banner advertisements will be
collated into a single server request message that may be sent to a collection server
for further processing. The user computing device will automatically create and
transmit the server request message without requiring additional input from the
operator of the device and the steps are carried out unbeknownst to the operator of
the user computing device.
In a further embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the method comprises the step of the user computing
device transmitting a device identifier to the collection server.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a method of monitoring
online banner activity in which the user computing device transmits the device
identifier to the collection server together with the banner tag data in the single server
request message.
Detailed Description of the Invention
The invention will now be more clearly understood from the following description of
some embodiments thereof given by way of example only with reference to the
accompanying drawing, in which:
Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of the system in which the method
according to the invention is performed.
Referring to Fig. 1 there is shown a system in which the method may be carried out,
indicated generally by the reference numeral 1, comprising a plurality of user
computing devices 3 each having browser software loaded thereon to enable viewing
of web pages, an advertisement server 5 and a collection server 7. The plurality of
user computing devices 3, the advertisement server 5 and the collection server 7 are
all connected by way of communications network 9. The user computing devices
each access web pages through the communication network. Each of the web pages
contains a plurality of banners (not shown). The collection server has access to a
database and memory 8. There is further provided alternative user computing
devices 3 in the form of a mobile telephone 11 and a PDA 13.
In use, the advertisement server 5 generates a banner tag containing information
specific to a particular banner including one or more of the banner name, the banner
type, the banner ID, the banner location, the campaign name and the media creator,
for at least some of the banners in a web page and inserts the banner tags into the
code for that web page on generation of the web page. The user computing devices
3 transmit web page access requests to the advertisement server through the
communication network 9 and web pages are downloaded to the user computing
devices 3. The web pages downloaded have a plurality of banners therein along with
their associated banner tags. On downloading of the web page to the user
computing device, the user computing device collates all the information from the
banner tags and sends; the collated information relating to all the banner tags along
with a device identifier identifying the user computing device 3 to the collection server
7 in a server request message. In this instance the device identifier data comprises a
cookie. The collection server monitors and analyses the banner activity from the
received collated information. In this way the banner information taken from banner
tags of a number of banners on any given page are transmitted simultaneously to the
collection server. A single server request message is sufficient to transfer information
relating to a number of different banners and this reduces the computational and
communication overheads of the system. Once the collection server receives the
collated information the collection server may carry out various statistical analysis on
the information retrieved.
One of the most important aspects of the present invention is the ability of the
collection server to determine the number of unique visitors (UV) to a particular
banner. In this way, it is possible for the advertisers of goods using banners to
determine how many separate individuals have been subjected to their banners
across a number of different web pages. This is achieved by the collection server
obtaining device identifier information relating to a specific user computing device 3
and one or more specified web pages. It is envisaged that these specified web
pages will have a banner of an advertising entity thereon. For each banner that has
been served through the site, the collection server will hold a list of device identifiers
from all devices that have been served that particular banner. When the new device
identifier information is received in the request, the collection server will identify each
banner included in the request, and then compare the device identifier in the request
with the list of device identifiers stored in memory for this banner to determine if the
device has seen the banner before or not. If not, it will include it in the list of device
identifiers for further reference. Once the device identifier information has been
compared in this manner the collection server may then determine the number of
unique visitors that have viewed a particular banner displayed on one or more
specified web pages as they will know from the banner information whether a
particular user computer device has accessed a banner and thereafter from the
device identifier information they will be able to determine whether that user has
visited a number of web pages each containing a particular banner. This is extremely
useful to the parties that post banner advertisements as it allows them to more
comprehensively analyse the accesses to their banners and the benefit that they are
obtaining from that advertising.
Another highly important aspect of the present invention is the ability of the method to
combine demographic data and associate that with advertising banners. This is
achieved by the collection server obtaining demographic data relating to users of a
particular sample web page. The collection server then obtains the device identifier
data of the user computing devices that have accessed that sample web page. Once
the demographic data and the device identifiers data of the user computing devices
have been obtained, the collection server may then build a database 8 of user
computing devices device identifier data with associated demographic data. This
device identifier data of the user computing devices that have accessed the sample
web page may be compared with the device identifier data of users that accessed a
web page with a particular banner. Therefore the collection server may then provide
demographic data of that banner based on the comparison of the device identifier
data of the user computing devices that have accessed the sample web page with
the device identifier data of users who have accessed the web page containing the
banner.
There are many wa s in which the collection server may obtain the demographic
data. In many instances the operators of the sample web page will have full
demographic data details of the users of that sample web page. For instance the
users of the sample web page may be required to insert various personal data before
joining the sample web page as a member. In this instance the operator of the
sample web page may transmit directly all of the relevant information to the collection
server. Alternatively, in certain circumstances the operator of the sample web page
may know with a reasonably high level of probability (in the region of 80% or above)
that the users of a particular page would be in a certain demographic grouping. For
instance, on a web site of an online retailer that sells various different types of music,
DVDs, videos and computer games, it may be reasonable for the operator of the web
page to ascertain that over 80% of all accesses to a games section web page are
made by males in the age group of 15 to 24. Alternatively those web pages relating
to classical or jazz music are predominantly accessed by both males and females in
the age bracket 55 and above. Therefore the operator of the web pagels) may
provide statistical analysis of their web pages which may be used by the collection
server in their analysis of the banner tags and demographic data. Both of these
methods are seen as providing vast improvements on the existing methods and
systems for monitoring; and analysing banner advertisements on web pages.
Throughout this specification reference has been made to web pages and web sites.
It will be understood that the banner information may also be contained in an online
stream of data such as radio or video streams, and also in video and audio files that
are available for download from a website onto iPod’s or other similar mobile phones
or PDA devices, and that these web sites could be computer accessible web sites on
the world wide web, mobile web sites or indeed could be through other streaming
media. in addition to providing the number of accesses to a particular banner it would
be possible for the method to also determine the click through activity and the
number of unique visitors that see a particular banner. Furthermore, it is possible for
the collection server to determine the number of users as well as the unique users
over multiple domains, i.e. web pages and mobile web pages.
The tags that are provided are inserted into the HTML code which creates the web
page.
measurement of banner ads in streaming media such as audio or visual streams.
Various different versions of these tags may also allow identification
These banner tags in streaming media also make it possible to see how much of the
ad is being viewed by a listener or a viewer. It will be understood throughout the
specification that although reference has been made generally to viewing a web page
this should also include viewing a page, listening to items from the page or
downloading items on that page generally. Frequently, the stream of data would be
an audio stream rather than a visual stream such as a radio programme broadcast
online. In order to traclk the streaming data over the internet it is possible to measure
the advertisements contained in the streams. This is achieved by placing HTML tags
into the web pages from which the streams of data are accessed and these web tags
are able to pick up identification data from the streams (for Real player or Windows
player data streams or QuickTime {Apple's p|ayer}) (Registered Trade Marks) and
when these data streams are activated in the player on the client‘s machine it is
possible to track all the events that occur in the data stream such as the start, stop or
pause action. For example, if somebody is listening to the morning radio show on
their user computer device, in this case a PC, using streaming technology, then
during a break in the morning shown when the banner advertisements come on it is
possible to have a tag in the stream data which could signal the start of a number of
banner ads and the banner ads can then be measured and it can be determined
who's listening to the ads.
Therefore there is provided a system of monitoring online banner activity that will
allow advertisers to accurately determine the number of unique visitors to their
banner as well as the demographics of the audience that they are reaching across a
variety of media on different pages. This greatly enhances the ability of the
advertisers to advertise their goods and services.
In the embodiments described, the advertisement server and the collection server are
connected to each otlher over the communication network. It is envisaged that in
some instances the advertisement server and the collection server may in fact form
part of the same apparatus and they have been shown separately for reasons of
clarity. In this instance they would simply be separate parts of a processing device
such as a server. Furthermore, although there is shown a connection between the
collection server through the communications network to the advertisement server, it
is envisaged that there may in fact be a dedicated connection therebetween.
In the embodiments shown, the communications network is generally provided by
way of the internet and the invention has been discussed predominantly in terms of
the internet and banner advertisements on web pages. It will be understood however
that this is not the only communications network available and when web pages are
referred to and the communication network is referred to, this is in no way intended to
limit the embodiments to web based networks and pages but also covers
telecommunications networks and banners such as banner advertisements shown on
WAP pages and the like.
Throughout the specification, reference has been made to banners and in particular
to advertisement banners displayed on web pages. It will be understood that these
could comprise simple banners for ordinary PC usage, or rich media banners and
advertisements meant to be viewed as streaming media, File Download or IPod
downloads on either PC, mobile phones or mobile computing devices, all of which will
be initially accessed or downloaded from a website.
In order to monitor streaming media, such as that streaming media available on a
html web page with a Media Player (RTM) module embedded therein, the user
accessing the stream through the Media Player module in the page, there is provided
a tag comprising a piece of JavaScript code in the web page containing the Media
Player module. The JavaScript code is used to monitor the activity of the media
player module. When an event relating to the player module happens, i.e. a stream is
requested and it starts, a stream is paused etc, the Javascript code catches the
event and all of the details associated with the event and through the ordinary tag at
the end of the web page, which is used to measure the web page generally, the
captured data is sent to the server. This is a very simple and efficient way of
monitoring the streaming media.
It is envisaged that in certain circumstances, the advertising content tags cannot be
individually highlighted as with the live stream. In this case, in order to monitor the
advertisements, the above described method is performed with the additional step of
having the broadcasting company that creates the stream include separate data in
the stream which essentially comprises the play list for the advertisements of that
program which is to be streamed. This play list information is then captured and
associated with the stream before being transmitted to the server. Preferably, the
advertisement play list information is included with the start event of the stream.
It will be further understood that the phrase “advertisement server” has been used
throughout this specification to mean a server that transmits web pages that contain
banner advertisements on request to a user. Another term that is sometimes used for
this type of server is a web server which typically serves web pages and other media
and inserts banners into pages and in some instances calls for an advertisement to
be put into a web page by a separate, dedicated advertisement server that deals
solely with the provision of advertisements and inserting those advertisements into
web pages when requested to do so. The term advertisement server as used
throughout the specification is intended to cover both a web server within the
recognised meaning of the word as well as an advertisement server within the
normally recognised meaning of the word. The advertisement server as described
throughout the specification may have the function of primarily inserting the banners
into web pages or may have the function of sending the entire web pages and at least
some or all of the advertisements in the web page to a user computing device.
In many cases, strictly speaking, the operation of building a web page may involve a
number of advertisement servers or a combination of what are sometimes referred to
as web servers and advertisement servers working together to build the web page.
The initial server to whom the web page access request is sent, which may be an
advertisement server or a web server within a more strict definition of the term, may
transmit a web page containing one or more advertisement banners contained
therein to the user computing device. However, this web page may also contain
routine calls to other advertisement servers that are called to insert particular
advertisements into the web page also. These advertisements may not have been
available on the original web server that received the request. Although these banner
advertisements may come from other physically separate advertisement servers or
web servers, it is intended that when there is a step of an advertisement server
transmitting a web page with a number of banners to a user computing device and a
number of advertisement servers are involved or a combination of web servers and
advertisement servers are involved, the specification is intended to cover the scenario
where multiple servers are used to build the web page, all of which act on the
instructions issued by the advertisement server to whom the request was made and
therefore, when a step is said to be carried out by an advertisement server, it will be
understood that this step may in fact be carried out by a number of advertisement
servers and/or web servers which together constitute the advertisement server
carrying out the step.
In addition to the above, throughout the specification, reference is made to both a
device identifier and a cookie. The majority of the description focuses on the use of a
cookie but it will be understood that any suitable device identifier that is available may
be used. Typically, when dealing with computers, the device identifier will be the
cookie data due to the unavailability of the computer registration data but when
dealing with a mobile telephone, instead of using a cookie a phone unique device
identifier is preferably used that allows for accurate identification of a device.
Furthermore, many of the components of the invention and in particular the
advertisement server and the collection server and the method steps that they
perform may be implemented in software. Therefore, the invention also extends to
computer programs, particutarly to computer programs on or in a carrier, adapted for
putting the invention into practice. The program may be in a form of source code,
object code, or a form intermediate source code and object code. The program may
be stored on or in a carrier such as any known computer readable medium such as a
floppy disc, ROM, CD ROM or DVD or other recordable medium. The carrier may be
a transmissible carrier such as an electrical or optical signal, which may be conveyed
via electrical or optical cable or by radio or other means. When the program is
embodied on a signal, which may be conveyed directly by cable or other device, the
carrier may be constituted by such a cable or other device means. It is further
envisaged that the computer program may be stored in an integrated circuit.
In the specification the terms “comprise”, “comprises", “comprised" and “comprising“
and the terms “include”, “includes”, “included” and “including” are deemed totally
interchangeable and should be afforded the widest possible interpretation.
The invention is in no way limited to the embodiments hereinbefore described but
may be varied in both construction and detail within the scope of the claims.
Claims (1)
1. A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a collection server (7), a remote advertisement server (5) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices being connected by way of a communication network (9), the remote advertisement server having a plurality of web pages stored thereon, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices having web browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the user computing device, the method comprising the steps of: one of the remote user computing devices sending a web page access request to the remote advertisement server; the remote advertisement server transmitting the requested web page to the remote user computing device, the requested web page containing a plurality of banners therein, at least some of the banners having a banner tag associated therewith containing banner data including one or more of the banner name, banner location, banner i.d., banner campaign, banner type and media creator; on downloading of the web page, the remote user computing device collating; the banner data of each of the plurality of banner tags contained in the requested web page into a single server request message; the remote user computing device transmitting the single server request message containing banner data relating to each of the plurality of banner tags to the collection server; and the collection server receiving the server request message and thereafter storing and analysing the banner tag data contained therein, A method of monitoring online banner activity as claimed in claim 1 in which the method further comprises the step of the remote user computing device (3) transmitting device identifier data to the collection server (7) and the step of analysing the banner tag data further comprises the steps of: the collection server (7) comparing the banner tag data and device identifier data with other banner tag data and or device identifier data stored in memory (8); and determining whether or not the remote user computing device (3) is a unique visitor to a particular banner. A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising a collection server (7), a remote advertisement server (5) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the collection server, the remote advertisement server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network (9), the remote advertisement server (5) having a plurality of web pages stored thereon containing banner advertisements, at least some of the banner advertisements on each web page having banner tag data relating to the banner advertisement contained in the code of the web page, each of the remote user computing devices (3) having browser software stored thereon to allow the user computing devices download and view web pages on the remote user computing device. the method comprising the steps of: the collection server (7) receiving a server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein from a remote user computing device; the collection server (7) parsing the server request message containing banner tag data relating to a plurality of banners therein and thereafter analysing the banner tag data; and _ _ storing the banner tag data in memory (8). A method of monitoring online banner activity in a system (1) comprising an advertisement server (5), a remote collection server (7) and a plurality of remote user computing devices (3), the advertisement server, the remote collection server and the plurality of remote user computing devices all being connected by way of a communications network, each of the plurality of remote user computing devices (3) having browser software loaded thereon to allow downloading and viewing of web pages on the remote user computing device, the remote collection server (7) further comprising a processor for analysing server request messages relating to web page accesses sent by individual user computing devices on executing a web page, the method comprising the steps of: the advertising server (5) obtaining the code for a particular web page containing a plurality of banners; the advertisement server (5) inserting a banner tag containing one or more of the banner name, the banner type, the banner i.d., the banner location, the campaign name and the media creator in the code of the web page for a plurality of the banners in the web page; the advertisement server (5) storing the web page code complete with banner tags in memory for subsequent access by remote user computing devices; and on receiving a web page access request from one of the remote user computing devices (3), transmitting the web page code complete with banner tag data to the remote user computing device. A method of monitoring online banner activity substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. 884356
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
IES84356Y1 true IES84356Y1 (en) | 2006-10-04 |
IE20060178U1 IE20060178U1 (en) | 2006-10-04 |
Family
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