KR20100031588A - Flexible revenue sharing and referral bounty system - Google Patents

Abstract

An advertising system manager, a partner and one or more participating publishers may collectively agree on a revenue sharing arrangement, based on revenue generated from ad conversions, for revenue sharing between publishers and partners such as content providers distributing embedded content links to publishers through the advertising system manager. The advertising system manager may define various components of the revenue sharing arrangement including details of the revenue sharing arrangement and the criteria for offering the revenue sharing arrangement. The partner may separately negotiate with the publisher with respect to the terms of the revenue sharing arrangement. The terms may include a predetermined revenue sharing rate for the partner and the publisher based on the gross revenue received by the advertising system manager.

Description

Flexible revenue sharing and referral bounty system}

The subject matter of the present invention generally relates to online advertising.

As the number of people using the Internet and the World Wide Web continues to grow, advertisers are beginning to understand and use online media as a potentially powerful means of advertising their products and services. It was. One existing way for advertisers to advertise products and services on the Web is to provide advertisements ("ads") with content provided by publishers (e.g., CNN.com, ESPN.com). will be. For example, advertisers may pay publishers when users click on ads placed on a website and / or purchase products and services from advertisers as a result of such clicks. Such payment may be based on a pay-per-click model, or some other metric, or a model agreed between advertisers and publishers. The complexity associated with managing these business contracts has led to the emergence of online advertising services such as AdWords ™ and AdSense ™ programs offered by Google Inc. (Mountain View, California, USA).

Recently, a large number of websites have appeared on the web that specialize in publishing user generated content (UGC), such as MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Orkut, Friendster, weblogs ("blogs"), etc. . These websites have become attractive targets for advertisers as their popularity grows within a given population. In addition, distribution of media content from content providers has been a target for advertisers.

The advertising system manager may establish a revenue sharing plan with network partners and / or content partners, as an incentive to promote the participation of publishers in one or more advertising campaigns or otherwise the participation of existing publishers. Network partners may provide one or more hyperlinks, signs, videos, audios, games or other banners on hosted webpages to guide or encourage existing and potential publishers to participate in one or more advertising campaigns. Can be. Content partners may provide media content created by professionals or users for use by network partners, publishers, and users. The advertising system administrator may define various components of the revenue sharing plan, including details of the revenue sharing plan and criteria for providing the revenue sharing plan to network partners and / or content partners. Advertisers can provide financial incentives to owners / operators of websites (hereinafter referred to as "partners") to encourage partners to improve websites and increase subscribers to those websites. In addition, advertisers and partners may provide financial incentives to users of websites (hereinafter referred to as "publishers") to provide and improve UGC.

Ad system administrators, participating publishers, network partners, and / or content partners may aggregate the revenue sharing policy based on revenue generated from users viewing ads associated with one or more advertising campaigns (eg, based on conversion rates). Can agree as In some implementations, the partner can negotiate directly with the publisher about the terms of the revenue sharing policy, or revenue sharing can be automated based on a system set up by the advertising system administrator. These conditions may include predetermined revenue share rates for partners and publishers, based on the total revenue received by the advertising system manager.

In some implementations, a method of sharing revenue in an online advertising system includes: receiving input from a partner specifying a revenue sharing agreement between a provider, one or more publishers, and an advertising system manager; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with a provider; And executing automated revenue sharing between the provider and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement.

In another implementation, a method of sharing revenue in an online advertising system includes: input system specifying an input sharing agreement between the advertising system manager, one or more publishers that publish content on a website, and a partner Receiving from an administrator; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager; And executing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager, the partner, and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement.

In another embodiment, a method of providing introductory contributions in an online advertising system includes: determining a current revenue share and an income threshold; Distributing revenue to be shared between the publisher and the provider that publishes on the website hosted by the website host based on the current revenue sharing rate; And determining a contribution based on the distributed income and the income threshold.

The details of one or more embodiments in accordance with the invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an online advertising system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a process of introducing advertisements in the online advertising system of FIG.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process of sharing revenue between a partner and a publisher in the online advertising system shown in FIG.

4 is a flow chart illustrating a process for determining contributions to partners in the online advertising system of FIG.

5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example system for implementing the features described with reference to FIGS.

Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

Advertising System Overview

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an online advertising system, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a process of referencing ads in the online advertising system of FIG.

In general, system 100 facilitates the distribution and processing of advertisements. As shown, the system 100 includes one or more advertisers 102, an advertising system manager 104, one or more publishers 106, users 108, and partners 112. Each of these entities may be coupled to network 110. Network 110 facilitates wireless or landline communication between each entity. The network 110 may be all or part of an enterprise or secure network. Although shown as a single network, network 110 is such that at least a portion of network 110 facilitates communication of advertisements 118 between advertisement system manager 104, partners 112, and publishers 106. It may be one continuous network logically divided into several sub-networks or virtual networks without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure.

In some implementations, network 110 encompasses any internal or external network, networks, sub-networks, or a combination thereof that can operate to facilitate communication between the various computing components of system 100. do. Network 110 may communicate between network addresses, eg, Internet Protocol (IP) packets, frame relay frames, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cells, voice, video, data, and other appropriate information. Can be. The network 110 may be one or more of a local area network (LAN), a radio access network (RAN), an urban area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wide area computer network known as the Internet, and / Or other communication system or systems at one or more locations.

Advertiser

The advertiser 102 may establish an advertising program with the advertising system manager 104. The advertising program may include, for example, information related to accounts, billing, campaigns, creatives, ad formats, targeting, and the like. For example, an advertiser's account may be associated with information about that advertiser, such as a unique email address, password, billing information, textual information, and the like. A "campaign" or "ad campaign" refers to one or more groups of one or more advertisements, including start date, end date, budget information, geographic targeting information, and syndication information associated with the ads. can do. For example, a fashion design manufacturer may have an advertising campaign for his clothing line and a separate advertising campaign for his perfume line. A campaign for a clothing line can have one or more ad groups (eg, groups for different clothing types such as men and women, boys and girls, children and toddlers), and each ad group contains one or more ads. do. The advertiser 102 may be a partner 112 and / or a publisher 106.

Each ad group may include individual price information (eg, cost, average cost, or maximum cost (per impression, per selection, per conversion, etc.)). For example, the advertiser 102 may designate a maximum monetary value as the advertising system manager 104 regarding the amount the advertiser 102 is willing to pay for an impression per user click or per ad or ad group. .

Each ad group may include targeting criteria or restrictions. Targeting criteria (or restrictions) can be used to identify a target audience for a particular advertising campaign of the advertiser 102. Examples of targeting criteria include dates, regions, languages, behavioral segments, population groups, frequency caps, domains, keywords, ad slot attributes, system information, or users 108 and / or There are other suitable features of the publishers 106.

Advertiser 102 may enter, submit, maintain, and track advertisement 118 directly or indirectly through advertisement system manager 104. Advertisement 118 can be presented on webpage 116 with content 114 authored by publisher 106. Webpage 116 may be presented in browser window 117.

The advertisement 118 may be a graphical advertisement, such as a banner advertisement, a text-only advertisement, an image advertisement, an audio advertisement, a video advertisement, an advertisement combining one or more of these components, executable code or other media, content, or interactive type. It may be in the form of an advertisement. The advertisement 118 can also include embedded information such as links, meta-information, and / or machine executable instructions. Advertisement 118 may have various authentic features. Such features can often be specified by the application and / or advertiser 102 depending on the type of advertisement. For example, in the case of text advertising, the advertising features may include a title line, advertising text, and an embedded link. For image advertising, the advertising features may include images, text embedded links, and the like.

Advertisement 118 may be serviced based on certain service conditions or constraints. For example, the advertiser 102 may target the service of the advertisement 118 by specifying that the advertisement 118 will be served to users at certain geographic locations, such as during the week, not lower than a particular location on the webpage. . As another example, the advertiser 102 may specify that the advertisement 118 is served if the content 119 to be served with the advertisement 118 contains certain keywords or phrases. As yet another embodiment, advertiser 102 may specify that advertisement 118 be served if content 119 includes specific topics or concepts, or belongs to a specific cluster or clusters, or some other classification or classifications. can do. As yet another embodiment, a particular group of publishers 106 present at a particular geographic location may serve the advertisement 118.

In some implementations, when user 108 clicks on advertisement 118, user 108 is directed to a landing page 120 provided by advertiser 102. Next, the user 108 performs a conversion event (eg, making a purchase, registering a member, etc.) on the website. This conversion event generates conversion data, which is sent to the advertising system manager 104 and stored in the conversion data store 124 (eg, a MySQL® database). In this manner, conversion histories can be accumulated and maintained for each of the ads or groups of ads in the advertiser's advertising campaign. Systems and methods for tracking transformed data are filed, for example, on September 4, 2003, and US Concurrent Application No. 10 / 653,899 entitled “Systems and Methods for Determining User Behavior”. You can find it at The disclosure content of this US application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In another embodiment, user impressions of an advertisement may be tracked for cost-per-mille (CPM) revenue, or user "clicks" for an advertisement may be cost-per-click. ; CPC) can be tracked with an income model.

Advertising System Manager

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can provide an online environment with an interface that facilitates interaction between advertisers 102, partners 112, and publishers 106. The advertising system manager 104 may be an advertising service program run by an advertising network service provider, which collaborates with advertisers 102 to conduct one or more advertising campaigns. In some implementations, publishers 106 can participate in one or more advertising campaigns. In these implementations, the advertising system manager 104 may establish an incentive program with publishers interested in participating in one or more advertising campaigns. The incentive program may include, for example, rewarding publishers 106 by exchanging targeted advertisements for serving at network sites (eg, webpages) of publishers 106. In order to increase the number of participating publishers 106, the advertising system manager 104 also provides incentives (eg, revenue sharing) to the partners 112 who introduce the publishers 106 to the advertising campaigns. can do.

Targeted advertisements may be executed by the advertising system manager 104 and may include cost per click, cost per thousand impressions, cost-per-action or advertiser 102 and / or advertising system manager 104. It is possible to generate income on other criteria defined by. Based on the total cost generated from the advertisers 102, the advertising system manager 104 may determine compensation rules and how the total revenue should be distributed among the advertising campaign participants. This will be described in detail below.

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 utilizes a search technology to serve ads based on websites published by the publishers 106. For example, the advertising system manager 104 searches for keywords or phrases on a website to determine the content type of that website and present one or more advertisements related to that content on the website.

In another embodiment, advertising system manager 104 may receive and / or process advertising requests from publishers 106. Ad system manager 104 may select the appropriate advertisement based on the type of advertisement requested by publisher 106, such as, for example, banner or video advertisements. In addition, the advertisement system manager 104 may replace the advertisement currently being displayed with another advertisement according to a schedule or randomly.

In general, the advertising system manager 104 can help identify the context (or receive context from each publisher 106) of each publisher website, and also provide other data to be presented on that website. Together with applications, programs, modules, processes, or other software and hardware that communicate related advertisements. Ad system manager 104 may deliver relevant text and image advertisements previously targeted to the publisher's websites, and content presented on these sites.

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 monitors a number of users 108 who have clicked on the advertisement (s) and / or each user's subsequent actions (eg, purchasing items, browsing the catalog). To further refine the relevance (and placement) and context of each advertisement with the targeting of the advertisement. Ad system manager 104 may provide a management interface (not shown) to publishers 106 (or partners 112) to help manage and keep track of ad revenue. Publishers 106 access the associated accounts through the management interface to retrieve data such as current compensation agreements, revenues earned, site performance and other data analysis with advertising system manager 104. And such data is not limited to the above.

Ad system manager 104 may be connected to the ad / content store 128. The advertising system manager 104 receives an advertisement request from the publisher 106 and, in response to the request, displays the advertisement / content (118 along with the content 119) to be presented in the browser window 117. Function to transmit and display from storage 128. Ad system manager 104 may include an ad server (not shown) that operates to receive, transmit, process, and store data associated with the ads. Ad servers can be implemented using computers, not servers, as well as server pools. For example, an ad server may be any computer, electronic or processing, such as, for example, a blade server, general purpose personal computer (PC), Macintosh®, workstation, Unix-based computer, or other suitable device. It may be a device. That is, the ad server may include non-universal computers as well as computers without a conventional operating system. The ad server can be made to run any operating system, including Linux, Unix, Windows® servers, or other suitable operating system.

In general, an ad server includes a memory (eg, a cache) and a processor (not shown). The memory may be local memory, having any memory or database module, and comprising magnetic media, optical media, RAM, ROM, removable media, or other suitable local or remote memory component. It may have a form of a volatile or nonvolatile memory including without limitation. The memory may function to store advertisement images and other advertisements and video files. The memory may include VPN applications or services, firewall policies, security or access logs, print or other report files, HTML files or templates, data classes or object interfaces, child software application or sub- It may also include any suitable data, such as systems.

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can also include a web crawler that operates to crawl the webpage 116. The web crawler may crawl the content repository 114 and add the content to the index 128. Examples of web crawlers include open source crawlers written in Java®, such as Heritrix ™ WebSPHINX ™, JSpider ™, WebEater ™, Java Web Crawler ™, WebLech ™, Arachnid ™. The webpage 116 may be crawled based on a reservation or in response to a trigger event, and the indexed content may be sorted and stored (eg, in an index repository).

In some implementations, partners 112 and publishers 106 registered with advertising system manager 104 obtain information regarding their respective revenue sharing (described in detail below) using interactive webpages. In order to access a secure website. Access to the website of the advertising system administrator may be secure. That is, the advertising system manager 104 may, for example, secure access using encryption, personal identification numbers (PINs), access codes, passwords, digital signature authentication, security keys, and / or other similar security means. Can be provided. Access sharers or merchants may be restricted or not allowed at all to access portions of accounts of other entities.

Partner

Partner 112 may be an online service provider that hosts one or more websites or other network-accessible sites that host content 119. For example, an online service that provides a publisher 106 with a personal space for sharing personal and professional content with interested users / viewers may provide a webpage 116. For example, a weblog site can provide each blogger with a personal space for authoring and publishing blogs.

Partner 112 may be a network partner, such as a social network or a business network. Such networks include, but are not limited to, Orkut®, Myspace®, Friendster®, YouTube® and Facebook®, game sites, game networks, content sharing sites such as music and video sharing sites. Job hunting websites (eg monster.com), homecoming websites, professional organizations, internet dating sites, evaluation sites (eg epinions.com), closed or private Other types of online networks, communities or personal webpages, such as networks, and company internal sites (eg, intranets) may also be used. In some cases, partners 112 may require publishers 106 to establish a publisher account with partners 112 in order to use one or more websites owned by partners 112.

Partner 112 may also be a content partner such as, for example, a source of video, music / audio, games, applications, and the like. These content partners are specialized media content pros, such as media broadcast networks, sports networks or organizations, music labels, movie studios, television production studios, for example how-to or technology media providers. May be user-generated content shared through or directly from a user via network providers such as providers, YouTube®, Facebook®. In one embodiment, the content provider may provide advertisements for specific advertisers 102 served from the advertising system manager 104 to media content to be embedded in the webpage 116 of the publisher 106.

As described above, advertising system manager 104 may provide incentives to partners 112 to introduce one or more publishers to one or more advertising campaigns. Such incentives may be in the form of income sharing and bounty bonuses, which are described in detail below.

In some implementations, partner 112 can provide a user interface (not shown) for publisher 106 to manage webpage 116. The user interface may include an operating space, which may contain various links and / or other user interface elements, which the publisher 106 may use to operate and manage the webpage 116. For example, publisher 106 may create or edit association profiles, change account settings, add / edit photos, add / edit videos, manage calendars, manage blogs, and manage contacts. Etc. can be. The user interface provides a "announcement" space for announcements, a "bulletin" space for notifications, a "new message" space for displaying new email or instance messages, and members of the publisher's personal and professional network. It may also include one or more areas for displaying information and content, such as a "friends" space that lists, "New People" spaces that introduce new people recently added to a publisher's personal and professional network. have. Partner 112 may also provide a user interface (not shown), and associated publishers 106 may use it to manage advertising settings and view advertising and revenue performance reports.

If partner 112 is a content provider, partner 112 may provide publisher 106 with a user interface (not shown) for embedding content from partner 112 on publisher 106's website. Can be. Similarly, the advertising system manager 104 provides the publisher 106 with a user interface (not shown) for embedding content from the partner 112, or provides content for making it available through the advertising system manager. The partner 112 may be provided with a user interface (not shown) for submission to the publishers 106.

In some implementations, the partner 112 can request one or more advertisements from the advertising system manager 104. In response to this request, one or more advertisements (eg, image advertisements) are sent to partner 112. One or more advertisements may be presented on webpage 116 along with content 119. In some implementations, the webpage 116 can have a page content identifier (ID), which the advertising system manager 104 uses to determine an advertising context for targeting the ads that the user 108 is likely to accept. Can be. In these embodiments, the advertising context may be determined using, for example, clustering techniques and geographic location data, such as the technique described in US patent application Ser. No. 11 / 539,109, co-pending with the present application. The disclosures of this US application are incorporated by reference in their entirety. In another embodiment, the publisher 106 requests one or more advertisements from the advertising system manager 104, as described in detail below.

Publisher

Generally, the publisher 106 is a content provider that provides the user 108 with content 119 stored in the content repository 114. Publisher 106 may be user 108 and vice versa. Publisher 106 may add text, audio, video, and other formats of content to webpage 116. In some implementations, the publisher 106 can participate in an advertising campaign or campaigns by serving an advertisement with the content 119. In one implementation, the publisher 106 and the advertiser 102 may be provided with code snippets, which code snippets may request advertisements from the advertising system manager 104 and report conversion actions. It may be included in the web page 116 and the landing page 120. In another embodiment, code snippets may be provided from the advertising system manager 104 to the partner 112. In response, partner 112 may insert code snippets into webpage 116 to simplify the display process of advertisements for publishers 106. In some embodiments, code snippets inserted into webpage 116 are displayed with advertisements for publishers 106, along with embedded content 113 that provider 112 provides and is to be embedded in webpage 116. Specifies the embedded services of the

The publisher 106 can also permit the advertising system manager 104 to select one or more advertisements from the advertisement / content store 126 and to present the one or more advertisements to the webpage 116. In some embodiments, the publisher 106 selects one or more types of embedded content 113 from the partners 112 and displays the embedded content 113 along with one or more advertisements. It is also permitted to present on 116, or the publisher 106 can directly select the embedded content 113 or a partner 112 from which the embedded content 113 will be obtained. Ads to be displayed may be selected by a set of criteria set by the publisher 106 or partner 112, or limited to ads that meet the criteria set by the publisher 106 and partner 112 together. have. The content 119 shown on the webpage 116 can obtain a particular degree of readership, so that the publisher 106 is part of the ad targeting processor. In some implementations, each publisher 106 participating in an advertising campaign has advertiser 102, advertising system manager 104, and / or partner 112 meeting certain predetermined criteria (eg, population, popularity, etc.). Needs to be. Similarly, partner 112 may require publisher 106 to meet certain requirements in order to display embedded content 113.

As described above, the partner 112 uses a publisher account (eg, a login account) to use the publisher 106 with the embedded content 113 created by the partner 112 on the publisher 106's website. The partner 112 may be required to be established. In order to obtain a publisher account, an unregistered publisher can register with a partner to obtain a membership. Once registered, the unregistered publisher becomes a registered publisher that can access the associated publisher account and can log in to that publisher account to access the embedded content 113.

Webpage 116 may display both standard content 119 and one or more advertisements with embedded content 113 from one or more providers 112. Ad 118 may be presented at a particular location within webpage 116, which may be referred to as an ad slot. The height and width of the ad slot may be defined by the publisher 106 or the advertiser 102 in specific dimensions. The advertisement 118 inserted in the ad slot may change each time the webpage 116 is served to the user 108, or alternatively may be statically associated with the webpage 116. Ad slots can be created through snippets of code, such as JavaScript, and in one embodiment, the snippet locates both the advertisement 118 and the embedded content 113 from one or more partners 112. Can provide.

In some implementations, the content 119 of the webpage 116 can be a file, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links to other files, and the like. These files can be of any type such as text, audio, image, video or other suitable media format. Even if the content stored in the content store 114 is offline, their related information is available online. Such online content may also include attributes, topics, concepts, categories, keywords, related information, types of ads supported, and the like. For example, the publisher 106 may publish online content containing information about an outdoor jazz festival, including the venue of the concert, the time of the concert, the artists scheduled to appear at the festival, and the like. Similarly, embedded content 113 may be a file, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links to other files, and the like. These files can be of any type such as text, audio, image, video or other suitable media format. Even if the content stored in the content store 114 is offline, their related information is available online. Such online content may also include attributes, topics, concepts, categories, keywords, related information, types of advertisements supported, and the like. For example, the publisher 106 may publish online content containing information about an outdoor jazz festival, including the venue of the concert, the time of the concert, the artists scheduled to appear at the festival, and the like.

In another implementation, content stored in content store 114 may include content (words, pictures, etc.), and metadata or some indication of the meaning of the content (eg, email fields and associated data, And structured data containing HTML tags and associated data). For example, webpage 116 may include content and embed information (eg, meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and / or embed instructions (eg, JavaScript, etc.).

Publisher 106 may be an existing computing terminal, such as a personal computer, portable computer, workstation, computer terminal, network computer, display device (eg, television), mainframe, portable device, or other data processing system or user device. Web pages 116 may be created or modified through computing terminals. The publisher 106 can receive the webpage 116 via the browser window 117 and by logging on to the associated publisher account. The webpage 116 may be presented in the form of a personal webpage and may include additionally hosted webpages that collectively describe the characteristics, attributes, and interests associated with the publisher 106.

In some implementations, webpage content 119 and / or embedded content 113 can include articles, discussion threads, music, video, games, graphics, broadcast media, search results, webpage listings, Information feeds and the like can be included without limitation. Publisher 106 may submit a request to advertisement system manager 104 for ads targeting content 119 on webpage 116. In some implementations, the publisher 106 can submit a request for embedded content 113 to which advertisements are targeted and served together. The advertisement request may include the number of advertisements desired or the type of advertisements to be served. The advertisement request may also include content request information. This information may include the content itself (eg, a page or other content document), a category corresponding to that content or content request (eg, art, business, computer, art-film, art-music, etc.), content request Portion or all of the content age, content age (eg, text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.), geographic-location information, and the like.

In response to the publisher's request for advertisement, the advertising system manager 104 sends one or more advertisements to the publisher 106 for presentation on the webpage 116 that the user 108 can view (eg, in a browser or Other content display systems), in some embodiments, advertisements may be sent with embedded content 113. In some examples, where a video database of shared video content is provided that can be accessed by a client using a web browser, the video hosting website further includes publishing tools, and the content provider uses these tools to When customizing according to parameters (e.g., player type, appearance, advertising options, etc.) and storing the player's parameters in the player database, the publisher 106 can determine when the requested advertisement (or advertisements) Send additional information to the advertising system manager 104 or advertisers 102 including information describing how and / or where it will be presented (eg, in HTML, AJAX, ActiveX ™ or JavaScript ™). Can be. The publisher may further associate the player with the selection of a playlist or advertisement preference of videos from the video database. The player may be associated with a publisher and further associated with the selection of a playlist or advertisement preference of multimedia content such as audio and video from a video database.

In addition, a user interface may be provided to create players designed to view video playlists embedded on a website. One embodiment is a player that can be embedded in a webpage, such as a publisher's webpage, using embed code that includes a player identifier associated with a particular player. Once the embedded code is executed, the identified video player is displayed on the webpage according to the custom parameters and the playlists associated with that player. The player can include a viewing window and various controls and options, and a user viewing the web page can navigate through the playlist and play videos through them. Once the video is selected from the playlist for playback, the player can connect to the video hosting site and retrieve the video from the video database of that host site.

In one embodiment, advertisements may be displayed with video content from a playlist, for example, in accordance with an advertisement preference associated with a client, player, content, website providing content for the player. In another implementation, revenue generated from advertisements may be shared between one or more video hosting sites, ad management sites, publishers of custom players, and original providers of video content.

As described above, when the user 108 clicks on the advertisement 118 displayed on the webpage 116, the user 108 is directed to the landing page 120 provided by the advertiser 102. In such implementations, if the user 108 makes a predefined conversion action, the publisher 106 can be compensated for that conversion. In general, a conversion is a defined action in response to an ad's call to action. The conversion action may be a sale or may be a registration, download, input into an advertiser's lead database, etc., for the purpose of the advertiser's advertising campaign. Alternatively, the publisher may be rewarded when the user clicks on the ad in a cost-per-click (CPC) model, or when the user is exposed to the ad in the CPM model.

The user 108 and the advertiser 102 as well as the one or more publishers 106 may provide usage information such as whether click-through or conversion associated with the advertisement occurred, for example, the advertisement system manager 104. To provide. This usage information may include the behavior of the measured or observed user relative to the served advertisements. The advertising system manager 104 performs financial transactions such as paying participating publishers or charging sponsoring advertisers based on the usage information.

In some implementations, the publisher 106 receives one or more code snippets, each of which is associated with a selected advertisement. Each code snippet may include a signed or encoded specification of the advertisement (s) as determined by the publisher 106. For example, for an advertisement regarding an MP3 music player, the publisher 106 may receive a code snippet associated with the selected advertisement, such as a banner advertisement for the MP3 player, from the advertising system manager 104. In some implementations, the code snippet includes details corresponding to the selected advertisement (s) associated with a set of conversion actions (eg, purchase of an MP3 player, subscription to a mailing list), and the conversion action May be derived from the interaction of the user 108 with the advertisement (eg, click-through). In other implementations, if the advertising system manager 104 knows ads that are suitable for a particular set of conversion behaviors, the details can be omitted from the code snippet. When a conversion occurs, the advertising system manager 104 can determine by the conversion behavior how much the publisher 106 should be paid by showing the advertisement 118 on the webpage 116. In some implementations, the amount to be paid is determined based on the exposure, click-through, or playback of the associated embedded content 113.

In some implementations, one or more code snippets can be added to the webpage code. For example, the publisher 106 may add a banner ad code snippet to the webpage code. In some embodiments, the code snippet is a web script, such as JavaScript®. Execution of the code snippet results in contact with the advertisement system manager 104 and display of the advertisement 118, and in some implementations also embed display of the embedded content 113. When the user 108 clicks on the displayed advertisement 118, he / she contacts the advertising system manager 104 again, and the user 108 is directed to the landing page 120. During this event, user 108 may receive a signed browser cookie from advertising system manager 104. In some implementations, changing the content of a signed browser cookie invalidates the conversion behavior associated with that cookie. The cookie may include information such as the identifier of the MP3 player banner advertisement, the identifier of the publisher 106, and the date / time the user 108 selected the banner advertisement. The cookie may be used with information associated with the conversion actions performed by the user 108 on the advertiser 102 side to pay the publisher 106 and charge the advertiser 102.

As one example, during operation, user 108 may select a particular advertisement displayed on publisher webpage 116. The publisher code snippet directs the user 108 to the advertising system manager 104, and the signed browser cookie is retrieved from the advertising system manager 104. In some implementations, the selection of the advertisement is considered to be an amount payment to the publisher 106 and / or the partner 112. Next, the user 108 is directed to the landing page 120 provided by the advertiser 102. In some implementations, the user 108 performs a conversion action on the advertiser 102 side, such as purchasing, registering, joining a mailing list, or the like, of a product or service. Advertiser code snippets can be included in conversion confirmation page scripts, such as scripts in web pages presented after purchase. The advertiser code snippet contacts the advertising system manager 104 and reports the conversion type identifier from the advertiser code snippet, as well as information from the cookie, such as the publisher identifier, the advertisement identifier and the date / time of the ad impression and click. . Conversion data (eg, the number and type of conversions) may be stored in the conversion data store 124, and the advertising system manager 104 may use the conversion data to improve ad targeting performance.

Conversion and Click-through Overview

In general, when a user or observer clicks on an advertisement (eg, advertisement 118), an embedded hypertext link associated with the advertisement directs the observer to the advertiser's landing page. This process by which an observer selects an advertisement is commonly referred to as "click-through" ("click-through" is intended to encompass any user selection). The ratio of the number of click-throughs to the number of ad impressions (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as the "click-through rate", or the CTR of the ad. A "conversion" occurs when a user completes a transaction related to a previously served advertisement. What constitutes a conversion may vary from case to case and may be determined in a variety of ways. For example, if a user who clicks on an advertisement is introduced to the advertiser's web page and completes a purchase before leaving the page, a conversion may occur. Many other definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible. The ratio of the number of conversions and the number of ad impressions (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) is commonly referred to as a conversion rate.

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 receives a revenue earning report from the advertiser 102 for a particular product or service, and based on the earnings earning report, for example, click-through. Rates (CTR), revenue per thousand ads (RPM), conversions per dollars spent (CPD), or other based at least in part on observer actions associated with each participating publisher Appropriate metrics may be further determined. The metrics are not limited to the metrics listed here.

Revenue Sharing Process

The advertiser 102 has an advertising program or campaign created with the advertising system manager 104. The advertising system manager 104 can identify one or more participating publishers and place one or more advertisements on the participating publishers' websites to create an advertising campaign. Advertisers 102 may be charged for placement of ads according to cost per click, cost per thousand impressions, cost per action, or other criteria, and a portion of the fee may be paid to participating publishers.

Generally, the fee received from advertiser 102 is revenue. In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can work with the partner 112 to create additional revenue sharing plans as an incentive to engage additional publishers in one or more advertising campaigns or to promote the involvement of existing publishers. For example, the advertising system manager 104 may distribute 50% of the total income to the partner 112 and retain the remaining 50% of the total income. In another implementation, the revenue sharing plan may also include the publisher 106, as described in detail below.

Partner 112 provides one or more embeddable content 113, hyperlinks, signs or banners on webpage 116 to inform or encourage existing and potential publishers to participate in one or more advertising campaigns. Or via the web presence of the partner 112 directly. In embodiments where hyperlinks are provided, the hyperlinks may direct potential publishers to a web page provided by the advertising system manager 104. The webpage may provide guidance, rules, policies and instructions on how the user participates in the advertising campaign. The webpage may provide a user interface through which the user becomes a publisher and may also create a publisher account for participating in advertising campaigns, particularly revenue sharing with advertisers 102 and partners 112.

The partner 112 may, for example, include free or unpublished content 113 for inclusion in the publisher's webpage 116, free web hosting, free email account, publishing tools that are not normally accessible to non-participating publishers, or By promoting and providing discounted premium access to potential publishers, it is possible to increase the network of participating publishers 106. In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can collect individual costs from the advertiser 102 to manage the placement of advertisements and target ads based on publisher content.

The advertising system manager 104 may define various components of the revenue sharing plan, including details of the revenue sharing plan and criteria for providing the partner 112 with the revenue sharing plan. The details of the revenue sharing plan may include, for example, information describing the nature and quantitative measure of the rewards provided, and the criteria may be, for example, publishers 106 who publish a particular type of content. Or publishers 106 in a particular geographic location.

In addition, advertising system manager 104, participating publishers 106, and partners 112 may be based on (eg, based on, impressions, click-throughs, or conversion rates) generated from users 108 viewing ads. ) Can collectively agree on an income sharing policy. In some implementations, the partner 112 can negotiate directly with the publisher 106 regarding the terms and conditions of the revenue sharing policy. The terms of the agreement may include a revenue share rate for the partner 112 and the publisher 106, the revenue share rate being predetermined based on the total revenue received by the advertising system manager 104. For example, if the total revenue received from the advertising system manager 104 is $ 100, and 40% of this is retained to cover operating costs, then the partner will pay 85% of the remaining 60% of the total revenue to the publisher 106. May be encouraged to participate in an advertising campaign. The terms of the agreement may be modified to reflect higher or lower revenue share rates at any time. Using the embodiment given above, the terms of the agreement can be modified by partner 112 so that after 30 days, 95% (as opposed to 85%) of the remaining 60% of the total revenue is allocated to publisher 106.

In some implementations, the partner 112 can determine the quality of the publisher content, the popularity of the associated webpage (eg, based on the number of visits of the user), the grade of membership (eg, the gold that a participating publisher has registered with the partner, Based on silver, bronze), other revenue sharing levels (eg, stratified levels) can be suggested to participating publishers. For example, participating publishers with gold membership can receive 60% revenue share, participating publishers with silver membership can receive 50% revenue sharing, and participating publishers with bronze membership earn 40% revenue sharing. Can be received. As another example, participating publishers with the highest user visits may receive an 80% revenue share, while other participating publishers receive a 50% revenue share.

Of course, the revenue distributed to partners 112 and publishers 106 need not be made as a percentage of total revenue. Rather, the partner 112 receives a flat fee from the advertising system manager 104 for each publisher referral, or the publisher 106 charges a single fee for each advertisement or each click-through presented. From the advertising system manager 104. Partner 112 may also receive a portion of the revenue generated from cost per click, cost per action, or cost per impression conversion as a result of the publisher's participation in an advertising campaign running on webpage 116. In one embodiment, partner 112 revenue sharing may be further partitioned between partner 112 and third party producers or licensors of embedded content 113 provided by partner 112.

In an example where partner 112 is associated with multiple participating publishers 106, partner 112 may receive a percentage of revenue share from each publisher 106 in accordance with their respective terms and conditions. Contract terms can be extended to existing and potential publishers 106. The income sharing policy may be specified on a per partner-publisher pair basis. Alternatively, the same revenue sharing policy can be applied to all associated participating publishers 106. For example, partner 112 has three participating publishers 106 (eg, publisher “A”, publisher “B”, and publisher “C”), and partner 112 has a 15% revenue share rate. Has negotiated with publisher "A", partner 112 also receives the same revenue share from publisher "B" and publisher "C".

In an embodiment where partner 112 receives a revenue share of 15% from publisher "A", but declares a share of revenue different from publisher "B" and publisher "C", ad system manager 104 is responsible for revenue share rate. Intervention may be made to automatically adjust the revenue sharing rate with Publisher "B" and Publisher "C" to be the same between each of the Publishers. In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 tracks potential rate discrepancies based on payable events, including cost per impression, cost per click and cost per action events, and the publisher "B" and the publisher. In order to match the revenue sharing rate specified for " C ", the income paid to partner 112 can be adjusted to intervene. Alternatively, advertisement system manager 104 may notify partner 112 and request that the revenue sharing plan be changed before it becomes effective.

In another example, even if the revenue sharing rate specified between partner 112 and each participating publisher 106 matches, partner 112 uses publisher content 119 as a means to attract potential users, for example. And dynamically switching the advertisements 118 shown on the webpage 116 into advertisements associated with other advertising campaigns that the partner 112 can personally participate in. By reducing the percentage of total revenue that the publisher 106 could receive from, it is possible to tamper with the revenue sharing plan.

As described in detail above, advertisements may be shown on webpage 116 by inserting code snippets into content 119. This code snippet generally includes a publisher identification that determines the identity of the publisher 106, and also allows any publisher 106 to earn and display / click / convert the ads displayed on the webpage 119. Identify if you need to receive credit. Typically, this publisher identification is the identification of the publisher 106 who owns and authors the content 119 on the webpage 116. In a two-way revenue sharing plan, where the advertising system manager 104 and the publisher 106 have agreed to the revenue sharing rate, the advertising system manager 104 may refer to the publisher identification to identify the appropriate publisher (as opposed to other publishers). You can give credit. In a three-way revenue sharing plan involving the advertising system manager 104, the publisher 106, and the partner 112, the partner 112 receives a credit from the advertising system manager 104, and a portion of the credit identifies the publisher ( For example, as determined by the advertising system administrator). However, since partner 112 is placing code snippets on webpage 119 hosted by partner 112, partner 112 may replace the publisher identification with the partner's personal publisher identification. For example, partner 112 may show advertisements with its publisher identification by 20% more time, thereby receiving 20% more revenue than would otherwise be received by publisher 106. This is called ad code rotation, whereby callous partners can create content 119 on behalf of publishers to increase revenue.

Thus, in some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 systematically determines the source of each advertisement for publisher content at a predetermined or arbitrary time, identifies advertisements that are not related to the advertising campaign in which the publisher 106 participated, and Notify the publisher accordingly. In addition, the advertising system manager 104 may determine whether one or more publisher identifications appear in the code snippet at two different time instances for the same web page (eg, web page 116) at a predetermined or arbitrary time. Can be tracked to track potential ad code rotation. If the advertising system manager 104 determines that one or more publisher identifications appear in two different time instances in the code snippet on the web page, the partner associated with that web page may be sanctioned or penalized.

The advertising system manager 104 can implement a pricing policy that takes a portion of the total revenue that the advertising system manager 104 will retain before distributing the total revenue to the partner 112 for distribution to the publisher 106. For example, if the total revenue generated from the advertising campaign is $ 100 and the revenue share rates for the advertising system manager 104, partner 112, and publisher 106 are 40%, 15%, and 85%, respectively, the advertising system. The manager 104 may have $ 40 before distributing the remaining income of $ 60 to the partner 112 to receive 9 $ and the publisher 106 to receive $ 51.

Other orders are also possible. For example, the advertising system manager 104 prior to retaining the revenue share distributed to the advertising system manager 104 may share the total revenue with the partner 112 in accordance with the revenue sharing agreement between the partner 112 and the publisher 106. ) And the publisher 106 first. Subsequently, the advertising system manager 104 may deduct and retain the percentage of revenue from the portion distributed to the partner 112 and the percentage of revenue from the portion distributed to the publisher 106.

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 can deduct different percentages of revenue from the partner 112 and the publisher 106. For example, if the total revenue generated from the advertising campaign is $ 100 and the revenue share rates for partners and publishers are 15% and 85%, respectively, the advertising system manager 104 distributes $ 15 to partners and $ 85 to publishers. Can be distributed. Next, to cover operating costs, the advertising system manager 104 deducts 30% (ie $ 4.50) of the $ 15 distributed to the partner 112 and 40% of the $ 85 distributed to the publisher 106 (i.e., $ 34). This variable ratio allows the advertising system manager 104 to further induce and encourage the continuous participation of partners 112 or publishers 106 that are critical to advertising campaigns and revenue generation. For example, partner 112 may have a large group of associated publishers, each of which participates in an advertising campaign. In this example, the advertising system manager 104 reduces the percentage of revenue collected from the partner 112 (eg, from 30% to 20%), thereby reducing the percentage of revenue collected from each of the publishers 106. While retaining, a large percentage of revenue is delivered directly to the partner 112 as a reward for the partner's performance.

Similarly, advertising system manager 104 maintains a percentage of the revenue collected from partner 112 while reducing the percentage of total revenue collected from participating publishers 106 (eg, 40% for performance performers). To 30%), such that a large percentage of revenue can be delivered directly to the publisher 106 as a reward for increasing the content readership and improving the content of the publisher.

Advertising system manager 104 may track financial, contract, service, and audit issues on behalf of advertiser 102, partner 112, and publisher 106. For example, the advertising system manager 104 bills advertisers 102, receives payments from advertisers 102, determines total revenue, and revenue share rates specified in existing revenue sharing agreements. And is primarily responsible for giving credits to partners 112 and / or publishers 106 accordingly. The partner 112 may be responsible for dividing a portion of the revenue received from the advertising system manager 104 with the publisher 106 in accordance with the terms of the agreement agreed between the partner 112 and the publisher 106.

In other implementations, the publisher 106 and the advertising system manager 104 can agree on an income sharing agreement without the participation of the partner 112. For example, the publisher 106 may negotiate directly with the advertising system manager 104 the share of revenue for participating in the advertising campaign. In this implementation, the publisher 106 becomes a partner 112, to host other publishers 116, or to provide its embedable content 113 to other publishers 106. Contract with (104). In such an embodiment, partner 112 may receive a variable or single cost (or rate) from publisher 106 to manage displaying advertisements and / or embeddable content 113 on webpage 116. Can be.

In one embodiment, the advertising system manager 104 limits the maximum revenue sharing rate to the partners 112 so that the partners 112 all or most of the revenue earned from the content monetizaton of the publisher's network site. Can stop taking. For example, the advertising system manager 104 may define a maximum revenue sharing rate of 75% for each of the partners 112 in order to prevent revenue abuse. In other implementations, other incentives can be applied to enable all of the total revenue to be delivered directly to publishers 106, which can potentially encourage improvement of content to obtain a high percentage of readership.

In some implementations, the partner 112 can modify the terms of an existing revenue sharing agreement. For example, partner 112 may determine to modify the revenue sharing rate with associated publishers 106. Partner 112 may submit a change in revenue share rate to ad system manager 104 for approval. This change may be submitted through a user interface configured to facilitate communication between partners 112 and advertising system manager 104. Alternatively, the change may be submitted in the form of an e-mail or message outside of the user interface.

In response to receiving the revenue share rate change request, the advertising system manager may notify each of the associated publishers 106 about the share rate change request. For example, the advertising system manager 104 may send an electronic messaging (or advertising system manager) to all associated publishers 106 that the share of revenue for the corresponding partner 112 will be adjusted from "15%" to "20%." Account associated with 104). In another implementation, the partner 112 may be required to directly notify all participating publishers 106 associated with that partner 112 of the modified conditions.

In some implementations, the sharing rate change is effective after a predetermined period of time to give participating publishers 106 an opportunity to take on and adapt to the new rate change. For example, the modified terms of an existing revenue sharing agreement become effective 30 days after receiving the request. As another example, the modified terms of an existing revenue sharing agreement become effective 30 days after the date on which the new sharing rate change was delivered to participating publishers 106.

In response to the sharing rate change request, the publisher 106 is given the choice of accepting the newly modified terms or associating with a new partner 112 with a lower revenue sharing rate.

In some implementations, the terms of the revenue sharing agreement can be determined before establishing an association between future publisher 106 and associated partner 112. For example, during the partner-publisher association process, each of the prospective publishers 106 may evaluate the association with the partner 112. This assessment may be based on the revenue share rate that the partner 112 has entered into with other participating publishers 106. Each of the prospective publishers 106 may compare the revenue share rate between the partners 112 before forming an association with the partner 112. In some implementations, if partner 112 submits a share rate change request that has not yet been validated, future publishers 106 may be informed about the new share rate change and the value associated with that change.

If a partner 112 with multiple participating publishers 106 frequently submits a request to change the terms of an existing revenue sharing agreement, the frequent changes may cause confusion between the participating publishers 106. Thus, in some implementations, the number of requests that the partner 112 can submit to the advertising system manager 104 may be limited. For example, the advertising system manager 104 may allow only one request per month. In another implementation, the advertising system manager 104 may place a prohibition period between the request and the request. For example, a 90 day prohibition period may be between the previous request and the current request.

Although the foregoing implementations have been described in terms of the publisher 106 associated with a single partner 112, the publisher 112 may also form an association with multiple partners 112. For example, publisher "A" may participate in a revenue sharing plan with "blogger.com" by creating a blog on "blogger.com" and having one or more advertisements appear on the blog. At the same time, publisher "A" may have a personal web space on "Myspace.com", where publisher "A" describes an interest, property, feature, network or organization associated with publisher "A". You can create a personal profile page. Publisher "A" may participate in other revenue sharing schemes with "Myspace.com" by having contextual advertisements for those browsing the personal profile page appear on the personal profile page. Similarly, publisher 106 may embed content from multiple partners 112 into associated advertisements.

In some implementations, the partner 112 may exclude some content 113 from being used for revenue sharing, and / or the publisher 106 may not allow some partners 112 or the content 113 to be a publisher 106. May be excluded from appearing on the web page 116. The embedded content 113 can be part of the content or a playlist of content that can be played in the ordered format.

Referral Contribution Program

In some implementations, the advertising system manager 104 also implements an introductory contribution program that rewards partners 112 to allow new publishers 106 to participate in one or more advertising campaigns managed by the advertising system manager 104. Can be implemented. This contribution program can be structured to be more favorable to partners 112 who allocate more of their earnings to participating publishers 106. Suggesting higher revenue sharing to participating publishers 106 creates a publisher loyalty among participating publishers by providing appropriate rewards for publishing, while allowing more publishers to place their content on partner websites. You can encourage them to publish to.

The referral contribution program can provide a contribution bonus that can be calculated based on the revenue sharing assigned to each of the participating publishers 106 after adjustments to the partner's revenue sharing. A contribution bonus may be determined based on the total revenue before income deductions distributed to the advertising system manager 104 for an advertising campaign running on the webpage 116.

In some implementations, there may be an income threshold and a time limit, during which the income threshold must be reached by the publisher 106 in order for the partner 112 to qualify for the contribution bonus. . For example, if the income threshold is set to $ 10 and the time limit is set to a period of 180 days, partner "A" is only eligible to receive a contribution bonus when publisher "A" gets $ 10 in earnings within 180 days. have.

In some implementations, when the publisher 106 is associated with multiple partners 112, the income threshold (and time limit) can be specified for a particular partner. For example, suppose that publisher "A" is associated with both partner A and partner B, and the income threshold and time limit for partner "A" and partner "B" are set to $ 10 within 180 days and $ 20 within 90 days, respectively. Then, Partner A is entitled to a contribution bonus only if Publisher "A" earns $ 10 within 180 days on a webpage hosted by Partner "A", and Partner "B" is entitled to Publisher "A You are eligible for the Contribution Bonus only if you earn a $ 20 return within 90 days on the webpage hosted by Partner "B".

In some implementations, the referral contribution program can be defined as a function of shared income, income share rate, predetermined income threshold. Contribution bonuses may be awarded to partner 112 when the revenue of participating publishers 106 reaches a predetermined threshold. In some implementations, the amount of contribution bonus to be distributed to partner 112 is equal to a predetermined income threshold. For example, if the predetermined revenue threshold is set to $ 10, then the partner 112 will receive a $ 10 contribution bonus when the publisher 106's earnings reach $ 10.

Contribution bonuses can be applied whenever a predetermined income threshold is reached. For example, if the participating publisher 106 has an income of $ 30 and the predetermined revenue threshold is set to $ 10, then the associated partner 112 receives $ 30 in accordance with the referral contribution program, in addition to the income received under the revenue sharing agreement. (3 * $ 10; one time each time you reach $ 10)

For example, publisher "A" introduced by partner "A" and partner "A" agrees on 25% and 75% revenue share rates respectively, and publisher "B" introduced by partner "B" and partner "B". "Agree on 50% and 50% revenue share rates respectively, and assuming that the portion of total revenue left each day (ie net earnings) after the ad system administrator adjusts revenue sharing is $ 1, Under 10 days, publisher "A" receives $ 7.75 ($ 1 * 10 days * 75% revenue share) and publisher "B" receives $ 5.0 ($ 1 * 10 days * 50% revenue share). If the predetermined revenue threshold is set to $ 10, the partner "A" who introduced the publisher "A" to the advertising campaign would benefit from $ 2.50 (e.g., $ 1 * 10 days * 25% revenue share) under the revenue sharing agreement. Revenue received by Publisher "A" does not reach a contribution bonus since the revenue received by the publisher "A" has not reached a predetermined revenue threshold (ie $ 10). Similarly, the partner "B" who introduced the publisher "B" to the advertising campaign would only receive a profit of $ 5.00 (e.g., $ 1 * 10 days * 50% revenue share) under the revenue sharing agreement, which the publisher "B" received Earnings do not receive a contribution bonus because they have not reached a predetermined income threshold of $ 10.

However, even using the same criteria applied in the previous embodiment, after 15 days, publisher "A" receives $ 11.25 ($ 1 * 15 days * 75% revenue share) and publisher "B" receives $ 7.50 ($ 1 * 15 Days * 50% income share). Since the income of publisher "A" exceeds the required income threshold of $ 10, which entitles partner "A" to receive a contribution bonus, partner "A" receives $ 13.75, of which $ 3.75 (1 $ * 15 days * 25% revenue share is the income received under the revenue sharing agreement, and $ 10 is the income received under the referral contribution program. On the other hand, the income earned by publisher "B" has not reached a predetermined revenue threshold of $ 10, so partner "B" is not eligible for the contribution bonus.

As is clear from the above embodiment, partner "A" earns less than partner "B" at the beginning (eg 10 days). However, due to the implementation of the referral contribution program, the partner 112 with a low income share (eg, 25%) has a greater income over a longer period than the partner 112 with a high revenue share (eg, 50%). Profit by revenue earning power (for example, $ 7.75 after 15 days for partner "B" and $ 13.75 after 15 days for partner "A", compared to $ 30 after 40 days $ 40).

Thanks to the introductory contribution program, even though partners 112 assign a high revenue share to each of the participating publishers 106, they can receive high revenues over the long term while attracting future publishers 106 and enhancing publisher loyalty. Economic benefits can be obtained. The Referral Contribution Program allows partners 112 to allocate higher revenue sharing to participating publishers 106 without having to experience revenue reduction and to flexibly configure an income plan for a particular business profile.

For example, a partner's business model that allows publishers to participate in an advertising campaign through an advertising system manager may choose to assign a lower percentage of revenue to participating publishers to increase business revenue. As another example, if a partner's business model is to attract and attract publishers that produce good content, the partner can flexibly keep little or no revenue sharing from participating publishers.

In some implementations, there may be one or more contribution thresholds, and corresponding contribution bonuses are defined below each threshold. This creates a tiered contribution structure. For example, on the first floor, a partner will be eligible for a $ 10 contribution bonus if the participating publisher earns $ 10. In the second tier, a partner is entitled to a $ 250 contribution bonus if the publisher earns $ 100, so a total of $ 225 contribution bonuses for that partner are accumulated based on the tiered contribution structure.

In some implementations, partners can also be rewarded for enrolling multiple publishers that reach one or more revenue thresholds as described above. For example, suppose that the revenue threshold is set to $ 100, and 25 publishers earned $ 100 on net earnings (e.g., post-adjustment on the share of revenue owned by the advertising system manager). You may be eligible for a contribution bonus (eg, a $ 2000 contribution bonus). The number of bonuses that can be paid to a partner for a given time period can be limited. For example, an additional contribution bonus based on the number of participating publishers that have reached a certain revenue threshold may be limited to once per year. Alternatively, the number of bonuses that can be paid to a partner for a given time period may be unlimited.

Exemplary Processes

3 is a flow diagram of an example process for determining revenue sharing between a partner 112 and a publisher 106. The process 300 may be performed by the system 100, for example, and for the convenience of presentation in the description below, the process 300 will be described using these by way of example. However, other systems or combinations of systems may be used to perform the process 300.

In the example shown, process 300 begins 302 by receiving a request from a partner to participate in revenue sharing. A partner may be an online service provider that hosts one or more websites, or a source of online content that may be embedded with advertisements to be provided to publishers. For example, a website may be an online service that provides a publisher with a personal space to share user-generated content with interested users / observers, media companies, music labels, broadcast networks, and the like.

In response to the request, a graphical user interface (GUI) may be generated (304). The GUI may operate to allow a partner to interface with at least one advertising system manager for any suitable purpose (eg, to view an advertisement). In general, the GUI provides a particular user with an efficient and user friendly presentation of the data provided by or communicated within the system 100. The GUI may include a plurality of customizable frames or views, with interaction fields, pull-down lists, and buttons. In some implementations, if the partner already participates in an revenue sharing plan, the GUI can operate to display past revenue sharing rates in a user friendly form. The GUI may present a plurality of portals or dashboards.

The GUI may be configurable to support a combination of tables and graphics (bars, lines, pies, status dials, etc.) and build real time data. Real-time data includes income currently earned, current income rates, and so on. It should be understood that the term graphical user interface may be used singularly or plurally to describe each of one or more graphical user interfaces and displays of a particular graphical user interface. Indeed, references to the GUI refer to references to the front-end as well as the particular interface accessible through appropriate advertisers, partners, or publishers. Thus, the GUI described herein is intended for any graphical user interface, such as a general purpose web browser or touch screen, that processes the information of the system 100 and presents the results to the user efficiently.

In some implementations, if the partner is already participating in the revenue sharing plan, operation 302 can be omitted and the partner can log in (eg, via a username and password) to access the user interface. Login may be via a web page, for example, and the login process may use encryption, such as secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS).

Process 300 may also include a step 306 of receiving an input from a partner that specifies an revenue sharing rate. For example, a partner may specify a 50% share of revenue, earn 50% of the total revenue, or 50% of the remaining earnings after deducting operating costs (eg, operating costs incurred by the advertising system administrator). Receive. In another implementation, receiving input from a partner specifying an income share rate may include modifying a previous revenue share rate.

Process 300 proceeds to receiving 308 a request to participate in a revenue sharing plan from a publisher associated with a partner. The publisher may be a content provider that provides content to observers / users through a partner-hosted website or a publisher that wishes to embed content from the provider into a website owned by the publisher. For example, a publisher can click on a hyperlink displayed on a partner-provided website, which can direct the publisher to a webpage provided by an advertising system administrator. The publisher can then create an account to participate in the revenue sharing plan.

The process 300 then identifies 310 the partner with the publisher a particular revenue sharing rate. In some implementations, the verification of the revenue sharing rate can include displaying the revenue sharing rates of other partners, such that the publisher can compare rates between the various participating partners. In another implementation, identifying revenue sharing rates may include, for example, receiving additional information from the publisher that is related to the type of content that the publisher provides to the observers / users. The publisher may also be provided with a user interface that can log in at any point in time to view the revenue sharing rate set by the various partners associated with the publisher.

Next, process 300 performs 312 an automated revenue sharing between the partner and the publisher. In some implementations, implementing automated revenue sharing can include determining when a previous revenue sharing rate, if present, becomes effective. If the previous revenue sharing rate has been validated to be smaller than the desired time period, then performing automated revenue sharing may include performing revenue sharing after the desired time period has elapsed. For example, if the desired period is 90 days and the current income share rate was last modified 30 days ago, the process 300 only performs automated income sharing after 60 days.

In another embodiment, implementing automated revenue sharing can include determining how often the revenue sharing rate is modified in a given time period. In the disclosed embodiment, if the frequency exceeds a predetermined rate in a given time period, implementing automated revenue sharing may include performing revenue sharing only after the given time period has elapsed. For example, if the predetermined rate is two revisions for 30 days, and it is determined that the currently proposed revision for the revenue sharing rate is a third revision for 15 days, then process 300 may return automated revenue sharing after 15 days. Run

The operations 302-312 of the process 300 may be executed in the order listed, executed in parallel (eg, substantially parallel or otherwise non-serial by the same or other process), or executed in the reverse order. Can be. For example, in some implementations, receiving 308 a request to participate in revenue sharing from a publisher can be performed prior to receiving 306 an input specifying a revenue sharing rate from a partner. In another implementation, receiving 308 a request to participate in revenue sharing from a publisher may be performed before receiving 302 a request for participation in revenue sharing from a partner.

4 is a flow diagram of an example process 400 for determining contributions to a partner. Similar to process 300, process 400 may be performed by system 100, for example, and the following description, for convenience of presentation, illustrates the process 400 by way of example. do. However, other systems or combinations of systems may be used to perform the process 400.

As shown, process 400 begins 402 by receiving a total earnings report from advertiser (s). In some embodiments, the total earnings report includes information including, but not limited to, click-through rate, revenue per thousand ads, conversions per dollar spent, and conversion data associated with transactions related to other serviced advertisement (s). It may include. In some implementations, the advertising system manager can generate such a report based on data flowing through the online advertising system.

Process 400 can include a step 404 of determining a current revenue share and an income threshold. In some implementations, the process can determine the current revenue sharing rate between the partner and the publisher based on input received at process 300 (eg, received from step 306). The income threshold may be defined, for example, by the advertising system manager 104. Contributions can be distributed to partners when the publisher's revenue reaches an income threshold.

In some embodiments, the income threshold is determined based on the income share rate. Income thresholds may be defined in proportion to a partner's specific revenue sharing rate. For example, lowering the share of revenue distributed to partners (for example, from 20% to 10%) lowers the revenue threshold (for example, from $ 20 to $ 10), so that publishers can earn a threshold Allow the value to be reached.

Process 400 further includes determining 406 the revenue to be distributed between the partner and the publisher, and calculating 408 (eg, automatically) the contribution based on the revenue share and the income threshold 408. do. In some embodiments, the contribution is calculated from the publisher's earnings after adjusting for the partner's revenue sharing. In such implementations, calculating the contribution may include comparing publisher earnings against a predetermined revenue threshold. If it is determined that publisher earnings are less than the predetermined revenue threshold, the contribution will not be distributed to partners. For example, if the net income is $ 100, the income threshold is set to $ 20, and the share of revenue between the partner and the publisher is set at a 90% to 10% rate, the partner is not eligible to receive contributions. This is because publisher earnings did not exceed the income threshold. As another example, if you use the same criteria, except that the share of revenue between the partner and the publisher is set at a ratio of 20% to 80%, then the partner is eligible for contributions, and publisher earnings with $ 80 will be eligible for revenue thresholds. Because it exceeds.

In some embodiments, the contribution is calculated based on total income before the operating cost is deducted. Exemplary operating costs include, but are not limited to, revenue sharing to be distributed to advertising system managers. In this embodiment, the income threshold is compared to the remaining income share after adjusting for the partner's income share and operating costs. For example, if your total revenue is $ 100, the revenue share between your partner and publisher is set at a ratio of 60% to 40% (i.e. the publisher receives $ 40), and the operating cost is $ 20, the remaining $ 20 (i.e. Subtract operating costs from publisher revenue). Next, contribution bonuses can be awarded to partners if the remaining revenue share (after adjustments to the partner's revenue share and operating costs) meets a predetermined income threshold.

Generic Computer System

5 is a schematic diagram of one example of a general-purpose computer system 500. System 500 may be used for the operations described in connection with method 300 according to one embodiment. For example, system 500 may be included in devices or systems owned or operated by any of advertisers 102, advertising system manager 104, and publishers 106.

System 500 includes a processor 510, a memory 520, a storage device 530, and an input / output device 540. Each of the components 510, 520, 530, and 540 are interconnected via a system bus 550. The processor 510 may process instructions for execution within the system 500. In some implementations, the processor 510 is a single-threaded processor. In another implementation, the processor 510 is a multi-threaded processor. The processor 510 may process instructions stored in the memory 520 or the storage device 530 to display graphic information for the user interface on the input / output device 540.

The memory 520 stores information in the system 500. In some implementations, memory 520 is a computer readable medium. In another implementation, the memory 520 is a nonvolatile memory unit. In yet another embodiment, the memory 520 is a nonvolatile memory unit.

 Storage device 530 can provide mass storage for system 500. In some implementations, storage device 530 is a computer readable medium. In various other embodiments, storage device 530 may be a floppy disk device, hard disk device, optical disk device, or tape device.

Input / output device 540 provides input / output operations for system 500. In some implementations, input / output device 540 includes a keyboard and / or pointing device. In another implementation, the input / output device 540 includes a display unit for displaying a graphical user interface (GUI).

The features described herein may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry, computer software, firmware or hardware, or a combination thereof. Features of the present invention may be embodied, for example, as a computer program product tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device or an information carrier that is a propagated signal and executed by a programmable processor. A programmable processor executing a program of instructions executes method steps to implement the functions of the described embodiment by operating on input data and generating output. It is desirable that the described features can be implemented in one or more computer programs executable on a programmable system. The programmable system includes at least one programmable processor, at least one input device and at least one output device coupled to send and receive data and instructions with the data storage system. A computer program is a set of instructions that can be used directly or indirectly within a computer to perform a certain action or cause a certain result. A computer program can be written in any form of programming language, including compilation or interpreter languages, and can be used in any form including stand-alone programs or modules, components, subroutines, or other units suitable for use in a computer environment. Can be.

Processors suitable for executing a program of instructions include, for example, general and dedicated microprocessors, and one or a single processor of multiple processors in any kind of computer. In general, a processor receives instructions and data from read-only memory (ROM), or random access memory (RAM), or both. Essential components of a computer are a processor that executes instructions and one or more memory devices that store instructions and data. Generally, a computer includes or is operable with one or more mass storage devices (eg, magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, or optical disks, such as internal hard disks or removable disks) for storing data. Can be combined. Storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include, for example, semiconductor memory devices (eg, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices); Magnetic disks (eg, internal hard disks, removable disks); Magneto-optical disks; And all types of nonvolatile memory, including CD ROM and DVD-ROM disks. Processors and memory can be complemented by or integrated into ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits).

To provide for interaction with a user, features of the present invention include a display device (eg, a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display (CRT) monitor), a keyboard and a pointing device for displaying information to the user. It can be implemented in a computer with a mouse (for example a mouse or trackball). The user can provide input to the computer using a keyboard and pointing device.

Features of the invention include, for example, back-end components such as data servers; Or a middleware component such as, for example, an application server or an internet server; Or in a computing system having a front-end component such as, for example, a client computer with a graphical user interface or an internet browser, or any combination thereof. The components of the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication (eg, a communication network). Examples of communication networks include local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), and computers and networks forming the Internet.

The computing system can include a client and a server. Clients and servers are usually remote from each other and generally interact through a communication network. The relationship of client and server occurs by computer programs running on each computer and having a client-server relationship to each other.

Many embodiments have been described. Nevertheless, it should be understood that various changes are possible. For example, in one or more embodiments the components may be combined, deleted, changed or supplemented to form another embodiment. As another example, the logic flows depicted in the figures need not be performed in the specific or sequential order shown to achieve desirable results. In addition, other steps may be provided in the described logic flow, or some steps may be removed from the flow, and other components may be added to or removed from the described system. Accordingly, other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.

The present invention provides a flexible income sharing and referral contribution system.

Claims (40)

As a way to share earnings in your online advertising system, Receiving input from a web property host, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between an owner or operator and one or more publishers publishing on a website hosted by the website host; Receiving step; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the host; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement. The method of claim 1, further comprising the website host modifying the revenue sharing agreement. The method of claim 1, wherein executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher includes executing the modified revenue sharing agreement after a predetermined period of time. The method according to claim 1, Receiving a request from a plurality of publishers to participate in revenue sharing with the host; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the plurality of publishers based on the revenue sharing agreement. The method according to claim 1, Receiving a request from a plurality of publishers to participate in revenue sharing with the host; Specifying a revenue sharing agreement between the host and each publisher; And Executing automated revenue sharing between each of the host and the publisher based on a respective revenue sharing agreement. The method of claim 1, wherein the revenue sharing agreement includes a percentage of revenue to be shared between the host and the publisher. The method of claim 1, wherein the revenue sharing contract includes information describing a quantitative measure of monetary compensation or a criterion for suggesting an income sharing contract. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving input specifying a revenue sharing agreement from the website host further comprises receiving input from the host specifying an revenue sharing agreement between the website host, the one or more publishers, and an advertisement manager. Including steps Receiving input from an advertising manager specifying gross revenue; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the host, the one or more publishers and the advertising manager, wherein the total revenue is distributed between the host, the one or more publishers and the advertising manager based on the revenue sharing agreement. The method further comprises a step. The method according to claim 8, Receiving a request from the website host to modify a previously specified revenue sharing agreement, Executing automated revenue sharing between the host, the one or more publishers, and the advertising manager is based on the modified revenue sharing agreement for the automated revenue sharing between the host, the one or more publishers and the advertising manager. To execute. The method according to claim 9, Executing automated revenue sharing between the host, the one or more publishers, and the advertising manager may occur only if the number of requests to modify an revenue sharing agreement is within a predetermined threshold within a given time period. How to implement automated revenue sharing between one or more publishers and the advertising manager. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving input from the website host specifying an revenue sharing agreement between the website host, the one or more publishers, and an advertisement manager, Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the host and the advertising manager; Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the one or more publishers and the advertising manager; And Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the host and the one or more publishers. The method of claim 11, wherein a revenue sharing rate specified between the host and the advertising manager is different from a revenue sharing rate specified between the host and the advertising manager. 12. The method of claim 11, wherein a revenue sharing rate specified between the host and the advertising manager is equal to a revenue sharing rate specified between the host and the advertising manager. The method of claim 11, wherein specifying a revenue sharing rate between the host and the one or more publishers comprises: specifying a first revenue sharing rate for the host and a second revenue sharing rate for the one or more publishers Including, Specifying the first revenue share rate limits the first revenue share rate to a predetermined threshold. The method of claim 14, wherein the predetermined threshold is set by the advertising manager. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving input from a website host that specifies an income sharing agreement comprises modifying a previously executed revenue sharing agreement; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher comprises executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher based on the modified revenue sharing agreement. The method according to claim 1, Confirming the revenue sharing agreement by the host and the one or more publishers, Executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher comprises executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher after verifying the revenue sharing agreement. The method according to claim 1, The publisher further publishing content on the website, Implementing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher comprises executing automated revenue sharing before the publisher publishes content on the website. As a way to share earnings in your online advertising system, Receiving input from an advertising system manager, wherein the input is an revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager and one or more publishers publishing user generated content on a website hosted by the website host The receiving step of specifying a; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement without the participation of the website host. As a way to provide referral bounty in online advertising systems, Determining a current revenue sharing rate and a revenue threshold; Distributing revenue to be shared between the website host and the publisher that publishes on a website hosted by the website host, based on the current revenue sharing rate; And Determining a contribution based on the distributed income and the income threshold. 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising determining an income threshold based on income distributed to each publisher after deducting income distributed to a website host. 21. The method of claim 20, further comprising distributing the contribution to the website host, Distributing the contribution includes distributing the contribution to the website host whenever the income threshold is reached. As a system, A processor; And A computer readable medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising instructions; The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: Receiving input from a website host, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between an owner or operator and one or more publishers publishing on a website hosted by the website host; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the host; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement. As a system, A processor; And A computer readable medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising instructions; The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: Receiving input from an advertising system manager, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager and one or more publishers publishing user-generated content on a website hosted by a website host. step; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement without participation of the website host. As a system, A processor; And A computer readable medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising instructions; The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: Determining a current revenue sharing rate and an income threshold; Distributing revenue to be shared between the website host and the publisher that publishes on a website hosted by the website host, based on the current revenue sharing rate; And Determining a contribution based on the distributed income and the income threshold. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: Receiving input from a website host, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between an owner or operator and one or more publishers publishing on a website hosted by the website host; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the host; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: Receiving input from an advertising system manager, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager and one or more publishers publishing user-generated content on a website hosted by a website host. step; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement without participation of the website host. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: Determining a current revenue sharing rate and an income threshold; Distributing revenue to be shared between the website host and the publisher that publishes on a website hosted by the website host, based on the current revenue sharing rate; And And determining a contribution based on the distributed income and the income threshold. Means for receiving input from a website host, the input comprising: receiving means for specifying an revenue sharing agreement between an owner or operator and one or more publishers publishing on a website hosted by the website host; Means for receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the host; And Means for executing automated revenue sharing between the host and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement. Means for receiving input from an advertising system manager, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager and one or more publishers publishing user-generated content on a website hosted by a website host. Way; Means for receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager; And Means for executing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement without participation of the website host. Means for determining a current revenue sharing rate and an income threshold; Means for distributing revenue to be shared between the website host and the publisher that publishes on a website hosted by the website host, based on the current revenue sharing rate; And Means for determining a contribution based on the distributed income and the income threshold. As a way to share earnings in your online advertising system, Receiving from the content partner through an advertisement manager system an input specifying an revenue sharing agreement between a content partner and one or more publishers; Receiving a request to participate in revenue sharing with the content provider from a publisher through the advertisement manager system; And Executing automated revenue sharing between the content provider, the publisher, and the advertising manager system based on the revenue sharing agreement. The method of claim 32, Receiving input from the content partner specifying an revenue sharing agreement between the partner, the one or more publishers, and an advertising manager, Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the partner and the advertising manager; Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the one or more publishers and the advertising manager; And Specifying a revenue sharing rate between the partner and the one or more publishers. The method of claim 32, The publisher further embedding content from the partner on the website, Executing automated revenue sharing between the partner and the publisher includes serving ads with the embedded content from the advertising manager to the publisher. As a system, A processor; And A computer readable medium operatively coupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising instructions; The instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: Receiving from the partner an input specifying an revenue sharing agreement between the partner and one or more publishers publishing on the website at an advertisement manager; Receiving a request to participate in revenue sharing with the partner from a publisher through the advertisement manager; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the partner, the advertising manager, and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement. The method of claim 35, wherein The request to participate in the revenue share from the publisher further includes a request for embedded content from a partner. The method of claim 35, wherein An embedded link provided to the publisher from the advertising manager, wherein the embedded link is for embedding content from the partner and advertisements from the advertising manager on the publisher's website. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: Receiving input from an advertising system manager, the input specifying the revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager and one or more publishers publishing user-generated content on a website hosted by a website host. step; Receiving a request from a publisher to participate in revenue sharing with the advertising system manager, the request having a request for at least a portion of embedded content from a partner of the advertising manager; And And performing automated revenue sharing between the advertising system manager and the publisher based on the revenue sharing agreement between the advertising system manager, the publisher, and the partner. Computer readable media. The method of claim 38, And wherein the request for at least a portion of the embedded content comprises a request for a playlist of material related to at least one topic. 39. The computer readable medium of claim 38, wherein said executing step and said receiving step are performed without requiring additional actions by said partner.

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