Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the effectiveness of an Internet-based advertising or marketing campaign.
• the Internet has only relatively recently become a medium for mass communication.
• the hypertext transfer protocol (“http") is an important part of the Internet, enabling pages of multimedia information to be communicated in a standardized format.
• http hypertext transfer protocol
• the domain of pages created using the http protocol that is publicly available over the Internet is often referred to as the "world wide web" (WWW).
• WWWW world wide web
• the computer servers hosting these pages are accessed through the browser by specifying a "uniform resource locator" or "URL" which specifies the location of any given server or web site.
• E-mails containing advertisements or marketing announcements may be sent to a large number of potential customers at very low cost.
• These e-mail advertisements may include may include hypertext links, i.e., http code that presents a highlighted selection of text representing a web site or web page.
• the reader's e-mail program may actuate a browser (or the e-mail function may be an integral part of the browser itself) which will connect the reader or recipient of the e-mail to a web page on the Internet.
• the server hosting that page will consequently send the requested web page to the reader's browser.
• the e-mail may be used to foster an initial interest in a particular product or service, following which the e-mail reader can turn to the Internet to obtain further details relating thereto.
• Advertising by its very nature, is difficult to assess in terms of its effectiveness. Which advertising campaign "works”, and which does not? In the online world, as in traditional media, it is desirable to be able to measure the effectiveness of e-mail advertising campaigns not only in terms of people reading the advertisements, but whether the advertisements generated any response from the customers.
• the invention provides for the distribution of advertisements over the Internet, such as by way of e-mail, and a mechanism for recording the response to each advertisement on an individualised level. Accordingly, statistics can be accumulated to measure the effectiveness of a given advertising campaign using various metrics described in greater detail herein. In addition, by tracking individual responses, the invention enables a profile to be built on the tastes or preferences of targeted individuals.
• the invention takes advantage of the unique capabilities of the world wide web by distributing an e-mail advertisement to a wide audience which includes a hypertext URL link that will point a receiver's web browser to a desired site where further information concerning the product or service being advertised is contained.
• the e-mail functions as an "attention getter", much the way, by analogy, a newspaper headline serves to attract a reader to a particular story of interest.
• the invention provides several ways to measure the success of such e-mail advertisements. First, if the e-mail is successful, the receiver will "click-through” or actuate the linked URL to view the pointed-to web site. Second, the receiver may pass the e-mail to friends or acquaintances who may click-through to view the pointed-to web site.
• the receiver and his or her friends who click-through the linked URL may make a purchase at the e-mail site.
• the present invention provides a system to track each of these metrics for a given e-mail advertisement.
• a specific advertising campaign may consist of several different e-mail messages, sent at possibly different times to possibly different audiences or sets of receivers.
• Each e- mail message may include several encoded URLs.
• the invention allows the organization and tracking of responses to several messages having several encoded URLs for a number of campaigns.
• the system allows an organization to track the effectiveness of advertising campaigns provided by a number of content providers, without requiring the said organization to have control over or even access to the web pages containing the detailed advertising.
• the preferred embodiments of the present invention attempt to minimize any adverse impact on the speed of connection between an e-mail recipient's web browser and the destination URL when a hypertext URL link is actuated or clicked through. Otherwise, a consumer may lose patience or become bored, and terminate the attempted connection.
• the invention provides a method for measuring the effectiveness of a computer network-based advertising campaign wherein at least one e-mail message is sent to a plurality of recipients inviting each recipient to visit a destination web site.
• An actuatable link is incorporated in each e-mail so as to enable each recipient to reach the destination web site.
• the link points to an intermediate web site and includes information pertaining to the identity of the destination web site.
• a web site request message including the identification information is received from at least one of the recipients as a result of the link being actuated, the web site request message being received by a server hosting the intermediate web site.
• the server records the actuation of the link, and redirects the recipient who actuated the link to the destination web site.
• the invention provides a method for conducting a computer network-based advertising campaign and measuring the effectiveness thereof.
• at least one e-mail message is sent to a plurality of recipients inviting each recipient to visit a destination web site, and the identity of the recipients and the identity of the destination web site each recipient has been invited to visit is stored in a relational database.
• An actuatable link is incorporated in each e-mail so as to enable each the recipient to reach the destination web site, the link pointing to an intermediate web site and including information pertaining to the identities of the recipient and the destination web site.
• a web site request message including the identifying information is received from at least one of the recipients as a result of the link being actuated, the web site request message being received by a server hosting the intermediate web site.
• the server consequently records the actuation of the link, redirects the recipient who actuated the link to the destination web site, and determines whether a cookie uniquely relative to the e-mail message and intended recipient has been issued, and if so, records a pass along event.
• the invention provides an apparatus for conducting a computer network-based advertising campaign and measuring the effectiveness thereof.
• the apparatus is a computer system connected to said network for sending at least one e-mail message to a plurality of recipients inviting each recipient to visit a destination web site.
• the computer system has a relational database for storing the identity of said recipients and the identity of the destination web.
• Each e-mail incorporates an actuatable link pointing to an intermediate web site and includes information pertaining to the identities of the recipient and the destination web site.
• the apparatus includes a plurality of network connectable devices, each associated with one of the recipients for reading said e-mail and for enabling the recipients to browse the destination web site by actuating the link.
• Each network connectable device is configured such that when the link is actuated the device sends to the computer system a web site request message including the identifying information.
• the computer system in response to receiving the web site request message from a given device, records the actuation of said link, sends a redirection message to the given device so as to cause it to browse the destination web site, and determines whether a cookie uniquely relative to the e-mail message and intended recipient has been issued. If so, the computer system records a pass along event, and if not, the computer system sends a unique cookie relative to the e-mail message and intended recipient to the given device and memorizes the unique cookie in the database.
• the invention provides an apparatus for conducting a computer network-based advertising campaign and measuring the effectiveness thereof.
• the apparatus includes a computer system connected to the network for sending at least one e-mail message to a plurality of recipients inviting each recipient to visit a destination web site.
• the computer system has a relational database for storing the identity of the recipients and the identity of the destination web site.
• Each e-mail incorporates an actuatable link pointing to an intermediate web site and includes information pertaining to the identities of the recipient and the destination web site.
• the apparatus also includes a plurality of network connectable devices, each associated with one of the recipients for reading said e-mail and for enabling the recipients to browse the destination web site by actuating the link.
• Each device is configured such that when the link is actuated the device sends to the computer system a web site request message including the identifying information, and a stale cookie in the event the device has previously received information from the intermediate web site.
• the computer system in response to receiving the web site request message from a given device: records the actuation of the link; compares the data in the stale cookie, if received, against the identifying information passed back with the web site request message; sends a redirection message to the given device so as to cause it to browse the destination web site; and , in the event the comparison does not find a match or a stale cookie is not received, sends a fresh cookie to the given device and records the distribution of the fresh cookie in the database.
• the fresh cookie comprises information pertaining to the identities of the recipient and the destination web site.
• the invention provides a method for measuring the effectiveness of an Internet-based advertising campaign.
• the method stores in a destination URL table a list of destination URLs and corresponding destination URL identifiers, stores as an e-mail recipient table in a database a list of e-mail recipient identifier and corresponding e-mail addresses, creates a URL hits log table configured to comprise records of the e-mail recipient identifier and the destination URL identifier; and sends an e-mail advertisement to an e-mail recipient.
• the e-mail advertisement comprises at least one URL incorporating a code, and the code comprises an e-mail recipient identifier and a destination URL identifier.
• the method receives a reply to said encoded URL from said e-mail recipient's browser.
• the method stores the e-mail recipient identifier and the destination URL identifier in the URL hits log table, determines the destination URL using said destination URL identifier; and sends a redirect command to said browser redirecting said browser to the destination URL.
• Figure 1 is a block diagram of an advertisement tracking system according to a first embodiment
• Figure 1 A is a process diagram illustrating the steps involved in tracking advertisements using the system shown in Figure 1
• Figure 2 is a more detailed block diagram of the tracking system of Figure 1
• Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of a database employed in the first embodiment
• Figure 4 is a block diagram of a tracking system according to a second embodiment having the capacity to track advertisements that have been "passed along"
• Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a database employed in the second embodiment
• Figures 5 A, 5B and 5C are flow diagrams illustrating the flow of messages between various entities in the second embodiment under various circumstances
• Figure 6 is a block diagram of a tracking system according to a third embodiment having the capacity to track "pass-alongs" and e-commerce transactions
• Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of a database employed by the third embodiment.
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the invention.
• the elements to the left of the dashed line are the equipment owned and controlled by the persons organizing the advertising campaign.
• This equipment includes an e-mail distribution server 110, which is dedicated to running Internet advertising campaigns.
• This server is referred to herein as a "flo" server.
• a database 112 is either attached to flo server 110 by dedicated lines 114, or incorporated integrally therein.
• Database 112 may be implemented using one of the many commercially available structured query language (“SQL”) systems or other relational database systems.
• SQL structured query language
• a web server 118 is attached to flo server 110 by dedicated lines 116.
• Web server 118 is dedicated to receiving, routing and recording responses from recipients of the advertising campaign, as discussed in greater detail below.
• Flo server 110 is attached through a plurality of dedicated lines 120 to a packetized data network ("PDN") 122, such as the Internet.
• PDN packetized data network
• web server 118 is attached through dedicated lines 124 and 126 to PDN 122.
• Lines 124 and 126 maybe identical lines allowing communication between web server 118 and PDN 122, or each may be dedicated to serving traffic in one direction only.
• a plurality of lines 120 may allow communication between flo server 110 and PDN 122, or may be used only to send signals from flo server 110 to PDN 122. While these lines have been described as dedicated lines, it will be understood that the lines may be established on an as-needed basis, e.g., through a switched connection using the public telephone network or the PDN 122 itself.
• a plurality of recipient servers 128 and end system devices 129 which run browsers are connected to PDN 122 in a conventional manner by line 130.
• a client web server 122 is also connected to the PDN 122 in a conventional manner.
• client refers to the entity or organization whose products or services are the subject of the advertising campaign, and the web server 122 hosts the web page which provides further information concerning the product/service introduced in the e-mail advertisement. In other words this is the content provider and this web page is addressed at a URL hereinafter termed the "distribution URL".
• Fig.lA a general description of the process by which e-mail advertisements are tracked is provided here.
• Flo server 110 has information related to several mailings that are to constitute an advertising campaign.
• a "mailing" process resident in flo server 110 accesses the list of recipient e-mail addresses stored in database 112 and uses information about the recipient to create personalized e-mail messages or advertisements specific to the mailing. For instance, these e-mail messages may be personalized to include the name of the recipient or a picture of their favourite sports team logo (if such information is available).
• the personalization is a desired feature but not in any way essential to the invention.
• Each e-mail message includes in it a URL address which the recipient will activate or "click-through” on in the event the recipient wants further information about the product or service being advertised.
• This URL termed hereinafter the "encoded URL” points to web server 118 and includes a code that enables the system to keep track of various metrics pertaining to advertising effectiveness as well as enable web server 118 to further redirect the recipient to the destination URL.
• the code contains identifiers or pointers corresponding to: the e-mail address of the recipient; the campaign; a mailing associated with the campaign; and the destination URL.
• these e-mails are delivered by the server 110 via PDN 122 (as indicated by the dashed lines) to the e-mail addresses of the recipients.
• PDN 122 as indicated by the dashed lines
• the e-mails will be stored on server 128 for subsequent reading by the recipient via their web browsing device 129 or other e-mail reader.
• the recipient will read the e-mail. If the recipient wishes, he or she may click on the encoded URL link to request further information or view the linked web site. Clicking on the encoded URL will activate a browser on the recipient's device 129 (if such a browser is not already activated), and in a second step of the process the device 129 sends an http message (via server 128 and PDN 122) to web server 118 requesting to view or receive the information or web page located at the address specified by the embedded URL. This return message incorporates the encoded URL which is received by web server 118. ,
• web server 118 decodes or interprets the encoded URL and attempts to look up the destination URL address using the corresponding identifier provided in the returned encoded URL.
• web server 118 preferably uses an internal cache as described in greater detail below, but if this information is not available on web server 118 it will obtain the destination URL from database 112 via a look-up request to flo server 110. (This has been shown as steps 3 and 4 in Fig. 1 A.)
• an http "redirect" command is sent via PDN 122 to recipient device 129 which causes it to request access to the destination URL on client web server 132 via PDN 122. Once communications are established between recipient device 129 and the client web server 132 via PDN 122, normal Internet web communication will take place between these two activities.
• servers 110 or 118 record the fact that the e-mail advertisement has been "successful" by recording the destination URL identifier and the recipient's e-mail address identifier in a log on database 112.
• flo server 110 preferably physically comprises a campaign command server 210, which runs a resident campaign command process 211 to organize and run campaigns.
• process 211 stores (1) the date (and, optionally, the time) on which the mailing is to occur; (2) the campaign with which the mailing is associated; (3) information specific to each mailing to allow the construction of the e-mail message; and (4) an indicator of the e- mail recipients the mailing is destined to be sent to.
• This information may be stored in database 112, or may be stored in database specifically dedicated to campaign command server 210.
• Campaign command process 211 monitors the dates (and, optionally, the times) for the stored mailings. When the date for a mailing arrives, process 211 accesses database 112 to obtain data for the intended e-mail recipients. This data includes the recipient's e-mail address. The list of recipients is divided up and passed on to a multiplicity of "pumper" servers 212 for further processing. The information specific to each mailing is also sent to pumper servers 212.
• Pumper servers 212 have resident pumper processes 213.
• Pumper processes 213 take the information specific to each mailing and meld it with the information provided about each e-mail recipient to create an e-mail advertisement individually tailored to each e-mail recipient.
• the e-mail could include the recipient's first name, or a reference to the recipient's favourite sports team.
• the information for the mailing and the data for each e- mail recipient allow the creation of an individualized encoded URL, which is incorporated in the e-mail message destined to be sent to the individual e-mail recipient.
• the encoded URL includes indicators of the particular campaign, mailing, destination URL and e-mail recipient. The particular construction of the encoded URL is described further below with reference to Figure 3.
• the individualized e-mail advertisements are sent on to SMTP servers 214 which have resident processes 215 for transmitting the individualized e-mail advertisements to the intended recipients via PDN 122.
• web server 118 executes an http server process 222.
• http server process 222 passes the indicators contained in the encoded URL to a cache process 218.
• the cache process 218 manages a memory cache 216 which contains a table of destination URLs and destination URL identifiers. Ideally, this table will contain a list of all of the destination URLs that have been referenced through any recent mailing, thereby speeding up the step of redirecting the e-mail recipient to the destination URL.
• Cache process 218 first searches memory 216 for the destination URL corresponding to the destination URL indicator provided by the received encoded URL. If the destination URL is not found, cache process 218 queries an SQL server process 224 (on flo server 210) with the destination URL identifier. The SQL server process 224 looks up the destination URL corresponding to the destination URL indicator in database 112, and transmits the destination URL back to cache process 218.
• cache process 218 passes the destination URL to a redirector process 220.
• Redirector process 220 may be implemented as a CGI script, or any other appropriate method. Redirector process 220 (via http server process 222) sends a redirect response via PDN 122 to the browser initiated on recipient device 129.
• cache process 218 sends the campaign, mailing, destination URL and e-mail recipient identifiers (as read from the returned encoded URL) to a recordal process 226 resident on flo server 110.
• This step is asynchronous of the redirection procedure, and it will usually take place after the redirection procedure is complete. All redirection procedures have priority in execution over the recordal procedures, which are processed when cache process 218 is not preoccupied with redirection procedures.
• the structure of database 112 and its inter-relationship with various software processes running on flo server 110 are detailed in Fig. 3. Information is stored in database 112 utilizing a relational database such as SQL based systems.
• Data base 112 includes an e- mail recipient data table 310 which is configured to have a recipient identifier ("ID") field 312 as the primary key of the table.
• ID 312 is associated with the recipient's e-mail address 314 and other information collected about the recipient 316 (which may include their full name, expressed interests and mailing address) to form a record pertaining to a particular recipient.
• a campaign table 320 is configured to have a campaign ID field 322 as the primary key thereof.
• each record in table 320 may include other fields identifying the name of the campaign, client, and other such application specific information.
• Database 112 also includes a destination URL table 328.
• Each record in this table comprises a mailing ID field 326 and a campaign ID field, in addition to other applications specific information pertaining to a mailing such as the name of the mailing that will be understood in human terms.
• the mailing ID field 326 is the primary key of the table.
• the campaign ID field is a foreign key which is logically linked (i.e., contains the same information as) campaign ID field 322 of the campaign table 320.
• Database 112 further contains a destination URL table 328. Each record in this table comprises a destination URL ID 330, a mailing ID field and a destination URL address field 331.
• the destination URL ID field 330 functions as the destination URL identifier discussed above.
• the mailing ID field is a foreign key, which is logically linked to the mailing ID field 326 of the mailing table 324.
• the destination URL address 331 stores the actual address for the destination URL.
• Database 112 still further includes a URL hit log table 334.
• Each record in this table comprises a campaign ID (linked to campaign ID field 322 of table 320), a recipient ID (linked to the recipient ID field 312 of table 310), a mailing ID (linked to the mailing ID field 326 of table 324) and a destination URL ID (linked to the destination URL JD field 330 of table 328).
• Each encoded URL comprises the web address of web server 118 followed by a code incorporating the particular campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and recipient ID corresponding to a particular e-mail advertisement referenced by keys 322, 326, 330 and 312 in database 112.
• the encoded URL using the key ID names in the code, could look like: ht1p://webserverl (where the "
• the key ID names in the code could be separated by field separators, could each be of a predetermined number of characters, or could each begin with a unique character.
• the key ID names could include alphabetical or other symbols in addition to numbers.
• the http request sent to web server 118 will include information on the relevant campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and recipient ID.
• the code could be encrypted by pumper processes 213 before delivery to PDN 122, and could be decrypted by cache process 218 upon receipt.
• cache process 218 first searches memory 216 for the destination URL corresponding to the destination URL indicator provided by the received encoded URL. If the destination URL is not found, cache process 218 queries SQL server process 224 (on flo server 210) with the destination URL identifier. SQL server process 224 then queries the destination URL table 322 to determine the destination URL associated with the given destination URL ID. Once the destination URL is found, the SQL server process 224 passes the destination URL back to cache process 218.
• recordal process 226 receives from cache process 218 the campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and the recipient ID relating to a given click-through event. Recordal process 226 then saves all of these ID's to the URL hits log table 334.
• this embodiment of the invention will compile statistics of the click- throughs by e-mail recipients of the mailings for any given campaign.
• information specific to a campaign, a particular mailing, or a particular recipient may be received.
• the success or effectiveness of an advertising campaign or specific mailing thereof may be measured by the number of corresponding click-throughs registered in the URL hits log table 334.
• a profile may be built regarding the preferences or personal tastes of individual e-mail recipients,
• the mailing table 324 may have a field indicating a category of goods or services. A particular e-mail recipient may thus show a preference for responding to advertisements relating to automobiles, for instance, and hence that recipient would be a good candidate to send similar advertising to in the future.
• a second embodiment of the invention also keeps track of "pass-alongs", i.e., where an e-mail recipient receives an e-mail advertisement, clicks through or activates the encoded URL in order to view the destination web site, and then passes the original e-mail advertisement along to a friend who also clicks through to view the destination URL.
• This embodiment uses "cookies" to save information on a recipient's device 129 for identification purposes.
• FIG. 4 is similar to Figure 2, with like parts featuring like numbers and names.
• the recipient's browser device 129 shows a web browser 414 resident thereon.
• another e-mail server 416, web browsing devices 422 and web browsers 424 are shown connected to the PDN 122.
• Server 416 is not operated by the original recipients of the e-mail advertisements (or the internet service providers thereof). Rather e-mails received by the recipients of devices 129 are passed or copied via the PDN 122 and servers 128 and 416 (which may be thought of as being a part of the network) to friends who operate devices 422 and web browsers 424.
• the database 112 includes a cookie distribution table 510, each record of which comprises fields for storing recipient ID 314, campaign ID 322, mailing ID 326, and destination URL ID 330.
• Each record in the URL hits log table 334 also include an additional entry for a pass-along flag 336.
• the second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that when the cache process 218 receives an encoded URL from an e-mail recipient, the web server 118 sends a cookie along with the re-direction message to the recipient the first time the recipient clicks through the advertisement e-mail.
• the cookie data is essentially a replicate of the code incorporated in the encoded URL, and the web server 118 asynchronously records the cookie data in the cookie distribution table 510.
• the very same cookie will also be stored on the recipient's web browser device. Note also that, in accordance with the http protocol, whenever a browser accesses a particular web server, the browser will send back the cookie received from that web server.
• the recipient in the event that a recipient has received and clicked through or actuated a previously received e-mail message, the recipient will have saved cookie information associated with that previous e-mail message (hereinafter referred to as a "stale" cookie).
• a stale cookie When a new and different e-mail message is sent to that recipient at step 450, at step 452 the recipient will return the stale cookie to web server 118.
• the web server 118 will, in turn, send a new cookie to the recipient having a code conforming to the recently sent e-mail at step 450.
• This cookie which is referred to herein as a "fresh" cookie, is stored in the cookie distribution table 510 and on the recipient's browser.
• the code incorporated in the stale cookie (step 452) will not be identical to the code sent to the recipient in the e-mail message (at step 450).
• the web server 118 queries the cookie distribution table 510 to see if a cookie matching the code in the returned encoded URL exists. If such a cookie does not exist then it is assumed that the intended recipient of the e- mail has actuated or clicked on the encoded URL for the first time (as otherwise a cookie having the identical code is expected to be found in the cookie distribution table 510). In this case, cache process 218 requests the SQL server process 224 to store the campaign ID, recipient ID, mailing ID, and destination URL ID to the URL hit log table 334 and to set the pass-along flag to zero.
• cache process 218 sends a fresh cookie to be stored by browser 414 of device 129 which cookie comprises the recipient ID, campaign HO, message ID and destination URL ID of the latest e-mail message.
• cache process 218 saves the campaign ID, recipient ID, mailing ID, and destination URL ID to URL hit log table 334, and set the pass- along flag to 1. The value of 1 indicates a pass-along event.
• cache process 218 sends a generic fresh cookie to be stored by browser 424 of device 422.
• This generic cookie comprises the campaign ID, message ID, recipient ID and destination URL ID of the latest e-mail message, but also incorporates code indicating that it is a generic cookie as opposed to a "normal” cookie. (Although this generic cookie isn't strictly necessary for the functioning of this second embodiment, it is used in the third embodiment involving "buy- rate tracking" and to avoid double-counting of pass-along click-throughs.)
• the intended recipient of the e-mail or the friend click on or actuate the encoded URL twice in a row.
• the code in the stale cookie returned to the web server 118 at step 452 will be the same as the code in the encoded URL returned to the web server 118.
• the redirection procedures outlined above with reference to Fig. 3 are followed.
• the repeat click-throughs are not stored if it is only desired to keep track of the number of different people who click-through the encoded URL.
• cache process 218 requests the SQL server process 224 to store the campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and mailing ID to the URL hits log table 334. If the stale cookie is a generic cookie, the pass-along flag is set to one; otherwise, the pass-along flag is set to zero. Note that in either case it is not necessary to resend the fresh cookie to the recipient or friend (or store it in the cookie distribution table) since the stale cookie and the fresh cookie are identical.
• no cookie may be sent back to web server 118 along with the encoded URL (step 464).
• the web server 118 looks up whether or not a cookie has been recorded in the cookie distribution table which matches the code in the returned encoded URL. If so, then the original intended recipient has already clicked through the advertisement e-mail and it is assumed that the click-through arises from the friend who has never previously accessed an encoded URL in an old e-mail message.
• cache process 218 requests the SQL server process 224 to store the campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and recipient ID to the URL hits log table 334, and sets the pass-along flag to one.
• Cache process 218 also sends a generic cookie back to the requesting computer (step 466) and saves the relevant data in cookie distribution table 610. If no matching cookie is found an assumption is made that it is the originally intended recipient who executed the click-through.
• the e-mail address corresponding to the recipient ID of the returned encoded URL may be retrieved and a more sophisticated analysis may be performed to determine whether the IP packet received by web server 118 originates from the same subnetwork as that of the e-mail address. If so, an assumption can be made that the click-through event was executed by the originally intended recipient, and if not, the system can register the click-through as a pass along event.
• the foregoing processes allows the system to efficiently redirect browsers to the destination URLs while maintaining records allowing for information on pass-alongs to be analyzed.
• the number of different people who have clicked through an advertising e-mail may be seen for any particular mailing by counting the number of times the destination URL ID appears in URL hits log table 334.
• the number of click-throughs from pass-alongs may be determined by counting the number of times a destination URL ID appears with a pass-along flag of 1 in URL hits log table 334.
• the number of times a particular pass-along occurs from a particular e-mail recipient may be determined by counting the number of times a particular recipient ID matches a particular destination URL- ID with a pass-along flag of 1 in URL hits log table 334.
• a third embodiment of the invention involves "buy-rate” tracking, which allows the recording and analysis of the buying habits of the e-mail advertisement recipients in response to the advertisement e-mails. This embodiment would only be employed when the destination URL is an "e-commerce" site, where customers such as e-mail recipients can purchase goods or services on-line.
• client server 132 includes a verification web page 610 with embedded html code 612.
• e-commerce tracking process 614 resident in web server 118.
• database 112 includes an e-commerce table 710 wherein each record comprises recipient ID 314, campaign ID 322, mailing ID 326, and destination URL ID 330 fields, a pass-along flag 714 (which is different from pass-along flag 336) as well as field(s) for purchase details 712.
• a user of device 412 or 422 establishes contact with the destination URL on web server 132 following the steps described above for the second embodiment, whereby a cookie 426 or 428 will have been stored on the respective devices.
• the e-commerce website on web server 132 is configured so that, as a final step in an e-commerce purchase, the "verification page" information 610 is transmitted from destination client server 132 to browser 414 or 424.
• the transmitted verification page includes embedded HTML code 612 which causes the browser 414 or 424 to send a signal to web server 118, including purchase details (possibly including the amount paid or exact goods or services purchased), as well as the data in cookie 426 or 428.
• the embedded HTML code may use the standard http "get" protocol.
• Http process 222 upon receiving a signal which includes purchase details, passes the signal to e- commerce tracking process 614.
• E-commerce tracking process 614 transmits the purchase details and the information from cookie 426 or 428 to recordal process 226 in flo server 110.
• Recordal process 226 saves the recipient ID, campaign ID, mailing ID, destination URL ID and the purchase details in a record in e-commerce table 710. If the cookie is a generic cookie, the purchase has been made by the recipient of a pass-along, and pass-along flag 714 is set to one; if the cookie is not generic, pass-along flag 714 is set to zero.
• the information in e-commerce table 710 may be analyzed to determine the number of purchases resulting from a particular message, a particular campaign, viewing of a particular destination URL, made by the persons corresponding to various recipient ID's, or made by persons who received a "pass-along" e-mail advertisement from the person corresponding to a particular recipient ID.
• the signal received by web server 118 will either have no cookie information or have cookie information unconnected with the purchase details. In such a case, the web server 118 may simply discard the signal and the information contained therein. Alternatively, web server 118 could store the information in these signals in a separate database for further analysis.

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Cited By (1)

• 2001
  • 2001-01-19 WO PCT/CA2001/000044 patent/WO2001069462A2/fr active Application Filing
  • 2001-01-19 AU AU28213/01A patent/AU2821301A/en not_active Abandoned

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