Dynamically optimizing the presentation of advertising messages

Abstract

A facility for adjusting the execution of an advertising campaign in which advertising messages are presented using a plurality of advertising alternatives as described. During a first time period, the facility presents advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with an initial allocation for each of the advertising alternatives. Also during the first time period, the facility tracks the performance of the advertising campaign with respect to each of the advertising alternatives. Based upon the tracking during the first time period, the facility attributes a performance score to each of the advertising alternatives for the first time period. The facility compares these scores, and, based upon the comparison, adjusts the allocations for the advertising alternatives so as to increase one or more allocations for advertising alternatives which compare favorably in the comparison, and so as to reduce one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing disfavorably in the comparison. The facility then, during a second time period, presents advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with the adjusted allocation for each of the advertising alternatives.

1 - 28 . (canceled)  
     
     
         29 . A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing device to adjust the execution of an advertising campaign for presenting advertising messages to a plurality of users, the advertising campaign having a plurality of advertising alternatives for presenting advertising messages, by: 
 during a first temporal range, 
 presenting advertising messages to users among the plurality using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with an initial allocation for each of the advertising alternatives;  
 tracking the performance of the advertising campaign with respect to each of the advertising alternatives across the plurality of users;  
   based upon the tracking during the first temporal range, attributing a performance score to each of the advertising alternatives for the first temporal range;    comparing the scores attributed to the advertising alternatives for the first temporal range, wherein the comparison is performed using confidence intervals about the performance scores;    based upon the comparison, adjusting the allocations for the advertising alternatives so as to increase one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing favorably in the comparison and so as to reduce one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing disfavorably in the comparison; and    during a second temporal range, presenting advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with the adjusted allocation for each of the advertising alternatives.    
     
     
         30 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the performance score attributed to each advertising alternative reflects the percentage of advertising messages presented using the advertising alternative that were selected by users to which they were presented.  
     
     
         31 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31  wherein the performance score attributed to each advertising alternative reflects the percentage of advertising messages presented using the advertising alternative that were selected by users to which they were presented to access additional information relating to an advertiser associated with the campaign where the user performed a further predefined action with respect to the additional information.  
     
     
         32 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31  wherein the further predetermined action is transacting a purchase.  
     
     
         33 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31  wherein the further predetermined action is registering as a user.  
     
     
         34 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 31  wherein the further predetermined action is specified by the advertiser.  
     
     
         35 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the performance score attributed to each advertising alternative reflects the total amount of purchases transacted as a result of presentations using the advertising alternative.  
     
     
         36 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the performance score attributed to each advertising alternative reflects the total amount of purchases transacted as a result of presentations using the advertising alternative as compared to the number of advertising messages presented using the advertising alternative.  
     
     
         37 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the performance score attributed to each advertising alternative reflects the cost of presenting advertising messages using the advertising alternative.  
     
     
         38 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 37  wherein the reflected cost of presenting advertising messages using the advertising alternative includes the cost of purchasing advertising space in which to present advertising messages using the advertising alternative.  
     
     
         39 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 37  wherein the reflected cost of presenting advertising messages using the advertising alternative includes the cost of delivering data comprising advertising messages using the advertising alternative.  
     
     
         40 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the contents of the computer-readable medium further cause the computing device to: 
 during the second temporal range, tracking the performance of the advertising campaign with respect to each of the advertising alternatives;    based upon the tracking during the first temporal range, attributing a performance score to each of the advertising alternatives for the first temporal range;    comparing the scores attributed to the advertising alternatives for the second temporal range;    based upon the comparison of scores attributed to the advertising alternatives for the second temporal range, again adjusting the allocations for the advertising alternatives so as to increase one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing favorably in the comparison and so as to reduce one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing disfavorably in the comparison; and    during a third temporal range, presenting advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with the twice-adjusted allocation for each of the advertising alternatives.    
     
     
         41 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  repeated for a plurality of iterations over a plurality of further temporal ranges.  
     
     
         42 . A computer system for adjusting the execution of an advertising campaign for presenting advertising messages, the advertising campaign having a plurality of advertising alternatives for presenting advertising messages, comprising: 
 a presenting component that presents advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with an allocation for each of the advertising alternatives, the presenting component presenting advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with an initial allocation for each of the advertising alternatives during a first time period, the presenting component presenting advertising messages using each of the advertising alternatives in accordance with an adjusted allocation for each of the advertising alternatives during a second time period;    a tracking component that tracks the performance of the advertising campaign with respect to each of the advertising alternatives during a first time period;    a scoring component that, based upon the tracking during the first time period, attributes a performance score to each of the advertising alternatives for the first time period;    a comparison component that compares the scores attributed to the advertising alternatives for the first time period, wherein the comparison is performed using confidence intervals about the performance scores; and    an allocation adjustment component that, based upon the comparison, adjusts the allocations for the advertising alternatives so as to increase one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing favorably in the comparison and so as to reduce one or more allocations for advertising alternatives comparing disfavorably in the comparison.    
     
     
         43 . The computer system of  claim 42 , further comprising a cycling component that triggers repetition of tracking, scoring, comparing, and adjustment over a plurality of further time periods.  
     
     
         44 - 51 . (canceled)  
     
     
         52 . A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computer system to present advertising messages in a group of advertising messages, by: 
 during an evaluation period, presenting the advertising messages of the group;    assessing the effectiveness of presenting each of the advertising messages during the evaluation period;    assigning presentation weights to the advertising messages of the group in accordance with their assessed effectiveness; and    during a weighted presentation period, presenting the advertising messages of the group with relative frequencies that are in accordance with their weights.    
     
     
         53 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 52  wherein the weighted presentation period is a second evaluation period, and wherein the assessing and assigning is repeated for the second evaluation period.  
     
     
         54 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 52  wherein the advertising messages are presented at a plurality of advertising sites, and wherein the assessing assesses the effectiveness of presenting each of the advertising messages at each of the advertising sites, and wherein the assigning step assigns an advertising message separate weights for each of the advertising sites, and wherein the weights for the advertising site on which an advertising message is to be presented are used to select the advertising messages to be presented on that advertising site.  
     
     
         55 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein the adjusting adjusts the allocations such that all of the adjusted allocations are nonzero, such that advertising messages are presented using each of the advertising alternatives during the second time period.  
     
     
         56 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 29  wherein each of the plurality of advertising alternatives is a different advertising message.