Providing Social Endorsements with Online Advertising

Abstract

Third-party publishers (such as websites) provide online advertisements combined with social endorsement information to users. A request for an advertisement is received from a viewing user via a third-party publisher system. A particular advertisement is selected in response to this request, and one or more advertisement tags associated with the advertisement are retrieved. The advertisement tags comprise information related to the advertisement. Social networking system data for users related to the viewing user is retrieved. Social endorsement information is obtained using the social networking system data and the advertisement tags associated with the advertisement. The social endorsement information and the advertisement are then combined and transmitted to the third-party publisher system, or are transmitted individually for combination by the third-party publisher system.

1 . A computer-implemented method for providing social endorsement information with an advertisement, the method comprising:
 receiving a request for an advertisement from a viewing user via a third-party publisher system, wherein the viewing user is a social networking system user;   retrieving an advertisement from an advertisement provider in response to the request;   retrieving one or more advertisement tags associated with the advertisement, wherein the advertisement tags comprise information related to the advertisement;   retrieving social networking system data related to one or more other users who are associated with the viewing user in a social networking system;   creating a social endorsement based on the retrieved social networking system data and the advertisement tags, the social endorsement indicating that one or more of the other users have taken an action within the context of the social networking system related to the one or more advertisement tags; and   transmitting the advertisement and social endorsement to the third-party publisher system for display to the viewing user.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement and social endorsement are combined prior to transmitting the advertisement and social endorsement to the third-party publisher system. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein combining the social endorsement with the advertisement comprises overlaying the social endorsement on the advertisement. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the social endorsement is overlaid based on an instruction for an area of the advertisement on which to overlay the social endorsement. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the social endorsement is overlaid based on an algorithm for determining an area of the advertisement on which to overlay the social endorsement. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the third-party publishing system comprises a website. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the third-party publishing system comprises a software application. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the social networking system receives the request for an advertisement from the viewing user via the third-party publisher system and transmits the request to the advertisement provider. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 8 , wherein an advertisement server receives the request for an advertisement from the social networking system and transmits the advertisement to the social networking system in response to receiving the request. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 9 , wherein the social networking system receives the advertisement from the advertisement server and transmits the social endorsement and the advertisement to the third-party publisher system for display to the viewing user. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein an advertisement server receives the request for an advertisement from the viewing user via the third-party publisher system and transmits the advertisement to the third-party publisher system. 
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11 , wherein the third-party publisher system, responsive to receiving the advertisement from the advertisement server, requests the social endorsement from the social networking system. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 11 , wherein the third-party publisher system, responsive to receiving the advertisement from the advertisement server, requests social networking system data related to social networking system users associated with the viewing user from the social networking system. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein an advertisement server receives the request for an advertisement from the viewing user via the third-party publisher system and requests the social endorsement from the social networking system. 
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement tags are selected by and retrieved from an advertiser. 
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement tags are retrieved from an advertisement server. 
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 16 , wherein the advertisement tags are generated by an advertisement server in response to receiving the request for an advertisement. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the advertisement tags are retrieved from the social networking system. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the advertisement tags specify a web page within a social networking system. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 19 , wherein the social endorsement comprises an indication that one or more users of the social networking system with whom the viewing user has established a connection in the social networking system have interacted with the web page specified by the advertisement tags. 
     
     
         21 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein one or more of the advertisement tags identify a content item in the social networking system with which users of the social networking system can interact. 
     
     
         22 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein creating social endorsement comprises selecting one or more other social networking system users based on matching demographic criteria specified by an advertiser. 
     
     
         23 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein creating social endorsement comprises selecting one or more other social networking system users based on having established a connection with the viewing user in the social networking system.