Contextual promotions

Abstract

A database of available promotions may be accessed. The promotions may be associated with one or more sellers, one or more product lines, one or more themes, and so on. A user may submit a search query to a search engine. The search engine may process the search query and generate a set of results. Items in the result set may be associated with one or more of the promotions. Based on the associations with promotions in the set of results to the user's query, one or more promotions may be selected for presentation to the user. The number of selected promotions may be a constant, set by the user, or determined on a query-by-query basis. The selected promotions may be presented to the user along with the search results for the query.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving a search query from a client machine;   identifying, by a processor of a machine, a set of results to the search query;   based on the set of results, identifying a set of promotions; and   responsive to the search query, transmitting the set of results and the set of promotions to the client machine.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the search query is received from a user of the client machine; and   the identifying of the set of promotions further identifies the set of promotions based on actions of other users after submitting other search queries matching the search query.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in successful sessions of the other users, the successful sessions including search queries matching the search query. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in unsuccessful sessions of the other users, the unsuccessful sessions including search queries matching the search query. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the search query is received from a user of the client machine; and   the identifying of the set of promotions further identifies the set of promotions based on prior actions of the user after submitting other search queries.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in successful sessions of the user. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in unsuccessful sessions of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein:
 the identifying of the set of promotions identifies a size of the set of promotions; and   the identifying of the set of promotions based on the prior actions of the user after submitting other search queries includes identifying the size of the set of promotions based on a propensity of the user to interact with promotions.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions further identifies the set of promotions based on a context of the search query. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in successful sessions associated with the context. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in unsuccessful sessions associated with the context. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the set of promotions are a subset of a set of possible promotions; and   identifying the set of promotions includes:
 identifying a number of results of the set of results associated with each promotion of the set of possible promotions, and 
 selecting the set of promotions from the set of possible promotions based on the number of results associated with each promotion of the set of possible promotions. 
   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein each promotion of the set of promotions is associated with a higher number of results than other promotions of the set of possible promotions. 
     
     
         14 . A system comprising:
 one or more modules configured to:
 receive a search query from a client machine; 
 identify a set of results to the search query; 
 based on the set of results, identify a set of promotions; and 
 responsive to the search query, transmit the set of results and the set of promotions to the client machine. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein:
 the search query is received from a user of the client machine; and   the identifying of the set of promotions further identifies the set of promotions based on actions of other users after submitting other search queries matching the search query.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in successful sessions of the other users, the successful sessions including search queries matching the search query. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in unsuccessful sessions of the other users, the unsuccessful sessions including search queries matching the search query. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein:
 the search query is received from a user of the client machine; and   the identifying of the set of promotions further identifies the set of promotions based on prior actions of the user after submitting other search queries.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the identifying of the set of promotions is further based on usage metrics in successful sessions of the user. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
 receiving a search query from a client machine;   identifying a set of results to the search query;   based on the set of results, identifying a set of promotions; and   responsive to the search query, transmitting the set of results and the set of promotions to the client machine.