Method and apparatus for validation of targeted advertising data

Abstract

A system is disclosed comprising: a memory and at least one processor operatively coupled to the memory, the at least one processor being configured to: present a user interface for registering an advertiser with the system and specifying an attribution rule for calculating a fee that is owed by the advertiser to a first advertising platform; obtain an analytics report; generate an attribution report based on the analytics report and the attribution rule, the attribution report including an indication of a fee that is calculated based on the attribution rule; and transmit the attribution report to the first advertising platform.

1 .- 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code representing instructions that when executed cause a processor to:
 obtain at least one analytics report that includes a plurality of transaction records, each transaction record being associated with a transaction and a first advertiser;   identify inconsistencies among the plurality of transaction reports;   generate an first attribution report based on the at least one analytics report and an attribution rule;   determine whether the at least one analytics report includes an error; and   automatically correcting the at least one analytics report upon determining that the at least one analytics report includes the error.   
     
     
         22 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , wherein:
 the determination that the at least one analytics report includes the error occurs when the at least one analytics report is missing information that is necessary for applying the first attribution report.   
     
     
         23 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , further including instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
 generate a first advertiser profile including an identifier for the first advertiser and an identifier for a first advertising platform.   
     
     
         24 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 23 , further including instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
 calculate a fee that is owed by the first advertiser, wherein the first attribution report includes the fee that is owed by the first advertiser; and   transmit the first attribution report to the first advertising platform.   
     
     
         25 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 24 , wherein:
 the calculation of the fee is based on logic that includes:
 a first conditional expression for calculating the fee based on a first transaction attribute value when the first transaction attribute value is provided by the at least one analytics report; and 
 a second condition expression for calculating the fee based on a second transaction attribute value when the first transaction attribute value is not provided by the at least one analytics report, wherein the first transaction attribute is different from the second transaction attribute value. 
   
     
     
         26 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , wherein:
 the attribution rule is specified by the first advertiser.   
     
     
         27 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , wherein:
 the attribution rule includes logic for calculating a commission that is owed by the first advertiser to a publishing to a publishing platform that has been caused by the first advertising platform to present one or more advertisements that are associated with the first advertiser.   
     
     
         28 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , wherein:
 the at least one analytics report includes a first analytics report and a second analytics report; and further comprising:
 identifying a first attribute value and a second attribute value that are needed for applying the attribution rule; 
 identifying a first portion of the first analytics report that includes the first attribute value; 
 identifying a second portion of the second analytics report that includes the second attribute value; and 
   wherein generating the first attribution report includes combing the first portion of the first analytics report and a second portion of the second analytics report.   
     
     
         29 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 21 , further including instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
 identify at least one attribute value that is missing from the at least one analytics report when the at least one attribute value that is missing from the at least one analytics report is necessary for executing the attribution rule.   
     
     
         30 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 29 , further including instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
 notify the first advertiser of the at least one attribute value that is missing when it is necessary for executing the attribution rule.   
     
     
         31 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to  claim 23 , further including instructions that when executed cause the processor to:
 present a management screen including a first record and a second record, the first record corresponding to the first attribution report and the second record corresponding to a second attribution report,   wherein the first attribution report includes a plurality of transaction records, each transaction record corresponding to a different transaction resulting from a presentation of an advertisement associated with the first advertiser profile and the first advertising platform; and   wherein the second attribution report includes a plurality of transaction records, each transaction record corresponding to a different transaction resulting from a presentation of an advertisement associated with the first advertiser and a second advertising platform that is different from the first advertising platform.