Measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign from an offline merchant

Abstract

A technique for tracking conversion of an online offer includes tracking online and/or offline transactions. A customer accepts an offer provided by a merchant and submits his or her account information so that he or she may receive a reward for satisfying criteria associated with the offer. Transactions of the merchant are then monitored at the payment processor level to determine whether the customer satisfies the purchase criteria. Therefore, online and offline conversion can both be tracked. Further, the merchant is able to determine the overall effectiveness of advertising campaigns by analyzing the number of offers that are both accepted and satisfied.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . In a system comprising a set of point of sale (POS) systems associated with a set of merchants, and a payment processor communicatively coupled to the set of POS systems via a network, an offer engine to determine satisfaction of a set of offers associated with the set of merchants based on a set of transactions completed, using the set of POS systems, between a set of customers and the set of merchants in response to each customer of the set of customers receiving and accepting one or more offers of the set of offers from one or more merchants of the set of merchants, wherein each offer of the set of offers specifies at least one criterion for the set of customers to satisfy that online offer and complete the transactions with one or more merchants of the set of merchants that provide that online offer, the offer engine comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the offer engine to:
 receive the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, each offer of the set of offers including first payment account information; 
 receive, from the payment processor, the set of transactions associated with purchases made by the set of customers at the set of POS systems of the set of merchants, each transaction of the set of transactions including second payment account information; 
 for each offer of the set of offers:
 determine that one or more criterion for that offer is satisfied by one or more transactions of the set of transactions to identify one or more satisfying transactions; 
 determine that that offer is satisfied for at least one satisfying transaction of the one or more satisfying transactions when the second payment account information of at least one satisfying transaction matches first payment account information for that offer; 
 transmit, via the network, to a merchant device of a merchant associated with that offer, an indication that that offer has been satisfied by a customer of the set of customers associated with the at least one satisfying transaction. 
 
   
     
     
         3 . The offer engine of  claim 2 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further include instructions that cause the offer engine to query a database for any outstanding offers, the database storing the set of offers as an outstanding set of offers, and wherein the offer engine receives the set of offers in response to the querying. 
     
     
         4 . The offer engine of  claim 2 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further include instructions to:
 transmit, to the payment processor, a request for transactions at the set of merchants, the request including:
 a merchant identifier for each merchant of the set of merchants, wherein the merchant identifier was previously issued to the merchant by the payment processor and communicated to the offer engine by the merchant; and 
 hashed first payment account information based on the first payment account information from the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, 
   wherein the offer engine receives the set of transactions in response to the transmitting the request for transactions, and wherein the set of transactions include transactions where the second payment account information matches the hashed first payment account information.   
     
     
         5 . The offer engine of  claim 4 , wherein the computer-readable instructions that cause the offer engine to determine that that offer is satisfied further for the at least one satisfying transaction includes instructions to determine that the offer is satisficed when the hashed second payment account information of the last least one satisfying transaction matches the hashed first payment account information for that offer. 
     
     
         6 . The offer engine of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more criterion include a specification of a time period, and wherein the computer-readable instructions that cause the offer engine to determine that that offer is satisfied further include instructions to determine that timestamp information associated with one or more satisfying transactions satisfies the specification of the time period. 
     
     
         7 . The offer engine of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more criterion include a specification of a minimum amount of a product. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one or more criterion include a specification of a minimum spend for that transaction of the set of transactions. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the one-or more criterion include a specification of a minimum number of transactions within a time period. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further include instructions to: transmit, via the network, to a customer device of the customer of the set of customers that was determined to satisfy that offer, an indication that that offer has been satisfied by that customer. 
     
     
         11 . A method to determine satisfaction of a set of offers associated with a set of merchants based on a set of transactions completed, using a set of point of sale (POS) systems associated with the set of merchants and a payment processor communicatively coupled to the set of POS systems via a network, between a set of customers and the set of merchants in response to the each customer of the set of customers receiving and accepting one or more offers of the set of offers from one or more merchants of the set of merchants, wherein each offer of the set of offers specifies at least one criterion for the set of customers to satisfy that online offer and complete the transactions with one or more merchants of the set of merchants that provide that online offer, the method comprising:
 receiving the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, each offer of the set of offers including first payment account information;   receiving, from the payment processor, the set of transactions associated with purchases made by the set of customers at the set of POS systems of the set of merchants, each transaction of the set of transactions including second payment account information;   for each offer of the set of offers:
 determining whether one or more criterion for that offer is satisfied by one or more transactions of the set of transactions to identify one or more satisfying transactions; 
 determining that that offer is satisfied for at least one satisfying transaction of the one or more satisfying transactions when the second payment account information of at least one satisfying transaction matches first payment account information for that offer; 
 transmitting, via the network, to a merchant device of a merchant associated with that offer, an indication that that offer has been satisfied by a customer of the set of customers associated with the at least one satisfying transaction. 
   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 transmitting, to the payment processor, a request for transactions at the set of merchants, the request including:
 a merchant identifier for each merchant of the set of merchants, wherein the merchant identifier was previously issued to the merchant by the payment processor; and 
 hashed first payment account information based on the first payment account information from the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, 
   wherein the receiving the set of transactions is in response to the transmitting the request for transactions, and wherein the set of transactions include transactions where the second payment account information matches the hashed first payment account information.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , the determining that that offer is satisfied further including determining that the offer is satisfied when the hashed second payment account information of the last least one satisfying transaction matches the hashed first payment account information for that offer. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising querying a database for any outstanding offers, the database storing the set of offers as an outstanding set of offers, and wherein the receiving the set of offers is in response to the querying. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more criterion include one or more of:
 a specification of a time period within which that transaction of the set of transactions must be executed;   a specification of a minimum amount of a product;   a specification of a minimum spend for that transaction of the set of transactions; or   a specification of a minimum number of transactions within a time period.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further include instructions to: transmit, via the network, to a customer device of the customer of the set of customers that was determined to satisfy that offer, an indication that that offer has been satisfied by that customer. 
     
     
         17 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions to determine satisfaction of a set of offers associated with a set of merchants based on a set of transactions completed, using a set of point of sale (POS) systems associated with the set of merchants and a payment processor communicatively coupled to the set of POS systems via a network, between a set of customers and the set of merchants in response to the each customer of the set of customers receiving and accepting one or more offers of the set of offers from one or more merchants of the set of merchants, wherein each offer of the set of offers specifies at least one criterion for the set of customers to satisfy that online offer and complete the transactions with one or more merchants of the set of merchants that provide that online offer, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause one or more processors to:
 receiving the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, each offer of the set of offers including first payment account information;   receiving, from the payment processor, the set of transactions associated with purchases made by the set of customers at the set of POS systems of the set of merchants, each transaction of the set of transactions including second payment account information;   for each offer of the set of offers:
 determining whether one or more criterion for that offer is satisfied by one or more transactions of the set of transactions to identify one or more satisfying transactions; 
 determining that that offer is satisfied for at least one satisfying transaction of the one or more satisfying transactions when the second payment account information of at least one satisfying transaction matches first payment account information for that offer; 
 transmitting, via the network, to a merchant device of a merchant associated with that offer, an indication that that offer has been satisfied by a customer of the set of customers associated with the at least one satisfying transaction. 
   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processors to:
 transmitting, to the payment processor, a request for transactions at the set of merchants, the request including:
 a merchant identifier for each merchant of the set of merchants, wherein the merchant identifier was previously issued to the merchant by the payment processor; and 
 hashed first payment account information based on the first payment account information from the set of offers that have been accepted by the set of customers, 
   wherein the receiving the set of transactions is in response to the transmitting the request for transactions, and wherein the set of transactions include transactions where the second payment account information matches the hashed first payment account information.   
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the one or more processors to determine that that offer is satisfied further include instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to determine that the offer is satisfied when the hashed second payment account information of the last least one satisfying transaction matches the hashed first payment account information for that offer. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the computer-readable instructions further include instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to query a database for any outstanding offers, the database storing the set of offers as an outstanding set of offers, and wherein the receiving the set of offers is in response to the querying. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the one or more criterion include one or more of:
 a specification of a time period within which that transaction of the set of transactions must be executed;   a specification of a minimum amount of a product;   a specification of a minimum spend for that transaction of the set of transactions; or   
       a specification of a minimum number of transactions within a time period.