Could consumer feedback from people clicking through search engine advertisements be used to help rank the ads, and the services and goods offered by advertisers?
Such a system might provide rebate points to advertisers, to supply to purchasers, who could turn in those points in exchange for goods and services after exchanging feedback on the transactions. The feedback could then be used in rankings of future advertisements.
A series of patent applications from Microsoft explore this approach. It’s an interesting system, and even Bill Gates is listed as an inventor on one of the documents. The descriptions in the documents are all substantially similar, and it’s worth trying to work through one of them to get out the ideas behind this system
Allocating Rebate points
Invented by Uriel Feige and Kamal Jain
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20070179853
Published August 2, 2007
Filed: January 19, 2007
Abstract
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism for issuing advertising rebates to the advertisers in the form of advertiser points. In one aspect the points can be issued as a function of a points ratio that can be determined and/or updated periodically based upon customer ratings. In another aspect, the customer ratings can be employed to calculate a points credit/debit balance that can be awarded to the merchant at the end of a period.
Employing Customer Points to Confirm Transaction
Invented by Kamal Jain and William H. Gates, III
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20070179848
Published August 2, 2007
Filed: May 23, 2006
Abstract
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising and/or referral architecture in the Internet advertising space, e.g., for advertising on search engine web pages and/or on content web pages. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions even without monitoring them e.g., by issuing perishable, non-redeemable points to a merchant based upon an advertising budget. The points can then be issued as redeemable points to a customer, e.g., based upon the customer purchases from the merchant. Points transferred to the customer can verify that a transaction occurred and can be redeemed for products/services, including a convenient “micro-payment” mechanism.
Ad Publisher Performance and Mitigation of Click Fraud
Invented by Kamal Jain
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20070179849
Published August 2, 2007
Filed: May 23, 2006
Abstract
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising architecture in the advertising space, e.g., for ranking publishers of ads and/or mitigating click-fraud. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions that occur between a customer and a merchant as well as an indication of which ad publisher made the referral. Accordingly, the performance of an ad displayed by a publisher can be assessed, and, e.g., employed in the pricing scheme for displaying the ad. The ad publisher performance ratio can be relative to other ad publishers and can be employed with a pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, or other similar billing structures.
Ad Targeting and/or Pricing Based on Customer Behavior
Invented by Kamal Jain, Jennifer Tour Chayes, and Christian Herwarth Borgs
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20070179846
Published August 2, 2007
Filed: May 23, 2006
Abstract
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising and/or referral architecture in the Internet advertising space, e.g., for advertising on search engine web pages and/or on content web pages. A mechanism is provided for ad targeting and pricing based upon customer behavior. Accordingly, the ad(s) displayed to customers can be based upon the customer’s transaction history. The transaction history can be determined based upon a distribution of points the customer receives upon completing a transaction with a merchant as well as search terms or keywords within a query or a document. The transaction history can be private and can be modified and/or purged by the customer to ensure the proper types of ads are displayed.
Merchant Rankings in Ad Referrals
Invented by Kamal Jain
Assigned to Microsoft
US Patent Application 20070179845
Published August 2, 2007
Filed: May 23, 2006
Abstract
The claimed subject matter can provide a mechanism that facilitates a new advertising ranking architecture in the Internet advertising space, e.g., for advertising on search engine web pages and/or on content web pages. A mechanism is provided to confirm transactions even without monitoring them e.g., and, once verified, the customer can rank the merchant based upon the customer’s satisfaction with the merchant and/or the underlying transaction. The merchant ranking can be calculated in a variety of ways and utilized to modify the pricing of an ad for that merchant, as well as which customers will be presented the ad, or even if the ad not be displayed (e.g., due to a low ranking). Merchants with high rankings can be attracted by incentives, improving the overall quality of the ads, which can attract more consumers.
Seems like there could be some type of barter system being worked here. The intercation could be good and then the middleman gets something from both parties.