US 11,715,133 B2
Systems and methods for determining bids for placing advertisements
Michael J. Grebeck, San Francisco, CA (US); Ali Nasiri Amini, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Aaron E. Flores, Mountain View, CA (US); Jose Carlos Garcia Franco, Mountain View, CA (US); Hans Marius Holtan, San Jose, CA (US); and Robert Alden Luenberger, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to YAHOO AD TECH LLC, Dulles, VA (US)
Filed by Yahoo Ad Tech LLC, Dulles, VA (US)
Filed on Oct. 21, 2013, as Appl. No. 14/59,194.
Application 14/059,194 is a continuation of application No. 13/465,568, filed on May 7, 2012, granted, now 8,566,207.
Application 13/465,568 is a continuation of application No. 12/314,323, filed on Dec. 8, 2008, granted, now 8,175,950, issued on May 8, 2012.
Prior Publication US 2014/0046758 A1, Feb. 13, 2014
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/0273 (2023.01); G06Q 40/04 (2012.01); G06Q 30/0201 (2023.01); G06Q 40/00 (2023.01); G06Q 40/06 (2012.01); G06Q 30/0241 (2023.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0275 (2013.01) [G06Q 30/0201 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0247 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0273 (2013.01); G06Q 40/00 (2013.01); G06Q 40/04 (2013.01); G06Q 40/06 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for determining a bid parameter for displaying electronic content on one or more target web pages, the method comprising:
receiving, by a campaign optimizer of an electronic device over an electronic network, i) campaign goal data and ii) electronic content for display on one or more web pages;
based on the campaign goal data, identifying, by the campaign optimizer, a target web page from the one or more web pages, the target web page including at least one or more cells for displaying the electronic content at a particular place and time;
receiving, by the campaign optimizer, target web page data comprising data values;
determining failures with receiving the data values of the target web page data, the failures comprising signals exhibiting out of control or abnormal behavior;
providing a warning indication for the out of control or abnormally behaving data values;
parsing, by the campaign optimizer, the target web page data to recursively determine one or more current option values for one or more learning periods, wherein determining the one or more current option values for the one or more learning period includes:
determining cell inventory levels of the target web page via a query to a database;
determining a continuation value associated with an expected value for maintaining a display of the electronic content on the target web page for the learning period;
determining, by a Markov decision modeling process, an option value associated with an option to stop communicating the electronic content during the learning period;
determining a current cost rate estimate;
setting a current option value to equal the option value based on the current cost rate estimate;
iteratively adjusting the current cost rate estimate until the option value equals zero;
calculating a bid parameter based on determining that the current option value is zero, and wherein the bid parameter includes a lattice structure comprising one or more nodes, each node representing an expected revenue value for maintaining a display of the electronic content on the target web page;
transmitting, by the campaign optimizer, a bid value based on the bid parameter, to a server processor associated with the target web page, the bid value being an acceptable offer to display the electronic content at a particular place and time for a price; and
based on acceptance of the bid value, displaying the electronic content on the target web page.