Claims:We Claim:
1. A system for the creation, distribution and tracking of electronic advertisements on an electronic network, comprising
a. a system-end computer including computer processing means communicating with said electronic network said electronic content files being made available by one or more licensors for selection by a system advertiser user for licensing in exchange for a fee, for use in creating an electronic advertisement
b. a dispatcher server communicating with said system-end computer and communicating with one or more advertisement presentation locations on said electronic network located remotely from said dispatcher server and assembling and presenting said one or more designated licensed electronic content files as an electronic advertisement
2. The system of claim 1 wherein said tracking utilizes file server direct connection.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein said content files are made available for licensing on a cost-per-use basis.
4. The system of claim 1, further comprising means for a system advertiser user to upload information about said advertiser user's products/services into said system and means for completing e-commerce transactions via said system involving purchase of said products/services.
, Description:Technical Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for creation and distribution of advertising, promotional and informational electronic communications regarding products and services via computer and communication networks and displaying same at desired locations.
Background of the Invention
Advertisers seeking the global reach of the Internet and other electronic networks as an effective and efficient medium for disseminating advertisements to consumers have had to deal with various limitations in technology and methods. From the advertiser’s perspective, there are two main tasks to accomplish 1) creation of an effective ad and 2) effective placement of the ad. From the ad publisher’s perspective there are also two main tasks to accomplish 1) display of the highest revenue-producing ads and 2) reducing the amount of work necessary to place, maintain, track and process payments for advertising. The creation of electronic advertising content can be an expensive task for those that take the traditional route of either creating content internally or engaging a third-party contractor to create same. While there are sources of pre-existing electronic content that can be used in exchange for payment of a fee, because of content provider system limitations in the ability to track usage activity with respect to the content usually the fee is a flat fee payable up front, which makes the use of such content an expense that users must incur beforehand. This method does not allow for optimization of return on investment, or “ROI,” with respect to ads based on real-time ad response, because if the advertising content is not working effectively, to change the content would mean losing all invested in the purchase of that content. This also can result in content licensors not maximizing the revenues generated from their content. Effective placement of an ad is crucial for success of any ad campaign. The ad must reach the proper audience and as large an audience as possible in order to maximize the effectiveness of the ad in generating business for the advertiser. Ad display space costs money as well, and advertisers therefore need to make sure that the display locations they select for their ads produce an acceptable ROI to be worthwhile. In the case of the Internet, which is dominated by many personal and special interest websites with relatively low traffic, a simple method for publishers to place advertising on their web sites for optimal return is necessary. Internet advertising charging methods include the pre-pay or billed cost-per-impression, or “CPM,” or cost-per-click, or “CPC,” models, wherein advertisers pay publishers to place their advertisements on a website according to the number of impressions served, or click actions taken on the advertisement. Usually these transactions are done through a third-party agency who receives commissions based on a percentage agency discount offered by the publisher. basis and also pay for ad space for the ads created using such content in desired locations and in response to desired keywords on a cost-per-click basis, with payment from the advertiser to both the content licensor and the ad. display location owner being processed each time the ad content is used by displaying the ad at the particular display location. They would further benefit from being able to manage their ad content composition and placement and make changes to their ad content and ad placement quickly and easily based on their assessment of ad and ad placement ROI or other effectiveness measures made possible by tracking data gathered by such a system. As discussed below, the present invention is such a system. Previous methods only allow for simple text ads, or listings that link to web page. Larger rich media and professionally designed display ads are proven more effective at getting results, but in the past only available to companies with large budgets. Large professionally design display ads are more effective then text ads in getting response, but in the past where not easily distributed contextually.
Object of the Invention
The object of present invention is a system and method for creation of electronic advertisements using digital content made available for licensing, and placing the ads at desired network locations utilizing an auction of designated advertising space at desired locations on a network
Summary of the Invention
The present disclosure builds upon the marketing material building and advertisement distribution platforms for electronic ad creation, distribution and tracking described in the above-referenced co-pending applications to provide an advertising electronic commerce system and method improving both efficiency and effectiveness for ad content licensors, advertisers and the publishers of the advertisements. Publishers and advertisers can benefit greatly from the disclosed system and method, which provides a "one stop shop" for electronic advertising on multiple networks" where everything necessary to effectively display, create, distribute, and track advertising is provided. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is disclosed a system and method for the creation, distribution and tracking of electronic advertisements on an electronic network, comprising a system-end computer including computer processing means communicating with said electronic network and with one or more electronic content servers on said electronic network, said one or more electronic content servers having stored thereon one or more electronic content files, said electronic content files being made available by one or more licensors for selection by a system advertiser user for licensing in exchange for a fee, for use in creating an electronic advertisement; a dispatcher server communicating with said system-end computer and communicating with one or more advertisement presentation locations on said electronic network located remotely from said dispatcher server and said one or more electronic content servers, said one or more advertisement presentation locations being made available by one or more advertisement presentation location providers for use by said system advertiser user for presentation of said advertisements in exchange for a fee; a database communicating with said dispatcher server, said database storing one or more parameter and command records containing commands for retrieving from one or more electronic content servers one or more of said licensed electronic content files designated by said system advertiser user and assembling and presenting said
Brief Description of Drawings
FIG. 1 is a flow chart depicting the pay-per-use content licensing process flow.
Detailed Description of Invention:
According to a preferred embodiment hereof, the present invention is an all-inclusive electronic advertising network system and method, including means for advertisers to create, advertisements, using licensed digital content on a cost-per-use basis, and means for distributing said advertisements via a “billboard module” and a dispatcher server automatically conducting an auction to select an ad for display whenever a billboard module on the network is requested by a network user/ad viewer. When the billboard module is requested at a network location it communicates with the relational database using the protocol appropriate for the network. At this time the auction takes place, first finding all of the ad parameter files in the database for the ads waiting for display that reference the same billboard module associated keywords or categories and other information passed from the billboard module, then using an algorithm to determine which ad (s) will ultimately be displayed• in the ad space. Once the winning ad of the auction is determined, the ad is displayed within the designated billboard module according to the instructions in the relational database file for the ad. This file stores data required for commands that execute assembly, retrieval of selected digital media files previously stored in electronic format in one or more servers, as well as ad viewer tracking data, billing for licensed digital media and for display of the ad at the designated location, as well as where to direct the viewer of the ad, such as, in web implementations, to the desired destination website page relating to said advertisement, if the viewer desires to obtain more information regarding the advertisement, or to the next or previous designated web page or other network location.
Referring now to FIG. 1, which shows the process flow of the advertising method implemented with the system of the present invention via the Internet, an advertiser creates and places an ad by executing the following steps: WO 2007/075897 PCT/US2006/048805 Registering with the system as an advertisement administrator advertisers are directed to a menu where they create their advertising display by entering messaging, uploading logos or pictures, selecting from a variety of digital content libraries made available through the system for licensing on a cost-per-use basis, and create an advertising campaign by entering keywords 'or selecting categories to associate with said advertisement, network location and geographical region for the advertisement's display, go-to location upon click action on the advertisement, cost-per-use bid, minimum daily budget and other ad parameter data. Advertisers are also provided the opportunity to run real-time test auctions to evaluate approximate results of their campaign with the parameters they have selected. These items of information are then stored as the unique record in the database that can be retrieved and used by the billboard module and advertisement template file (.swf .asp, .php, .net, AJAX or other file format) parameter command file for that particular ad placement . The record also includes the cost-per-use data for all of the ad content files forming part of the ad, and also the "bid" for display of the ad at specified network locations in response to user queries on search engines and/or websites using specified words or other user action at the specified network location where the ad is to be displayed. [0075] After clicking "Save" in the system user screen when the above-referenced data is entered, a unique specific database record containing the specified custom parameters in the system's dispatcher server. When a billboard module on the network is requested, a communication is established with the dispatcher server, and after comparison, one or more of these specific databases records are requested and the advertising is displayed/placed in the module. This placement can be "bid" on by multiple advertiser's that seek to have their ads displayed in such locations, and the system's auction function allows the website operator/ad 25 WO 2007/075897 PCT/US2006/048805 displayer to display the ads that are most profitable for it to display, i.e., those that generate the most advertising revenue. This relational database entry also may contain custom parameters which, with the help of the FSDC tracking system, will pass tracking data relating to impressions and any actions (clicks on multiple parameters) taken on that advertisement for tracking and compilation for the website operator/advertiser's future reference. The present invention makes serving Ads possible without any pre-loading technology required. [0076] Registering with the system as a publisher administrator, publishers are directed to a menu where they enter information including contact information, and account information as to where they would like payments for advertising made to. They are also offered a menu to select preferred ad space sizes and dimensions and enter keywords to associate with the ad space or select from a list of categories to associate with the billboard module. Upon submission the code necessary to embed the module in a web page is generated, with instructions. In the case of a website with search functionality, instructions will also be given on dynamically associated keyword requests with the advertising module.