US20190287133A1

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Publication number: US20190287133A1
Application number: US16/433,702
Authority: US
Inventors: Dex Bindra; Jeffrey S. Nimeroff; Thomas Walsh
Original assignee: Zeta Global Corp
Current assignee: Zeta Global Corp
Priority date: 2014-07-16
Filing date: 2019-06-06
Publication date: 2019-09-19
Also published as: US20160019582A1; US20160019584A1; US20200065852A1; US20220114614A1; US11783368B2; US10387908B2

Abstract

In some examples, a computer-implemented method of managing an advertising exchange is provided. The method uses email data and provides an interactive user interface for controlling management of data in an email channel. One or more inputs of online audience data is received. The online audience data includes email channel inventory from multiple publishers. Offline audience data including offline shopping behavior is sourced from at least one or more offline source. The online audience data and the offline audience data is included in a unified customer database, and the interactive user interface includes interface elements selectable to present online and offline audience data sourced from the unified customer database.

Description

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/025,162, filed on Jul. 16, 2014 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/025,158, filed on Jul. 16, 2014. The disclosures of each of the applications cited in this paragraph are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to systems and methods for management of an advertising exchange using email data, and, more specifically, to systems and methods for managing access and purchase of advertising inventory using email data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Targeted marketing is a commonly used tool for improving return on investment for advertising expenditures. In general, the more accurate the targeting is to consumers, the more benefit is received from the advertising campaign.

Currently, there are no existing systems that utilize email data to operate a publisher advertiser exchange. In existing systems, advertisers must work directly with sets of independent publishers. This requires negotiating multiple rates while conforming to multiple standards. Alternatively, the advertisers must work through an agency, which do not provide transparency or economies of scale.

Needs exist for improved systems and methods for improved systems and methods for marketing campaigns.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and together with the detailed description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system for management of an advertising exchange using email data.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary system for computational aspects of management of an advertising exchange using email data.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary flow diagram for management of an advertising exchange using email data.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flow diagram for management of an advertising exchange using email data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Systems and methods are described for using various tools and procedures for management of an advertising exchange using email data. In certain embodiments, the tools and procedures may be used in conjunction with improved performance of targeted advertising campaigns in the email channel. The examples described herein relate to email channels for illustrative purposes only. The systems and methods described herein may be used for many different channels, industries and purposes, including any type of marketing campaigns and/or other industries completely. In particular, the systems and methods may be used for any industry or purpose where targeted marketing is needed. For example, email data could be used to operate an exchange for SMS marketing or social media marketing. For multi-step processes or methods, steps may be performed by one or more different parties, servers, processors, etc.

Certain embodiments may provide systems and methods for targeted advertising. Systems and methods may aggregate email inventory from multiple publishers across demographic, psychographic, implicit, explicit, imputed, and computed attributes. The aggregated email inventory may be visible to advertisers. This may facilitate purchase of data for the purpose of targeting and sending third party dedicated emails.

Certain embodiments may allow advertisers to easily access and purchase email data enabling them to optimize yield across dedicated email audiences. In addition, publishers may be able to monetize inventory at a premium and more often than with existing system because the inventory is available to multiple advertisers and aggregated in a marketplace.

An email channel may be any communication sent electronically to an electronic address, i.e., sent via email. In certain embodiments, an email channel may refer to sending of third party advertisements through email.

In general, inventory may be a general term for a unit of advertising space, such as a magazine page, television airtime, direct mail message, email messages, text messages, telephone calls, etc. Advertising inventory may be advertisements a publisher has available to sell to an advertiser. In certain embodiments, advertising inventory may refer to a number of email advertisements being bought and/or sold. The terms inventory and advertising inventory may be used interchangeably. For email marketing campaigns, advertising inventory is typically an email message.

A publisher may be an entity that sells advertising inventory, such as those produced by the systems and methods herein, to their email subscriber database. An advertiser may be a buyer of publisher email inventory. Examples of advertisers may include various retailers. A marketplace may allow advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising inventory. Marketplaces, also called exchanges or networks, may be used to sell display, video, and mobile inventory. In certain embodiments, a marketplace may be an email exchange/email marketplace. An email exchange may be a type of marketplace that facilitates buying and/or selling of inventory between advertisers and publishers. This inventory may be characterized based on customer attributes used in marketing campaigns. Therefore, an email exchange may have inventory that can be queried by each advertiser. This may increase efficiency of advertisers when purchasing inventory. A private network may be a marketplace that has more control and requirements for participation by both advertisers and publishers.

An individual record/prospect may be at least one identifier of a target. In certain embodiments, the individual record/prospect may be identified by a record identification mechanism, such as a specific email address (individual or household) that receives an email message.

An audience may be a group of records, which may be purchased as inventory. In certain embodiments, an audience may be a group of records selected from publisher databases of available records. The subset of selected records may adhere to a predetermined set of criteria, such as common age range, common shopping habits, and/or similar lifestyle situation (i.e., stay at home mother). Advertisers generally select the predetermined set of criteria when they are making an inventory purchase.

Although not required, the systems and methods are described in the general context of computer program instructions executed by one or more computing devices that can take the form of a traditional server/desktop/laptop; mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet; etc. Computing devices typically include one or more processors coupled to data storage for computer program modules and data. Key technologies include, but are not limited to, the multi-industry standards of Microsoft and Linux/Unix based Operating Systems; databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, NOSQL, and DB2; Business Analytic/Intelligence tools such as SPSS, Cognos, SAS, etc.; development tools such as Java.NET Framework (VB.NET, ASP.NET, AJAX.NET, etc.); and other e-Commerce products, computer languages, and development tools. Such program modules generally include computer program instructions such as routines, programs, objects, components, etc., for execution by the one or more processors to perform particular tasks, utilize data, data structures, and/or implement particular abstract data types. While the systems, methods, and apparatus are described in the foregoing context, acts and operations described hereinafter may also be implemented in hardware.

FIG. 1 shows anexemplary system100 for predictive modeling of offline attribution according to one embodiment. In this exemplary implementation,system100 may include one or more servers/computing devices102 (e.g., server 1, server 2, . . . , server n) operatively coupled overnetwork104 to one or more client computing devices106-1 to106-n, which may include one or more consumer computing devices, one or more provider computing devices, one or more remote access devices, etc. The one or more servers/computing devices102 may also be operatively connected, such as over a network, to one or more third party servers/databases114 (e.g., database 1, database 2, . . . , database n). The one or more servers/computing devices102 may also be operatively connected, such as over a network, to one or more system databases116 (e.g., database 1, database 2, . . . , database n). Various devices may be connected to the system, including, but not limited to, client computing devices, consumer computing devices, provider computing devices, remote access devices, etc. This system may receiveinputs118 andoutputs120 from the various computing devices, servers and databases.

Server/computing device102 may represent, for example, any one or more of a server, a general-purpose computing device such as a server, a personal computer (PC), a laptop, a smart phone, a tablet, and/or so on.Networks104 represent, for example, any combination of the Internet, local area network(s) such as an intranet, wide area network(s), cellular networks, WIFI networks, and/or so on. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, etc. Client computing devices106, which may include at least one processor, represent a set of arbitrary computing devices executing application(s) that respectively send data inputs to server/computing device102 and/or receive data outputs from server/computing device102. Such computing devices include, for example, one or more of desktop computers, laptops, mobile computing devices (e.g., tablets, smart phones, human wearable device), server computers, and/or so on. In this implementation, the input data comprises, for example, publisher data, audience data, email data, and/or so on, for processing with server/computing device102. In one implementation, the data outputs include, for example, emails, templates, forms, and/or so on. Embodiments of the present invention may also be used for collaborative projects with multiple users logging in and performing various operations on a data project from various locations. Embodiments of the present invention may be web-based, smart phone-based and/or tablet-based or human wearable device based.

In this exemplary implementation, server/computing device102 includes at least one processor coupled to a system memory. System memory may include computer program modules and program data.

In this exemplary implementation, server/computing device102 includes at least oneprocessor202 coupled to a system memory204, as shown inFIG. 2. System memory204 may include computer program modules206 andprogram data208. In this implementation program modules206 may includepublisher module210,email database module212,query module214, andother program modules216 such as an operating system, device drivers, etc. Eachprogram module210 through216 may include a respective set of computer-program instructions executable by processor(s)202. This is one example of a set of program modules and other numbers and arrangements of program modules are contemplated as a function of the particular arbitrary design and/or architecture of server/computing device102 and/or system100 (FIG. 1). Additionally, although shown on a single server/computing device102, the operations associated with respective computer-program instructions in the program modules206 could be distributed across multiple computing devices.Program data208 may includepublisher data220,audience data222,email data224, andother program data226 such as data input(s), third party data, and/or others.

As shown inFIG. 3, certain embodiments may provide management of data in an email channel.

Asystem301 may aggregate data from one or more publishers into a unified database. A network ofpublishers303 may be provided and/or accessible. In certain embodiments, the network ofpublishers303 may be a private network of publishers. Each of thepublishers305, such as Publisher A, may include audience data. The audience data for each publisher may be transformed and aligned into aunified email database307. An advertiser facingquery tool309 may interact with theunified email database307 to provide advertisers with requested information. Data may be accessed from and/or provided by one or more sources.

FIG. 4 shows a system for management of data in an email channel.

Asystem401 may aggregate data from one or more publishers into a unified database. A network ofpublishers403 may be provided and/or accessible. In certain embodiments, the network ofpublishers403 may be a private network of publishers. Publishers A-D are shown inFIG. 4 for illustrative purposes, but it is understood that any number of publishers may be provided in the network ofpublishers403. Private networks of publishers may be maintained for the purpose of fulfilling advertiser media buys.

Each of thepublishers405, such as Publisher A, may include audience data. Audience data may include individual and household level demographics from self-reported sources and third party vendors, digital shopping behavior across other marketing campaigns, and offline shopping behavior sourced from catalogues, loyalty cards, retail stores, etc. Audience data may include one or more of the following:

- demographics (explicit information on the email record individual such as, but not limited to, age, gender, income, marital status, etc.);
- geographic (explicit information on the email record such as, but not limited to, postal address, zip code, state, etc.);
- psychographic (description of personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests, lifestyles, etc. that allow advertisers to customize content to improve response);
- implicit: Any third party data, not necessarily questionable as to its truth, but the audit trail is less strict/complete;
- explicit: Data that is verified or observed, which may also include self-reported data;
- imputed: Use of statistics to determine a value that is missing from a data set. This may be used as a placeholder until explicit information is received. For example, based on response history, a person's gender may be determined, but there may not be explicit or implicit data confirming the person's gender; and
- computed: Data, such as, but not limited to, response rate, which are based on observed/verified information. For example, the number of times an individual opens out of the number of times they receive an email. In certain embodiments, raw transactions that represent a purchase history may be used to compute a score such as RFM (recency, frequency, monetary), which would not typically be reported.

The audience data for each publisher may be transformed and aligned into aunified email database407. Publishers may provide records with audience attributes. As such publishers may provide records with the same types of information, but not always all of the same type of information. Publisher records may be transformed into a common format with a set of cleaning and augmentation procedures applied, such as, but not limited to, filling in gaps, layering on new information, etc. Publishers can pass data in any format, which may be independent of the destination format. As such, the transforming may include normalizing the audience data, converting the audience data to a predetermined format, inputting missing values, appending additional information, cleansing, and manipulating the data for querying in a unified customer database. Each of the publisher records may be stored separately in the email database and/or may be merged into a single database.

An advertiser facingquery tool409 may interact with theunified email database407 to provide advertisers with requested information. Data may be accessed from and/or provided by one or more sources. The frontend query tool409 may allow advertisers to count available email inventory across the publisher email database.

Although the foregoing description is directed to the preferred embodiments of the invention, it is noted that other variations and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Moreover, features described in connection with one embodiment of the invention may be used in conjunction with other embodiments, even if not explicitly stated above.