Patent Issued for Media effectiveness (USPTO 11521230): United Services Automobile Association

2022 DEC 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Meier, Richmond E. (San Antonio, TX, US), Moore, Charles Holbrook (San Antonio, TX, US), Mowen, Douglas Michael (Shavano Park, TX, US), filed on October 4, 2017, was published online on December 6, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11521230 is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Marketing is about communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers or consumers for the purpose of promoting or selling that product, service, or brand. Marketing techniques include choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation. Marketing can also include understanding consumer behavior and advertising a product’s value to the customer.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “This specification describes technologies relating to improving the impact of digital media.

“In general, one innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods that include the act of providing a non-affiliated advertisement to a plurality of users. The methods include the act of receiving indications that a subset of the plurality of users have viewed the non-affiliated advertisement. The methods include the act of creating a control group for an advertisement from the subset of the plurality of users that received the non-affiliated advertisement.

“Other embodiments of this aspect include corresponding computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on one or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform the actions of the methods. A system of one or more computers can be configured to perform particular actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the system that in operation causes or cause the system to perform the actions. One or more computer programs can be configured to perform particular actions by virtue of including instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus to perform the actions.

“The foregoing and other embodiments can each optionally include one or more of the following features, alone or in combination. Each indication of the indications may be associated with a user and each indication includes an identifier associated with the corresponding user. Each indication may be generated by at least one of a callback link or a conversion pixel provided with the non-affiliated advertisement. The methods may include the act of attributing a difference between a transaction rate for users in the control group and a transaction rate for users not in the control group to the advertisement. The method may include the act of providing the advertisement and the identifiers in the control group to an advertising system. The methods may include the act of adjusting a marketing campaign based on the attributed difference.

“Particular embodiments of the subject matter described in this specification can be implemented so as to realize one or more of the following advantages. The impact of a digital marketing campaign can be determined. Marketing campaigns can be improved over time. Financial and computer processing resources can be conserved by eliminating ineffective marketing campaign.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of creating a control group for determining effectiveness of a target advertisement, the method comprising: transmitting, by at least one processor, advertisement data representing a non-affiliated advertisement and comprising a callback function that, when executed by each of a plurality of user devices that is configured to receive the advertisement data, causes that user device to transmit, to the at least one processor, callback data indicating that a corresponding user of that user device has viewed the non-affiliated advertisement and comprising identification data of that corresponding user, wherein the non-affiliated advertisement is a public service message or an advertisement for a service unrelated to a service promoted in the target advertisement, and wherein the callback function corresponds to a single pixel image that is provided with the non-affiliated advertisement; identifying that the callback data indicates that corresponding one or more users of one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement; based on identifying that the callback data indicates that the corresponding one or more users of the one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement, generating, by the at least one processor and based on the callback data, control group data for the target advertisement, the control group data comprising data representing the one or more user devices being assigned to a test group; transmitting, by the at least one processor and to the one or more user devices assigned to the test group, the target advertisement; monitoring transactions of users whose devices are assigned to the test group and users whose devices are not assigned to the test group to determine an average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group and of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group; and computing a lift value based on a percentage difference between the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group and the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the identification data comprises a cookie.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the advertisement data comprises transmitting the advertisement data to an advertising system.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement data representing the non-affiliated advertisement is transmitted in response to a request for the advertisement data from each of the plurality of user devices.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting a marketing campaign based on the lift value.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein adjusting a marketing campaign comprises performing an analysis to determine whether revenue generated due, at least in part, to the non-affiliated advertisement provides a desired return on investment compared to costs associated with the non-affiliated advertisement.

“7. A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with computer program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations for determining effectiveness of a target advertisement, the operations comprising: transmitting advertisement data representing a non-affiliated advertisement and comprising a callback function that, when executed by each of a plurality of user devices that is configured to receive the advertisement data, causes that user device to transmit, to the at least one processor, callback data indicating that a corresponding user of that user device has viewed the non-affiliated advertisement and comprising identification data of that corresponding user, wherein the non-affiliated advertisement is a public service message or an advertisement for a service unrelated to a service promoted in the target advertisement, and wherein the callback function corresponds to a single pixel image that is provided with the non-affiliated advertisement; identifying that the callback data indicates that corresponding one or more users of one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement; based on identifying that the callback data indicates that the corresponding one or more users of the one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement, generating, based on the callback data, control group data for the target advertisement, the control group data comprising data representing the one or more user devices being assigned to a test group; transmitting to the one or more user devices assigned to the test group, the target advertisement; monitoring transactions of users whose devices are assigned to the test group and users whose devices are not assigned to the test group to determine an average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group and of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group; and computing a lift value based on a percentage difference between the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group and the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group.

“8. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein the identification data comprises a cookie.

“9. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein transmitting the advertisement data comprises transmitting the advertisement data to an advertising system.

“10. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise adjusting a marketing campaign based on the attributed difference.

“11. A system comprising: one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations for determining effectiveness of a target advertisement, the operations comprising: transmitting advertisement data representing a non-affiliated advertisement and comprising a callback function that, when executed by each of a plurality of user devices that is configured to receive the advertisement data, causes that user device to transmit, to the at least one processor, callback data indicating that a corresponding user of that user device has viewed the non-affiliated advertisement and comprising identification data of that corresponding user, wherein the non-affiliated advertisement is a public service message or an advertisement for a service unrelated to a service promoted in the target advertisement, and wherein the callback function corresponds to a single pixel image that is provided with the non-affiliated advertisement; identifying that the callback data indicates that corresponding one or more users of one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement; based on identifying that the callback data indicates that the corresponding one or more users of the one or more user devices did not view the non-affiliated advertisement, generating, based on the callback data, control group data for the target advertisement, the control group data comprising data representing the one or more user devices being assigned to a test group; transmitting to the one or more user devices assigned to the test group, the target advertisement; monitoring transactions of users whose devices are assigned to the test group and users whose devices are not assigned to the test group to determine an average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group and of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group; and computing a lift value based on a percentage difference between the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are not assigned to the test group and the average conversion rate of the users whose devices are assigned to the test group.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the identification data comprises a cookie.

“13. The system of claim 11, wherein transmitting the advertisement data comprises transmitting the advertisement data to an advertising system.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise adjusting a marketing campaign based on the lift value.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Meier, Richmond E. Media effectiveness. U.S. Patent Number 11521230, filed October 4, 2017, and published online on December 6, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11521230)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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