US 10,074,110 B2Granted

Methods and apparatuses for pay-per-call advertising in mobile/wireless applications

AssigneeYellowpages.Com LLC

InventorsAnuj Agarwal, Nitin Ahuja, Ebbe Altberg, Scott Faber, Mark Arthur Buchler Halstead, Sean Van Der Linden

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Abstract

Methods and apparatuses to connect telephone calls and track information about the telephone calls resulting from advertisements on mobile/wireless media channels. In one embodiment, a method includes: assigning a telephone number to an advertiser, one of the telephone number and a reference to the telephone number to be included in an advertisement provided to an end user via a wireless media; and, monitoring telephone connections to the telephone number to bill the advertiser for the advertisement in response to each telephone connection to the telephone number. In one embodiment, a method includes: a first party providing an advertisement to a mobile device on behalf of an advertiser, the advertisement to include at least a reference to a telephonic connection with the advertiser; and, the first party collecting a fee from the advertiser in response to a telephonic connection being established between the advertiser and customer.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

detecting, via a routing apparatus, a location of a mobile device;
determining a location of an advertiser, associated with an advertisement, in a detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
automatically providing content of a content provider, via a wireless communication network, to the mobile device in response to detecting that the mobile device entered a wireless access zone of the detected geographic area, the content comprising a first telephonic reference in the advertisement of the advertiser, wherein the advertisement:
(a) is provided in visual indicia to a user interface of a display device of the mobile device;
(b) identifies the determined location of the advertiser in the detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
and (c) comprises a selectable representation of a first telephonic reference for initiating a telephone call, by the mobile device, in response to selection, via the user interface of the display device, of the representation of the first telephonic reference by a user of the mobile device;
receiving, via the routing apparatus via the wireless communication network, the telephone call and identifying, via the routing apparatus, in response to the telephone call received in response to the selection of the first telephonic reference, a second telephonic reference of the advertiser, the second telephone reference is determined, via the routing apparatus, in response to decoding encoded information that scrambled the first telephonic reference, the first telephonic reference is assigned to a plurality of entities;
automatically routing, via the routing apparatus, the telephone call, in part by at least one voice over Internet protocol, between the mobile device and a communication device of the advertiser in response to detecting a selection, via the user interface, of the second telephonic reference of the advertiser;
charging the advertiser a predetermined fee for the advertisement provided to the display device of the mobile device, in response to the connecting of the telephone call to the communication device of the advertiser compensating the content provider in response to charging the advertiser the predetermined fee;
in response to detecting the predetermined fee exceeds a budget for the advertiser during a predetermined time period, deactivating the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period such that the advertisement is inaccessible via the mobile device;
and
presenting the advertiser an option to reactivate the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period upon receipt of additional funds.

9 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method, the method comprising:

detecting a location of a mobile device;
determining a location of an advertiser, associated with an advertisement, in a detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
automatically providing content, via a wireless communication, to the mobile device, in response to detecting that the mobile device entered a wireless access zone of the detected geographic area, the content comprising a first telephonic reference of the advertisement of the advertiser, wherein the advertisement:
(a) is provided in visual indicia to a user interface of a display device of the mobile device;
(b) identifies the determined location of the advertiser in the detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
and (c) comprises a selectable representation of a first telephonic reference for initiating a telephone call, by the mobile device, in response to selection, via the user interface of the display device, of the representation of the first telephonic reference by a user of the mobile device;
receiving via the wireless communication network, the telephone call and identifying, in response to the telephone call received in response to the selection of the first telephonic reference, a second telephonic reference of the advertiser, the second telephone reference is determined in response to decoding encoded information that scrambled the first telephonic reference, the first telephonic reference is assigned to a plurality of entities;
automatically routing the telephone call, in part by at least one voice over Internet protocol, between the mobile device and a communication device of the advertiser in response to detecting a selection, via the user interface, of the second telephonic reference of the advertiser;
charging the advertiser a predetermined fee for the advertisement provided to the display device of the mobile device, in response to the routing of the telephone call to the communication device of the advertiser;
compensating the content provider in response to charging the advertiser the predetermined fee;
in response to detecting the predetermined fee exceeds a budget for the advertiser during a predetermined time period, deactivating the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period such that the advertisement is inaccessible via the mobile device;
and
presenting the advertiser an option to reactivate the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period upon receipt of additional funds.

10 more elements

A system comprising:

a routing apparatus comprising a processor;
and
memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
detect a location of a mobile device;
determine a location of an advertiser, associated with an advertisement, in a detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
automatically provide content of a content provider, via a wireless communication network, to the mobile device in response to detecting that the mobile device entered a wireless access zone of the detected geographic area, the content comprising a first telephonic reference in the advertisement of the advertiser, wherein the advertisement:
(a) is provided in visual indicia to a user interface of a display device of the mobile device;
(b) identifies the determined location of the advertiser in the detected geographic area of the detected location of the mobile device;
and (c) comprises a selectable representation of a first telephonic reference for initiating a telephone call, by the mobile device, in response to selection, via the display device, of the representation of the first telephonic reference by a user of the mobile device;
receive, via the wireless communication network, the telephone call;
identify in response to the telephone call received in response to the selection of the first telephonic reference, a second telephonic reference of the advertiser, the second telephone reference is determined in response to decoding encoded information that scrambled the first telephonic reference, the first telephonic reference is assigned to a plurality of entities;
automatically route the telephone call, in part by at least one voice over Internet protocol, between the mobile device and a communication device of the advertiser in response to detecting an indication of a selection, via the user interface, of the second telephonic reference of the advertiser;
charge the advertiser a predetermined fee for the advertisement provided to the display device of the mobile device, in response to the routing of the telephone call to the communication device of the advertiser;
compensating the content provider in response to charging the advertiser the predetermined fee;
in response to detecting the predetermined fee exceeds a budget for the advertiser during a predetermined time period, deactivate the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period such that the advertisement is inaccessible via the mobile device;
and
presenting the advertiser an option to reactivate the advertisement for the remainder of the predetermined time period upon receipt of additional funds.

14 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/269,010Filed 11 Nov 2008 · continuation
Priority: 6 Oct 2003
Published: US 2009/0067599 A112 Mar 2009
Granted: 11 Sep 2018
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification32 codes

G06Q 30/0275
Determination of fees for advertising: auctions
G06Q 30/02
Commerce: marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
G06Q 30/0207
Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising: discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
G06Q 30/0256
Based on user history: user search

Family

Application10/679,982Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 6 Oct 2003
Application60/552,124Us provisional application · filed 10 Mar 2004
Application60/560,926Us provisional application · filed 9 Apr 2004
Application60/568,156Us provisional application · filed 4 May 2004
Application11/014,073Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 15 Dec 2004
Application11/021,939Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 23 Dec 2004
Application60/653,708Us provisional application · filed 16 Feb 2005
Application11/077,655Parent of this continuation · filed 10 Mar 2005
Application11/490,709Parent of this continuation · filed 21 Jul 2006
US 7,120,235 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 10 Oct 2006
US 7,424,442 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 9 Sep 2008
US 7,428,497 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 23 Sep 2008
US 2009/0067599 A1Pre-grant publication · published 12 Mar 2009
US 7,505,920 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 17 Mar 2009
US 8,027,878 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 27 Sep 2011
Application11/077,655Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2005/0074102 A1Published application
US 2005/0165666 A1Published application
US 2005/0216341 A1Published application
US 2005/0251445 A1Published application
US 2006/0259365 A1Published application
US 10,074,110 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.