Measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign including referral offers from an offline merchant
AssigneeCardspring, LLC
InventorsJeffrey Winner, Geraud Boyer, Amit Kumar, Eckart Walther
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A technique for determining the effectiveness of an offer includes analyzing views, clicks, acceptances and satisfactions of the offer. Transaction data is retrieved to determine whether criteria of the offer has been satisfied. As a result, a total cost per transaction may be determined for an advertisement campaign that incorporates the offer. Further, detailed queries may be issued to identify areas in which the offer needs improvement.
Claims27
A method for measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between the respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view the plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the offer data for the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the method comprising:
- storing, by an offer engine coupled to the Internet, offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes:
- a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant and
- the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the
- online referral offer;
- determining, by the offer engine, that a first customer of the respective customers, viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer;
- providing, by the offer engine via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer;
- in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receiving by the offer engine via the Internet:
- a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card;
- and
- at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer;
- transmitting, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer;
- transmitting a query to the payment processor, by the offer engine via the Internet, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant;
- receiving the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted by the offer engine via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer;
- and
- determining, by the offer engine based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by:
- determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor;
- and
- for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied:
- determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, perform a method for measuring conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view the plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the method comprising:
- storing, by an offer engine coupled to the Internet, offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes:
- a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant and
- the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the online referral offer;
- determining, by the offer engine, that a first customer of the respective customers, viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer;
- providing, by the offer engine via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer;
- in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receiving by the offer engine via the Internet
- a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card;
- and
- at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer;
- transmitting, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of he referral offer to the at least one referral customer;
- transmitting a query to the payment processor, by the offer engine via the Internet, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant;
- receiving the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted by the offer engine via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer;
- and
- determining, by the offer engine based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by:
- determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor;
- and
- for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied:
- determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
A system to measure conversion of an online advertising campaign for an offline merchant by communicating with a payment processor that facilitates electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and respective customers of the offline merchant to determine completion of conversion transactions between respective customers and the offline merchant in response to the respective customers receiving and accepting an online referral offer from the offline merchant via a plurality of different webpage advertisements, each webpage advertisement of the plurality of webpage advertisements including offer data for the online offer and being rendered by web browsers coupled to the Internet and used by the respective customers to view plurality of different webpage advertisements for the online referral offer, wherein the offer data for the online referral offer specifies at least one criterion for the respective customers to satisfy the online referral offer and thereby complete the conversion transactions with the offline merchant, the system comprising:
- a computer processor;
- and
- a memory to store instructions that are executable by the computer processor to cause the processor to:
- store offer information for the online referral offer, wherein the offer information includes:
- a merchant identifier of the offline merchant for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant;
- and
- the offer data specifying the at least one criterion for the customers to satisfy the online referral offer;
- determine that a first customer of the respective customers viewing a first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer via a first web browser, clicked on the first webpage advertisement including the online referral offer;
- provide, via the Internet, an interface for display on the first web browser of the first customer to register a first customer account with the offer engine to accept the online referral offer;
- in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account, receive via the Internet:
- a first payment account number of a first payment account for the first customer, wherein the first payment account includes at least one of a customer credit card, a customer debit card, and a customer prepaid card;
- and
- at least one email address for at least one referral customer referred by the first customer;
- transmit, by the offer engine, using the at least one email address, a notification of the referral offer to the at least one referral customer;
- transmit a query to the payment processor, via the Internet to a payment processor, for a plurality of offline transactions for in-store purchases at one or more brick-and-mortar locations of the offline merchant, wherein the transmitted query includes the merchant identifier included in the offer information for the payment processor to facilitate the electronic payment transactions between the offline merchant and the respective customers of the offline merchant;
- receive the plurality of offline transactions from the payment processor in response to the query including the merchant identifier transmitted via the Internet, wherein the plurality of offline transactions received by the offer engine from the payment processor do not include an identification of the online referral offer;
- and
- determine, based on the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor and the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer in the stored offer information, whether the first customer has completed a first offline conversion transaction corresponding to the online referral offer by:
- determining if the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied in at least one offline transaction of the plurality of offline transactions received from the payment processor;
- and
- for each offline transaction of the at least one offline transaction in which the at least one criterion specified by the online referral offer is satisfied:
- determining if one offline transaction of the the at least one offline transaction is the first offline conversion transaction completed by the first customer, based at least in part on the first payment account number of the first payment account for the first customer received by the offer engine via the Internet in response to providing the interface to register the first customer account to accept the online referral offer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.