Determining a value for a coupon

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors in a computer of a coupon distributor, cause prior to distributing a coupon:

• receiving, from a coupon provider different from the coupon distributor, wherein the coupon provider provides a product or service to which the coupon pertains, a proposed coupon campaign that specifies one or more of budget data that indicates an amount to spend, by the coupon provider, on coupon services relating to issuance of the coupon and receiving redemption data that indicates a number of anticipated redemptions of the coupon;
• determining a product category to which the first product belongs;
• and
• computing a value of the coupon comprising:
• retrieving a historical redemption rate corresponding to a second product in the product category, the second product being provided by a manufacturer different than the coupon provider;
• retrieving, from a database object that stores information about attributes of a plurality of thousands of completed coupon campaigns, a set of redemption rate functions having attributes that most closely match those of the proposed coupon campaign, including selecting the set of redemption rate functions from among a plurality of incongruous redemption rate functions based upon determining a then-current season that corresponds to one of the incongruous redemption rate functions;
• applying the redemption rate function to the historical redemption rate;
• calculating a budget value of the coupon corresponding to the redemption rate function for the historical redemption rate;
• calculating, for the amount to spend, an expected revenue corresponding to the redemption rate function for the historical redemption rate;
• and
• transmitting, to the coupon provider, the proposed coupon campaign including the budget value.

One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause prior to distributing a coupon of a proposed coupon campaign:

• calculating a plurality of thousands of redemption rate functions, each particular redemption rate function of the redemption rate functions being represented in a database object that stores information about attributes of one or more coupon campaigns upon which that particular redemption rate function is based, each of the redemption rate functions being based on one or more previous campaigns for one or more products of a particular product category to which the specific product also belongs, for the same product, for different products in the same product category, or for different products of the same brand or manufacturer but in different product categories, with different redemption rate functions being maintained for different brands among multiple brands;
• receiving, from the coupon provider that provides a first product or service to which the coupon pertains, one or more of budget data that indicates an amount to spend, by the coupon provider, on coupon services relating to issuance of the coupon and redemption data that indicates a target redemption rate of the coupon;
• determining a product category to which the first product belongs;
• and
• computing a value of the coupon comprising:
• retrieving a historical redemption rate corresponding to a second product in the product category, the second product being provided by a manufacturer different than the coupon provider;
• selecting, from among the thousands of redemption rate functions, a particular redemption rate function having attributes that most closely match those of the proposed coupon campaign, including selecting the particular redemption rate function from among a plurality of incongruous redemption rate functions based upon determining a then-current season that corresponds to one of the incongruous redemption rate functions;
• calculating the computed value of the coupon in a coupon campaign that is to be initiated by the coupon provider based on applying the particular redemption rate function to the historical redemption rate;
• and
• calculating, for the amount to spend, an expected revenue corresponding to the historical redemption rate and calculating, for the historical redemption rate, a budget value;
• and
• transmitting, to the coupon provider, an offer to conduct the proposed coupon campaign according to the budget value.